For Tennis Parents by a Tennis Parent

Day 7 saw the beginning of the US Open Junior Championships singles main draws at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. In an effort to promote sportsmanship, all junior matches will feature pre-match handshakes between players, such as the one pictured above, between American Trey Hilderbrand and China’s Tao Mu.

Speaking of Trey Hilderbrand, I had the chance to chat with his dad, Mark, before the start of the match. You may recall my interview with Mark and Trey at last year’s US Open where we talked about Trey’s development process and the challenges of coaching your own child. Now, Trey is a freshman at the University of Central Florida (UCF) under coach John Roddick, and it is interesting to hear Mark’s thoughts on how things are going so far:

I have been adding – and will continue to add – more video interviews like this one on the ParentingAces YouTube Channel, so be sure to subscribe (click here) to see all our great content!

Tomorrow is another day filled with exciting junior matches. The doubles start tomorrow as well, so you will find me wandering the grounds in search of great tennis, great coaches, and great parents. Be sure to check the ParentingAces Twitter feed for hints on getting your FREE COPY of the new book, THE COMPLETE PLAYER, which includes my chapter on Tennis Parenting.

The Junior Championships will run through Sunday, September 9, with a number of notable storylines to follow:

• Fourteen-year old Cori ‘Coco’ Gauff, the 2018 French Open girls’ champion, is the No. 1 girls’ seed and is competing to become the first American to win two Grand Slam girls’ singles titles in the same year since Jennifer Capriati in 1989. Last year, Gauff was the youngest player to ever reach the girls’ singles final at the US Open before falling to American Amanda Anisimova.
• Three of the Top 5 seeds on the girls’ side are American, including New Jersey’s Alexa Noel (No. 2) and Cincinnati’s Caty McNally (No. 5). Should an American girl win the title here, it would be the sixth Grand Slam junior singles title in the last nine events won by an American.
• Chun Hsin Tseng, of Chinese Taipei, is vying to become the first junior to win three consecutive Grand Slam boys’ singles titles since Gael Monfils in 2004.