1 displayed their talents to an international audience for the first time on the European Junior Tour, including Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Amélie Mauresmo, Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg, Ivan Lendl, Marat Safin, and Mats Wilander.
[2][3][4] Founded in 1990 with 43 tournaments over two age groups, the Junior Tour has since grown and been divided into three age groups; 16 & Under, 14 & Under and 12 & Under, and as of 2022, these three categories combined for a total of some 450+ tournaments, staged across almost all 50 member nations of Tennis Europe,[2] and with the participation of over 12,000 players, including non-European players, such as Lleyton Hewitt, Kei Nishikori, Juan Martín Del Potro, Guillermo Coria, and Sania Mirza, who all got their first taste of European competition on the Junior Tour.
[5] The Tennis Europe Junior Tour also boasts a cumulative weekly ranking,[6] 'Player of the Year' awards (former recipients include Rafael Nadal, Grigor Dimitrov, and Kim Clijsters), and a season-ending Masters tournament for the top eight performers in each category (the equivalent of the ATP Finals).
[3] From 2021, the top U12 players end the season at the 12 & Under Festival, an invitational event for the national squads of European boys and girls hosted by the Rafa Nadal Academy.
[4][better source needed] The only players who have won both Petits As and the U14 European Junior Championships are Reinhard Wawra in 1987, Maxime Boyé in 1990, Răzvan Sabău in 1991, Julien Maigret in 1997, Richard Gasquet in 1999, Carlos Boluda in 2006, Nikola Milojević in 2009, Vojtech Petr in 2019, and Thijs Boogaard in 2022.