cakj1234 wrote:

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I have read with interest all your comments to my opinions on this site and have come to realize you are all just sat there living in hope that someone will pull off some shocks, its just a pity that 99.95% of time you are let down only to come up with some excuse of why they lost but didnt they do well.  You need to wake up and smell the coffee and realize they have not got what it takes and its time to give all the teenage players all the chances that the rest of them have wasted over the years.  You can make as many comments as you like to this but the fact remains we lose too many matches when we shouldnt.

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Who has got what it takes?

If we are talking top 20 top 30 then Laura Robson, Jessica Ren are outside chances and that is it (edit - no doubt someone will correct me on this and mention players I've forgotten but it is not a long list).

If you mean top 100 then Anne K has already achieved that but doesn't seem to get much credit for doing so, in time I think Katie will probably get inside the top 100 if only for a short period of time, similarly Mel might do so if she can develop her game. Had high hopes of Naomi Cavaday being a top 50 player but that seems a long way away at present. If Elena Baltacha can stay fit for long enough then top 100 seems possible but given her health problems it is unlikely she'd be able to hold down a position in the top 100.

Anna F might be a top 100 player in 4 or 5 years' time but she has a lot of work to do if she's to get there. Georgie Stoop again, possible top 100 but 150 might be more realistic. Naomi Broady looks good on the grass and perhaps in 3 years' time could be winning matches at wimbledon but she hasn't shown much on other surfaces.

So if you aren't satisfied with top 100, or near misses, then it will be a case of waiting around for Laura Robson and Jessica Ren (and a few others) and just hoping that they can turn success at junior level into success at tour level. And they'll have to grow to be around 6ft if they are to have much chance.

(not meant as a judgement on the potential of all our senior and junior players)


-- Edited by kundalini at 17:27, 2008-06-16

madfan wrote:

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Do you really think there is nobody coming through before Laura and Jess? What about Jen Ren or Amy Askew? Or the girls training abroad - cant remember their names?

What a sad state of affairs

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What standard do you mean?
 
If you are talking possible top 100s then we've got quite a few that could manage that if they keep progressing year after year. If you are talking inside the top 20 or top 30 then I wouldn't have Jen Ren on my list of possibles.

Yes there's Tara Moore and Amy Askew and no doubt a few others who could break through.

The point I was trying to make, is that if you dismiss players who might break into the top 100 aged say 24 or 25, then you aren't left with very much.

Greenleaf.  Totally agree. 

Mervatron wrote:

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Hang why all the talk of giving the young ones a chance? Anne has got into this tournament on her own merit and into brum aswell where she lost to the eventual champion.

I;'m not making excusess mor her cos i think this was a bad loss for Anne. Its a great chance gone.

We''ll have to just move onto wimbledon and hope she can do better there.

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Exactly. I see your point in general. Anne has had a lot of opportunities, often I have thought there are better grass court players of a younger age who could use opportunities given to her better, HOWEVER in the case of the grass court season 2008, Anne has earned all of her entries either on her ranking or by winning that 50K in Lebanon, so how can you blame her for taking these opportunities that aren't depriving someone else? If she hadn't entered s-Hertogenbosch she would probably have been blasted for it so...