Added Louis N to the list on P1

This may already have been mentioned elsewhere - and may not be reliable (though the source is generally very reliable) but the US tweeter @Parsa_Nemati is reporting that both Ms Burrage and Ms Appleton have decided to play professionally rather than attending university.

Coup Droit wrote:

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Goodness, Spec, that IS news.....

(and an error, in my view, on the part of Emily Appleton in particular).

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 Indeed, an error by both, what's the rush? 

Indeed, if true certainly a bit of a surprise and very possibly a mistake, particularly regards Emily who it absolutely seemed right for from anything I am aware of. Jodie I just sense has a certain focus and determination, and has pleasingly essentially gone pretty full time to seniors in her final junior eligible year. So I am not so sure about her, she may well make this work for her.

I wonder how Katie Swan feels about things now. Of course much more success as a junior, but so into and seemingly enjoying the American lifesyle and bright that it seemed in many ways so right for her until I guess she and these around her kind of decided she had become almost 'too good' and professional was the way to go. I may say that I wonder about this very much in retrospect, and she could soon start turning things around, for I don't really recall people here particularly questioning her decision at the time.

Really difficult to say what is the right thing to do really only the player and their families can make the decision. Finances and coaching resources are a major consideration for any player going on the futures tour but if that can be addressed and the player has a strong track record as a junior (top 10) and serious aspirations of making the WTA tour then there is a strong case for getting on with it. With decent A level grades University is still an option as a mature student particularly if their is the financial backing to support it.

College tennis I think offers more of an advantage to male players who are physicalky less mature at 18 than their female counterparts, particularly if you go to college as the No 1 player in that programme and one of the best 2-3 freshman nationally. You would then stand a chance of developing rapidly to dominate college tennis as a sophomore and go pro without graduating in the way Cam has done.

Emily Arb is probably the only female player close to this level from Britain to choose the college route and I understand completely why she has made the choices she has made, she had a very good but not stellar junior career and is academically strong and therefore a good fit in an institution that puts academics first but does transition players to the WTA (with two alumni playing at the Bank of the West WTA event this week).

If Emily App and Jodie (who have had stronger junior careers) want to avoid the politics of what number they play at college, are more serious about their tennis and don't want to compromise on that in order to pursue serious undergraduate study, futures is probably the best way to go. There is no point in keeping plan B open if plan A is well resourced and the only plan you really want to follow. I wish them well which ever route they follow, although it will make the college tennis thread a little less interesting and the futures threads more so!

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Thursday 10th of August 2017 07:57:21 PM

I think we forget that Katie Swan is still a junior and would be in this current batch of girls going to college, ie. she is a direct contemporary of both Jodie and Emily App.

If her present junior rank ie. 200 were her JCH it would be a good choice but it was 2, 18 months ago and there was nothing to suggest she should take her foot off the metal in relation to pursuing a full time professional career, most of the girls she was loosing to deep into junior tournaments are now WTA top 200 some top 100.

The standard of college tennis doesn't get close to that so from a tennis perspective she would have 18 months fallow and now be starting her 4 years of college eligibility. Compare that to the experience she has had. Although still outside the top 300 WTA she has has had the support of British tennis already been part of the Fed Cup set up had a year playing 25K s understands the impact being a pro has on her body and that making it is less than straight forward. She still compares well to all the other girls in their late teens and early twenty somethings ie the other Katie's, Harriet etc... but it isn't easy and I don't think going to college now would make it any easier.

She is obviously a very talented young lady and it is all a question of perspective. Pursuing a degree as a mature student in the U.K. is still an option at 25 if she is not making a living on the WTA, at that point she will know that at 18 (well 16) she was too good to be a college tennis player and has given the pro tour her best effort she should have no regrets.

I'm not at all criticising Katie Swan's decision, Oakie, she's not actually a player that I follow very closely. And nobody has 20-20 hindsight, even if it turns out not to be a great decision. And we're absolutely miles off that conclusion anyway.
But I was a little surprised that she didn't keep her options open a little longer. As you say, she is in the cohort () that would be going this year. And her earnings were not huge last year (and were never likely to be, however successful a year she was going to have). So it didn't seem to me necessary to burn her bridges re college a year early and sign with IMG.
I also meant the comment in a concerned sense to Katie - i.e. not having had as successful a year as she hoped, and with injuries such a horrid part of life, I do hope that Katie doesn't feel a bit down and regret it.