Sounds as if Jade was slightly overawed and let the conditions and the standard of her opponent, get to her:

Report:

Jade Curtis, a day after registering her first ever win at a major tournament, found the power and pace of Caroline Wozniacki too forceful losing 6-2 6-2 at the Australian Open's junior event.

However to lose to the impressive Danish girl was no disgrace. Wozniacki is the top seed in the girl's singles, ranked fourth in the world and little more than a month ago was unbeatable at the most prestigious title in junior tennis outside of the four Grand Slams, winning the Orange Bowl on Florida's Key Biscayne.

Weather conditions on the outside courts at Melbourne Park were very similar to those regularly found on that delightful island off the coast of Miami with a blustery wind making things extremely difficult.

However Curtis seemed far more affected than the much taller and confident Wozniacki who though two months younger than her opponent, has infinitely more experience at top flight junior level.

Curtis allowed herself to be intimidated and her step-father/coach Jason Spence maintained:

"Jade has got to learn at this level that if she backs off just a little bit then the player on the other side on the net is going to take every advantage.

"At the lower-level competitions she can get away with it most of the time but not against somebody ranked so highly in the world.

"Jade starting making too many errors on her forehand, lost a bit of confidence and stopped attacking. For somebody as good as Wozniacki, that is the perfect sign and she went charging through."

Eight successive games gave Wozniacki the upperhand and although Curtis regained some composure towards the end of the match, the ultimate result was never in any doubt.

another break down, looks like the end of Miami for Jade.

Jade loses 2 and 2

Site looking pretty good now. But it's "Juniors" and not "Junior's".

Can't really help you with that. I am terrible with computers.


On a different note, Jade should get a direct entry into AO Juniors.
She is ranked 96 and there are just a few '88 born players ahead of her. But due to Australia's geographic location and the fact that loads of girls stop playing Juniors at 16 or 17, the cut off should enable her to play as a direct entrant.

I confess that I was hoping for a little more from Jade recently on the senior tour. Her ranking has been heading south since August. It would be great if she did well in the juniors but, ultimately, she'll be judged on her senior results and I shall be hoping for some decent movement deep into the top 1000 in 2007.