Where did it all go wrong? A few years ago Jade was being touted as the next Brit world beater. Now there are 32 younger players with higher ITF rankings, and a lot of her points come from doubles.

In retrospect the win over Wozniacki at Teen Tennis in January 2003 seems to have been the high point. Since then there's been almost nothing. In the whole of the last year, her win over Radwanska at the US Open juniors is really the only thing that suggests a possible future at a high level. But then that fizzled out immediately with a thumping from Pavlyuchenkova in the next round (with the usual excuses from stepdad, natch). Plus of course you can't make a career in tennis by playing well in 1 out of every 20 matches.

Talent doesn't just disappear. She can make a comeback. But how?

Well, actually Teen Tennis was in Telford in those days....and I didn't actually see Jade's great run. In fact the last time I saw her play a match was about 5 years ago, when she was awesome for her age.

I've seen Dan Cox playing since he was about 9. At that age he was number 2 in the country, behind Smethurst, who used to win everything.

Having seen many promising youngsters fade away, I don't like the hype surrounding the likes of the Ren sisters and Tara Moore. It's tough enough trying to make it as a tennis pro without (usually well-meaning I admit) media pressure. Some people have very short memories - remember Hannah Collin, for example, who had a fine record as a junior (miles better than Jade Curtis) but just never made the transition.

Greenleaf wrote:

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I forgot that Teen Tennis was in Telford.


Lucky you for seeing Dan since he was 9.
Did you see him when he made the quarters in Telford before losing to Andrew Thomas (and Thomas defeated him again the very next week in the finals of Tarbes ) ?

Had no idea that Smethurst was better than Cox in those days. He has played very little tennis last year if truth be said. But he has had a few impressive results in Futures qualies, so maybe he will make it to the top someday.

I agree with what you say about youngsters fading away, but I also believe that a certain amount of publicity is necessary. I mean.... they need to get used to what they are sure to face in the following years.

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It is so difficult to see what juniors will make it or not. Curtis, Cox, Dyce and the like are hopefully exceptions to the rule and will make it but no-one can tell. These 3 kids could end up just not good enough at senior level. We probably need 10-20 kids like these 3 all doing really well as juniors and then with the balance of probability in our favour you may get 2-3 world class players...who knows !!!