In the boys’ final, No. 7 Sesko became the first Slovenian boy to win a junior slam singles title, coming back to beat No. 4 Keaton Hance of the United States 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Hance took the opening set after a second break of service for a 3-2 lead and held on to close out the opening set. Hance didn’t land many first serves, but he bounced back well and won rallies after his second serve.
Sesko picked up his game again in the second set, gaining control of his forehand and coming from 0-30 behind by serving at 1-1 to find a higher level. He continued to serve well and allowed Hance to play defensively, with the number of winners at the end of the match being almost twice that of Hance’s, at 32 to 17.
Sesko eventually broke Hance to take a 4–2 lead, but he had to save a break point for the set, which he did with a forehand winner, to end the second set 6–3.
The third set started with Sesko maintaining his level from the second set, breaking Hance for a 3-1 lead. Hance held and then broke back, with Sesko having a rare bad game at 3-2 serve, but Hance dropped his next service game at love. Sesko quickly held on for a 5-3 lead, but Hance wasn’t ready to concede. He saved two match points in his service game with a forehand winner and a good first serve to put the pressure back on Sesko.
Sesko was up to the task, starting with an ace and ending with a good first serve that Hance threw high into the air, after which a few seconds passed before the ball bounced well and the recorded voice from the electronic line made the call.
The two 17-year-olds embraced at the net and the Rod Laver Arena crowd were generous in their applause after an entertaining final.
Sesko is the first player to travel with the ITF’s Grand Slam Player Development Touring Team and win a junior slam title since Ricardas Berankis in 2007.
In the girls’ final, which took place first at Rod Laver Arena, No. 3 seed Ksenia Efremova of France prevailed over unseeded Ekaterina Tupitsyna of Russia 6-3, 7-5, with the match a study in contrasting styles.
Statistics don’t always tell the story of a match, but in this case they provide some insight, although intangible and physical issues also played a role.
Efremova hit just five winners and made 18 unforced errors, while Tupitsyna hit 21 winners and made 45 unforced errors.
Although Efremova is a year younger, the 16-year-old, born in Russia but now representing France, has much more experience at the highest level of junior tennis. She has been touted as a future star since the age of 12, training at the Mouratoglou Academy and was a quarter-finalist in Melbourne in 2024 as a 14-year-old.
Tupitsyna had not won a match in her only other two junior slam appearances last year, and that may have been a factor in her slow start. She soon fell behind 4-0, with Efremova simply keeping the rally going long enough for Tupitsyna to miss.
But Tupitsyna held on for 4-1 and started to find her form, with the pace and depth she had shown all week getting her back into the set. She recovered one break and held a second time for 4-3, even earning a break point in Efremova’s next service game. But Efremova, who made 72 percent of her first serves, kept her lead with a good first serve to make it 5-3 and then broke Tupitsyna from 40-15 to claim the set.
After taking a break, Tupitsyna came out firing and took a 3–0 lead from two breaks, with her strength being too much for Efremova. But after dropping serve after conceding a point for a 4–0 lead, Tupitsyna asked for a trainer and went off court for nine minutes, returning with her left thigh heavily taped.
She lost the next five matches, with the injury clearly affecting her lateral movement, but Efremova was unable to serve out the match at 5–3. Tupitsyna made one final push and held for 5-all, but Efremova didn’t panic and won two important points with a 30-all serve to take the 6-5 lead.
The next game also went to 30-all, but Tupitsyna made the mistake in a 22-shot rally and Efremova took her chance to end it on her first chance.
Efremova becomes only the second French girl to win the Australian Open girls title and the first since Virginie Razzano in 1999. The title will see her rise to No. 1 in the ITF junior rankings.
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