We just have to have a thread for her ranking!

Three months ago, I wouldn't have dreamt of this. But today she is ranked 5 and  becomes (I think?) the first British girl to have a ranking inside the top 10 ever since the combined ranking system was introduced.
If she plays a smart schedule, she'll be ranked world number 1 in Juniors eventually, whether that be next year or the unlikely but not impossible this year itself. Of course, it depends on whether someone like Larcher De Brito decides to start with Juniors again...


At this moment, the top 5 looks like this -

Arantxa Rus (Dec 1990) at 1162.50
Simona Halep (Sep 1991) at 1160
Melanie Oudin (Sep 1991) at 1123.75
Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (Nov 1991) at 1045
Laura Robson (Jan 1994) at 950

This is Rus's last year and Wimbly was probably her last event (it's not impossible that she'll do USO, though), so we need not worry.

Halep and Oudin are both incredibly talented and too good for Juniors, so it's probably curtains for them as far as a normal Junior career is concerned (Slams aside, of course - and Oudin will almost surely do USO).

Letcheewakarn will probably do a few Junior events apart from the Slams, so she could remain a long term threat.

Then there are the Bogdans who are brilliant on slower surfaces and good enough to be world number 1s if they are ready to exploit the weak tournaments. Tammy Hendler doesn't seem too bothered about ITFs any more (and rightly so) but there are other younger players, particularly Mladenovic and Babos, who could be big threats.




My whole point is - Laura is easily a favourite to be one of the world number 1s in the next twelve months. She just needs to train hard and go for Osaka Mayor's and Casablanca.

She defends just 12.5 points this year and can't be overtaken before the European Junior Championships that's played the week after next.