Girls: Condor de Plata Tournament, Bolivia - Grade 2 (Week 6)

DavidC · Tennis legend

Girls: Condor de Plata Tournament, Bolivia - Grade 2 (Week 6)

philwrig · Hall of fame

She also has a dental problem which might prove to be a bigger obstacle to overcome than any of her opponents.

philwrig · Hall of fame

For anyone interested here is a link to ITF junior regulations changes for 2010 provided by Colette Lewis.
http://tenniskalamazoo.blogspot.com/2010/02/some-thoughts-on-itf-junior-regulation.html

-- Edited by philwrig on Monday 8th of February 2010 08:39:58 PM

philwrig · Hall of fame

Laura looks as if she is sticking to the original plan of playing this string of South American clay court tournaments. I suspect by gaining as many junior ranking points as possible at the beginning of the season it will give her a clear idea of how much more junior tennis she will have to play to guarantee a top 5 end of year ranking and thus some additional wild card opportunities for 2011.
I suspect she will play all of her maximum 12 senior tournaments on her preferred surfaces and not on clay. I see her playing a maximum of 3 senior tournaments leading up to the French open to see if she can garner enough ranking points to gain automatic entry into qualifying. I also see her playing the lead up junior clay court tournaments to the French juniors if her play in those senior tournaments doesn't gain enough ranking points. I don't see her playing the end of year junior events in Florida as that will coincide with an offseason training block which proved to be very successful this last December.
Lastly it will feel a little strange playing in a grade 2 junior event but hey if thats what the plan is I'm not going to argue with it.

DavidC · Tennis legend

philwrig wrote:

Laura looks as if she is sticking to the original plan of playing this string of South American clay court tournaments. I suspect by gaining as many junior ranking points as possible at the beginning of the season it will give her a clear idea of how much more junior tennis she will have to play to guarantee a top 5 end of year ranking and thus some additional wild card opportunities for 2011.
I suspect she will play all of her maximum 12 senior tournaments on her preferred surfaces and not on clay. I see her playing a maximum of 3 senior tournaments leading up to the French open to see if she can garner enough ranking points to gain automatic entry into qualifying. I also see her playing the lead up junior clay court tournaments to the French juniors if her play in those senior tournaments doesn't gain enough ranking points. I don't see her playing the end of year junior events in Florida as that will coincide with an offseason training block which proved to be very successful this last December.
Lastly it will feel a little strange playing in a grade 2 junior event but hey if thats what the plan is I'm not going to argue with it.

Logistically I think Laura will find it difficult to find 3 senior tournaments in April which make sense geographically, are not on clay, and offer a realistic chance of garnering the number of points she needs for French Open qualifying.

I also do not expect her to be playing the end of year junior events, but I hope she is not distracted before that by playing other junior events to grab a top 5 ranking again. Tackling junior events on clay is sensible given how she performed on the surface last year, but I think the concentration after Roland Garros should be on transition to seniors, and I would expect her ranking to become good enough not to need the Junior Exempts.

Back in Bolivia Jen's opponent is known, and shouldn't prove too much of a problem providing she can cope with the dental problem you mention:

R2

Giulia Andreazza (BRA) v (3) Jennifer Ren (GBR)

philwrig · Hall of fame

Yep you are right David unless Laura takes the Asian route she would have to play on clay during April/May but based upon the fact her team have said the goal was to get direct entry into French open qualifying they must be thinking of playing some senior tournaments somewhere and having travelled to the far end of the earth for this upcoming period why not travel to the other far end of the planet i.e Asia during the end of April/ start of May. In addition I suspect like last year that she won't play either Birmingham/ Eastbourne in lead up to Wimbledon due to closeness of French open juniors/exam commitments/only can play 12 senior tournaments/ only got 3 wild cards for this year.
Finally gaining the junior exempts for next year does give her more flexibility but I agree if whatever reason the juniors doesn't go to plan this year she should not chase the ranking points in juniors in the second part of the year. I also see this year as the last year she will play juniors of any kind.

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

The only place I saw any mention of Laura aiming to reach a ranking to enter qualifying for the French open was an article on the Daily Mail website, which is number 4 on the scale (Lies, Damn Lies, Statistics, Daily Mail, Metroline Bus Timetables). Has anyone seen this from a reliable source?

Qualifying cut off is in the low 200s which is around 260 points, which means she'd need to get at least 130 more than she has now which is a big ask from so few tournaments. Also, what's the point of avoiding clay to make it into qualifying - there are no points for losing the first match which is likely under those circumstances. However, if the aim is just to progress up the senior rankings rather than specifically aiming the French open, then playing on hard courts whilst most of the strong opposition is playing clay court tournaments would be a good way to go about it.

djlovesyou · Strong Club Player

I'm thinking Laura will be only interested in chasing a junior ranking if she's got a chance of number 1.

I'm not too sure the JE she gains for any lower rank will be at all useful to her, given what her rank is likely to be next year.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Laura has withdrawn from the Grade 2 event but is still in the Grade 1 the week after.

RBBOT · Futures qualifying

Back on topic, Ms. Ren wins 6-0 6-1

R3: REN, Jennifer (GBR) 3 vs GONZALEZ, Domenica (ECU) 14

DavidC · Tennis legend

R3

(3) Jennifer Ren (GBR) d. (14) Domenica Gonzalez (ECU) 4-6 6-2 6-3

QF

(5) Caitlyn Williams (USA) v (3) Jennifer Ren (GBR)

Jen needs to reach the semis to pick up big points to progress towards the top 100 but the American has a good CV and is in ominous form handing out bakery products in both her matches

DavidC · Tennis legend

Jen and partner (Norwegian Caroline Rohde-Moe) are top seeds in the doubles, and through to the semis

philwrig · Hall of fame

That was a quick turnaround between round's 2 and 3.
Well played Jen.

DavidC · Tennis legend

as feared....

QF

(5) Caitlyn Williams (USA) d. (3) Jennifer Ren (GBR) 6-1 7-5

DavidC · Tennis legend

Jen and partner also narrowly lost their doubles semi