Australian tennis is celebrating after teenage prodigy Emerson Jones became the country’s first junior girls world No.1 since 1998.

The 16-year-old’s rise ends Australia’s 26-year wait since Jelena Dokic occupied top spot.

Ash Barty came closest to Dokic when she reached world No.2 in 2011, while Jason Kubler (2009), Luke Saville (2011) and Nick Kyrgios (2012) all reached world No.1 in the boys rankings.

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Jones has been on the march over the past 18 months and reached her professional final in August 2023 just weeks after her 15th birthday.

She kicked off the 2024 season by winning a junior title in Victoria before reaching the Australian Open girls final, later achieving the same feat at Wimbledon.

The Brisbane-based rising star lost both grand slam finals to Renata Jamrichova, the Slovakian who has since moved on from juniors and has now been supplanted as world No.1 by Jones.

“It was a pretty great experience playing on Court One, big crowd and everything,” Jones said after the Wimbledon final.

“The court was a bit worn down, some dodgy bounces, but I was training on some dodgy courts back at home. This is a great court and the crowd was pretty good.

“What I’m most proud of this week was just probably my efforts to keep myself calm. This whole week, I’ve been mentally pretty good. Just the way I’ve been playing, I’ve been pretty proud and happy about that.”