Arka will be well aware that I am by no means an expert on Juniors tennis, and dont really start to believe in the results of guys and gals at Junior level too much until they start winning adult matches.
However I wondered how he had felt (or anyone else) about the performance of our youngsters at Junior wimbledon, any particular highlight (with obvious exception of Fitzpatrick) and any particular disappointments, anyone who you now feel we should be really keeping an eye on?
Daniel Evans loosing in the 1st round was a bit of a dissapointment. He hadn't been able to get his good form into the grandlslams so far but hes got another 5 if he wants tom play them.
Naomi was dissapointing in the juniors but shes coming along nicely in the senior game so not too much to worry about.
My knowledge of the women's game is very limited and hence my opinion of the girls may count for little.
Boys:
Disappointments - Evans losing to Verryth was slightly disappointing because he normally beats players who are far better. But everyone has off days and with five good wins in the last few days, he has more than redeemed himself. A quarters at a Futures is a far better achievement than winning three rounds at a Junior Slam!
Best performance -
Willis by far. He had never played the top Juniors before but he showed that he is good enough to compete at this level even without the experience. He beat two top 20 players and then took Elias (Elias will probably crack the top 100 in 2009 if things go well) to two tiebreaks.
Most surprising performance -
Mathew James. Kudos to this guy for what he has done since March. He used to be incredibly ordinary even a few months ago - a player who used to struggle in qualies and finished the year ranked outside the top 900 (I think, but I am not sure of the ranking). But he landed himself a big title in March out of nowhere and hasn't looked back since then. He'll be top 100 by January unless he seriously messes things up. What he has achieved is some sort of a fairy tale. We always knew that Willis, Pauffley, Smethurst etc. were good players and would win matches at the top level very soon even they were ranked low at the start of the year, but not Matt James! I would have said that he would make the top 250 mark at best in the next twelve months. It's great to have a good prospect coming unheralded.
Ones to watch out for -
Willis and Smethurst both have big games and could get their first Futures wins by the end of the year. It all depends on how much time they devote to men's tennis, I guess. Pauffley is improving fast, too.
I think that Willis in particular has the ability to match the power of bigger and better guys. In the last few months, he has taken sets off Thiemo De Bakker and Martin Klizan, both former Slam winners, both former world number 1s and both have had success at Tour/Challenger level.
Much has been said about Cox, Evans and Dyce, so I needn't mention it here.
Girls:
Disappointments -
Well, Naomi was the only one but who cares?? This event had no meaning for her given that all the top players of her age have quit ITFs.
Best performance -
Obviously Fitzpatrick. Too much has been said about it already.
Jessica Jackson, Curtis, Jocelyn Rae and Broady all drew seeds in the first round and there was little that they could do. Tara got a bad draw, too. Kudos to Windley for making the most of her relatively easier draw.
I feel that the girls could have done better than the boys had they received proper draws. All the boys had winnable matches except for Pauffley and Angus.
Ones to watch out for the rest of the year -
Broady and Tara should improve their WTA rankings by a lot. So far this year, Broady hasn't done anywhere near how well I thought she would do, but from now she'll play a lot on the surfaces that she likes so there's no reason as to why she shouldn't be able to take her ranking to inside the top 500. Too much has been said about Curtis, I guess.
Tara is very young and so will improve by a significant amount over the next few months. It's impossible to take a guess at a ranking as it depends on how many events she'll play this year.
Rae and Windley are going to play quite a few Junior events by the look of it, so hopefully they'll make the cut for the Australian Open next year.
To be honest Smethurst could have gone further in the singles, played a very tight match, although the guy was good Smethurst was capable of beating him. He was even tightier in the doubles quarter final when the winning post was in sight!! Milton impressed me he most in singles , he was so gutsy in the tiebreak & what a lob at 8all!! Doubles you can't lok much further than Coupland, we may have found our newest doubles star, or the new Karlovic 6ft 6" serve & vollyer, didnt lose serve all tournament, only guy in the event to do it I would have though mens & boys!!! Overall it wasn't a bad Wimbledon for the juniors but could be better & next year I think it will be!!!
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Its Not Who You Know But What You Know.........Or Is It???
He used to be incredibly ordinary even a few months ago - a player who used to struggle in qualies and finished the year ranked outside the top 900 (I think, but I am not sure of the ranking). But he landed himself a big title in March out of nowhere and hasn't looked back since then. He'll be top 100 by January unless he seriously messes things up.
