Nigerian teenager Oluwaseun “The Shark” Ogunsakin has punched his ticket to the main draw of the 2026 US Open Junior Championships, defeating top seed Felix Roussel of Canada 6-3, 6-4 in the final round of qualifying.
The win marks Ogunsakin’s first appearance in the tournament’s main draw and adds to a breakout year for the Aurum Tennis Academy player, who earlier dispatched Poland’s Tymon Litwic 6-3, 6-0 to reach the deciding qualifying round.
At just 14, Ogunsakin is now competing in his third straight Grand Slam junior event, having previously featured at Roland Garros Juniors and Wimbledon Juniors. His Wimbledon run in July was historic in its own right — he became the first Nigerian since 1990 to play the singles event there, and the country’s first Grand Slam singles representative in over a decade. He reached the main draw in singles and the semifinals in doubles at the All England Club.
His qualifying campaign for Wimbledon was equally impressive, opening with a 6-3, 6-4 win over British wildcard Archie Gray before a dominant victory over Canada’s top-ranked junior, Benjamin Azar.
The US Open Junior Championships main draw features 64 players each in the boys’ and girls’ singles events, with 32 teams per doubles category. Thirty-two players had competed for six qualifying spots in each junior singles bracket.
Ogunsakin’s rise has been shaped by three years of high-level competition through the International Tennis Federation’s High Performance Centre in Tunisia and the ITF/Grand Slam Player Development Programme.
The main draw runs from Sunday, September 6, to Saturday, September 12.
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