Five things to know about Australian Open girls' champion Ksenia Efremova

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So when Ksenia Efremova found herself trailing 3-0 in the second set Sunday -- the same deficit Elena Rybakina faced in the third set of the women’s final the night before on Rod Laver Arena -- it felt fitting that she follow the example laid out in front of her.

Like Rybakina, the 16-year-old Frenchwoman reeled off five consecutive games to take a 5-3 lead, then closed out a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Ekaterina Tupitsyna in 1 hour and 34 minutes to capture the 2026 Australian Open girls’ singles title.

The victory marks a remarkable turnaround for Efremova, coming just one year after a first-round exit at the event. But it was two years ago, at 14, that Efremova reached the quarterfinals in Melbourne. After that loss, she set a goal.

“Two years ago, I [made] quarterfinals, and I said to myself, ‘Okay, you can come back next year or the year [after], and you need to get the trophy,” Efremova said after receiving her champion’s trophy. “So thank you so much everyone and hope to see you soon.”

Given the recent trend of junior Grand Slam champions breaking through quickly at the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz level -- Wakana Sonobe, Lilli Tagger and Mia Pohankova all earned WTA wins after their respective Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon junior titles last year -- chances are we’ll be seeing more of Efremova on the pro circuit soon.

With that in mind, here are five things to know about the newest junior champion:

• She was born in Moscow in 2019 and started playing tennis at age 3. She was coached by her mother, Julia Efremova, a former professional with 11 combined ITF singles and doubles titles.
• Her family, which includes her two brothers Alexei and Vladimir, moved from Russia to France in 2019. There, she began training at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy under current coach Pierre Debrosse. She became a French citizen in 2023.
• Her breakout season came in 2022. That February, she won the Tim Essonne Cup at age 13. Notable past champions include Martina Hingis, Marketa Vondrousova, Zheng Qinwen and Linda Noskova on the girls’ side, and Rafael Nadal, Richard Gasquet and Andrey Rublev on the boys’ side. In 2023, she became the event’s first back-to-back winner since Daria Gavrilova in 2006-07. She also won the Tennis Europe Masters under-14 title in October 2022, joining a list of former champions that includes Nadal, Kim Clijsters, Belinda Bencic and Diana Shnaider.

• She won her first ITF junior title in 2022 at the J5 Zaragoza event in Spain. It was the first of four she won that season. She owns 10 ITF junior singles titles, plus her Australian Open title, and five junior doubles titles.
• She has already made noise on the pro circuit, too. Efremova has won four ITF W15 titles, all in Monastir, Tunisia. Her first came in December 2023, when at 14 years, 8 months, and 3 days she became the youngest ITF champion since Sesil Karatantcheva (14 years, 4 months, 6 days) in 2003. She debuted in the PIF WTA Rankings in January 2024, debuting at No. 1,105 and now sits at No. 583. She also has an ITF W15 doubles title to her credit.

Bonus: At the 2024 Australian Open, where she reached the girls’ singles quarterfinals, Efremova defeated the No. 5 seed in the opening round. That player? Tereza Valentova, who made waves in Melbourne this year by upsetting Australian No. 1 Maya Joint in the first round before falling to eventual champion Rybakina in the third round.