Justin Engel at the Junior World Championships

“Participation is something very special for me. It feels like a reward for this good year in 2025,” Engel told the German Press Agency. There are prominent names in the list of winners of the tournament: the current world number one Carlos Alcaraz (Spain) triumphed in 2021, and two years earlier the Italian Jannik Sinner won the title.

The Nuremberg-born Engel is now the first German ever to take part in the event, which has been held since 2017. And at 18 years old, he is the youngest in this edition, which starts on Wednesday. “I’m really looking forward to being the youngest player to compete against the best U20 professionals.”

Favorable draw

Because the Czech Jakub Mensik and last year’s winner João Fonseca from Brazil canceled at short notice, Engel is qualified and will face the Belgian Alexander Blockx, the Serbian Dino Prizmic and Nishesh Basavareddy from the USA in the group phase. Top favorite Learner Tien from the USA will then wait until the semi-finals at the earliest. A game lasts a maximum of five sets, each round only lasts up to four games.

“I think anything is possible for Justin. He can win all the games, but also lose all of them. But it’s great that he’s there at all. He deserves it after this year,” said Germany men’s national coach Michael Kohlmann.

Great successes in Germany

At the beginning of 2025, Engel was only known to tennis insiders. But in the past twelve months he has already played his way into the spotlight several times. At the ATP tournament at Rothenbaum in Hamburg, he won in the first round against veteran Jan-Lennard Struff, who had previously babysat little Justin Engel. At the lawn tournament in Stuttgart, Engel even stormed into the quarter-finals with his powerful game.

The reward: In September, Engel, who is now working with experienced coach Ulf Fischer after separating from former professional Philipp Kohlschreiber, was part of the German Davis Cup team for the first time in Japan. In the clear victory in Japan, he even won his singles with a score of 3-0 – becoming the youngest German tennis professional since Boris Becker. “That was something very special for me,” said Engel. In October he won his first Challenger title in Hamburg.

“Hamburg was the place for me this year where I experienced so much. Winning against Struffi at the ATP 500 at Rothenbaum in the spring and then winning my first Challenger title in October was mega,” said Engel, who was supported by the spectators. “Playing in and for Germany is special anyway.”

Ambitious goals for 2026

Thanks to his successes, Engel has worked his way up to 187th place in the world rankings, which means he will qualify for the Australian Open in January. “I definitely want to win matches there,” said Engel, who has also set himself ambitious goals for 2026. “It should move towards the top 100 in the world rankings in 2026.”

German tennis could really use an ambitious and successful newcomer like Engel. There is a huge gap in terms of quality behind world number three Alexander Zverev (28). Daniel Altmaier (27) is number 47 in the world as the second best German player, the veterans Struff (35/84th) and Yannick Hanfmann (33/103rd) are on the home stretch of their careers.

No wonder that there is already a lot of excitement about angels. Too big, as Zverev thinks. “Leave the boy alone. In two or three years we’ll see how good he is,” said the 2021 Olympic champion. “You don’t need to compare him with Boris, you don’t need to compare him with me either,” said Zverev. Rather, Engel should go his own way.