The Junior Orange Bowl International Tennis Championship is the December event for the youngest internationals: boys and girls in the 12-and-under and 14-and-under divisions, playing in Coral Gables and Key Biscayne in Miami. The 2026 edition, the 65th, runs from 12 to 19 December. It is a different tournament from the Orange Bowl, the ITF J500 for 16s and 18s, and in 2026 it changes how most of its international players get in.
Junior Orange Bowl 2026 dates
- Qualifying: 12–13 December 2026
- Main draw: 14–19 December 2026
- Doubles: from 15 December
- Quarterfinals, semifinals and finals: 17–19 December, with the tournament due to finish on 19 December, weather permitting
Venues and surfaces
The four singles events start at three sites, on two surfaces:
- Boys 14s: William H. Kerdyk Biltmore Tennis Center, Coral Gables (hard)
- Girls 14s: Salvadore Park Tennis Center, Coral Gables (clay)
- Boys and girls 12s: Crandon Park Tennis Center, Key Biscayne (hard)
From the quarterfinals, the boys 14s, boys 12s and girls 12s move to the Biltmore. The girls 14s stay on clay at Salvadore Park. A third-place play-off is expected.
Age groups, draws and format
USTA age rules apply. For 2026 the 14s are players born in 2012 or 2013, and the 12s are players born in 2014 or 2015. For how the pro tours handle players of the same age a few years later, see the WTA age eligibility rule.
- Singles main draw: 64 players, single elimination, with eight places for qualifiers
- Qualifying draw: 64 players
- Doubles: 32 teams, single elimination
- Main-draw singles: best of three sets
- Qualifying singles: two tiebreak sets, with a 10-point match tiebreak instead of a third set
- Doubles: two no-ad tiebreak sets, with a 10-point match tiebreak instead of a third set
The match tiebreak works as described in tennis tiebreak rules explained, and the no-ad doubles scoring as in how tennis doubles works. Both 64-player draws are smaller than in previous years.
Entry, deadlines and withdrawals
Every player needs a World Tennis Number (WTN) to enter, and USTA registration is required. Preference goes to players with the best WTN and national rankings, and final acceptance is at the tournament committee’s discretion. The 2026 entry fee was $202.59 and the entry deadline was 18 October 2026, with no late entries.
Withdrawals before the deadline had to be made online. A main-draw player who withdraws before Friday, 20 November is replaced by the next player from the same regional quota. After that date, places go to the next players on the qualifying list, whatever their region. The draw itself reads like any other bracket; how to read a tennis draw covers the abbreviations.
The Global Qualification Playoff Series
On 27 May 2026 the tournament announced a Global Qualification Playoff Series. Under-12 and under-14 players from outside the United States are to earn their places at regional playoff events instead of the old mix of WTN, UTR, national rankings and federation recommendations. The tournament calls 2026 a hybrid transition year.
The playoff events are round robin followed by single elimination, with at least three matches guaranteed. Taking part does not replace registration for the Junior Orange Bowl itself. The 2026 playoffs were scheduled for Monastir, Tunisia (29 June–5 July), the French Touch Academy in France (12–21 August) and Sofia, Bulgaria (10–18 October, listed as pending final confirmation). The announcement also listed a playoff in South Florida in October or November.
Main-draw places in each singles event are split by region:
- United States: 14 protected places plus one playoff place
- Europe: 12
- Asia/Pacific: 9
- Latin America: 6
- Canada: 4
- Africa/Middle East: 2
- Wild cards: 8 in the main draw and 8 in qualifying
In the tournament’s qualification document, the Asia/Pacific and Africa/Middle East places go through the playoffs, Europe’s are split between WTN (4) and the playoffs (8), and the United States, Canada and Latin America places are filled by WTN. Where a region has no playoff, or quota places are left over, selection falls back to WTN.
Junior Orange Bowl and Orange Bowl: the difference
The two December tournaments in South Florida are run by different organisers and serve different ages. The Junior Orange Bowl is for 12s and 14s, enters players by WTN and the new playoffs, and plays in Coral Gables and Key Biscayne. The Orange Bowl is for 16s and 18s; its 18s event is an ITF J500 with junior ranking points, as set out in ITF junior tournament grades explained. For the other big junior events of the season’s last weeks, see our guides to the Eddie Herr in Bradenton and the J500 in Mérida.
History and past champions
The championship was established in 1962 for boys and girls of 12 and 14 and under. It grew out of the Junior Orange Bowl Youth Festival, which began with a parade through downtown Coral Gables in 1948.
Champions named by the tournament include:
- Jimmy Connors, 1964
- Chris Evert, 1967
- Steffi Graf, 1981
- Monica Seles, girls 12s, 1985
- Justine Henin, 1996
- Andy Murray, boys 12s, 1999
- Juan Martin del Potro, 2002
“Winning the under-12 event in 1999 is still one of my happiest moments in the sport,” Murray said. Seles, who won the girls 12s in 1985, was runner-up in the girls 14s the following year. The alumni list also includes Roger Federer, Coco Gauff and Ashleigh Barty, who played the event as juniors.
For the international junior events that come later, at 16 and 18, see the World Tennis Tour Junior Finals guide and the Junior Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup Finals, the team events for 16-and-unders.
Season Snapshot — 13 November 2026
- The 2026 entry deadline (18 October) has passed. Acceptance lists were due after 31 October.
- Main-draw withdrawals before Friday, 20 November are replaced from the same regional quota.
- Tournament director: Robert Gomez. Referee: Marcela Calderale. Player check-in is at the Hyatt Regency Coral Gables; housing is not provided.
- The tournament warns that the G20 Summit is in Miami during the event, so hotel demand will be high.
- The year’s tennis calendar winds down around it; see the tennis off-season explained.
This snapshot is dated and will change. The career record above does not.
