The youth movement in tennis continues to blossom, with some of the youngest players on tour set to make their US Open main-draw debuts in the women's field.
Some focus is also on the older players, as former Grand Slam champions and fan favorites Venus Williams, 46, and 41-year-old Stan Wawrinka received wild-card entries to compete at Flushing Meadows.
The men's side has some intriguing up-and-comers as well. Of the four men in the field aged 20 or younger, including Spain's Rafael Jódar, two are Americans: Jack Kennedy and Darwin Blanch, both 18.
But this focus is on two women in the field, Kristina Liutova and Thea Frodin, who both earned their way into the tournament, one by qualifying and the other via a wild-card entry.
Here is more information on Kristina Liutova and Thea Frodin:
Kristina Liutova
The 16-year-old Liutova
was born in Russia, but has trained for the last several years in Redmond, Washington, a city 20 minutes from Seattle, best known as the headquarters of Nintendo and Microsoft.
Liutova has been on a hot streak, winning nine straight matches, including the Memphis Classic in early August. That victory, as a WTA 250 tournament, earned her $37,390, making her the first player born in the 2010s to win a WTA tournament. She will receive at least $140,000 for her appearance at the US Open.
Liutova is the eighth-youngest ranked player on the WTA Tour and the highest-ranked player under the age of 18 at No. 125.
She begins her tournament against Qinwen Zheng, who won an Olympic gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics and was the 2024 Australian Open runner-up, losing to Aryna Sabalenka
“My favorite tennis player has always been Rafael Nadal, for his composure, for his hardworking character,” Liutova told mynorthwest.com. “He’s been through a lot of injuries, and the character is just shown in everything. He is just a great human as well, off the court. Always humble. Just an incredibly inspiring person and player.”
Thea Frodin
Frodin is 17, originating from Woodland Hills, California, but trains in Nashville, Tennessee, and won the USTA Girls' 18s national doubles title in 2025, earning a US Open women’s doubles wild card. She and her partner, Kristina Penickov, were beaten in the first round in a three-set thriller.
Frodin also triumphed at the 2026 USTA Girls' 18s Singles National Championship, beating five seeded players in the process, earning her a wild card entry into the singles tournament at the US Open, where she will play No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina.
When Frodin was 12, she was a body double for an actress who portrayed a young Serena Williams in the 2021 film King Richard.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Teen tennis stars Kristina Liutova and Thea Frodin hit US Open
