Girls: Osaka Mayor's Cup - World Super Junior Tennis Championships, Japan - Grade A (Week 43)

DavidC · Tennis legend

Girls: Osaka Mayor's Cup - World Super Junior Tennis Championships, Japan - Grade A (Week 43)

john · Top national player

Woop, let's go Katie Boulter. Hope she can do well here, got big big hopes for her.

indiana · Tennis legend

I agree John. I'd say that Katie B is certainly our most exciting junior at the moment.

Time will tell with these still 2 or 3 years younger.

korriban · Challenger level

Seems a lot of our good young prospects are very up and down in terms of form. When they are good they do well and even cause upsets. But when they play badly, even against inferior opposition (or the opponent plays above themselves) they tend to lose, as opposed to grinding/toughing out ugly wins. I agree with Indy, that there's a little sprinkling of star quality about Ms Boulter from having seen her a few times - with a double-handed BH that is a real weapon. Consistency, strength, endurance, tactical nous and experience should all come in time, but it's always encouraging to see a weapon that you could imagine causing problems to any pro player.

I'd be more encouraged if one of our girls or boys would actually WIN a big junior event at some stage (Grade 1 or Grade A), but the cupboard has been bare for quite some time now. I may be wrong (I usually am), but I suspect it might well be that Oli Golding at the 2011 USO Juniors was our last singles winner at any junior Grade 1 or A event, girls and boys - and that's well over 2 years ago.

Edit: Cameron Norrie won a Grade 1 in early 2013, but I believe he was still playing for NZ at the time. My understanding is that he is now back living and training in NZ, although he still regards himself as a GB player for the moment.

-- Edited by korriban on Monday 21st of October 2013 07:34:30 AM

-- Edited by korriban on Monday 21st of October 2013 07:43:16 AM

steven · Tennis legend

Not such a Super tennis championships for the GB seeds, to say the least ... though two of the other (unseeded) Brits have already won their R1 matches:

L64: Emily Arbuthnott (GBR) JWR 242 beat Mayu Okawa (JPN) JWR 388 by 4 & 4
L64: (3) Katie Boulter (GBR) JWR 25 lost to Chihiro Muramatsu (JPN) JWR 666 by 6-1 1-6 6-4 bleh
L64: Freya Christie (GBR) JWR 143 beat Emma Christine Higuchi (USA) JWR 316 by 6-3 3-6 6-3 smile
L64: (8) Harriet Dart (GBR) JWR 55 lost to Nozomi Ohya (JPN) JWR 451 by 3 & 4 bleh

L64: Gabriella Taylor (GBR) JWR 204 v (10) Priscilla Hon (AUS) JWR 70 / WTA 948 - Tuesday

Hon is the only R1 opponent with a WTA ranking. 15-year-old Muramatsu did reach the semis of a G2 for the first time last week and 16-year-old Ohya reached the QFs, so they were already in good form and no doubt a fair bit better than their rankings suggests. Even so, quite a shock that Katie and Harriet both went out in R1.

john · Top national player

Katie :( Ah well, rankings don't mean a great deal in Juniors imo, so it could be that the Japanese girl will turn out to be a great prospect, or maybe Katie isn't quite committed to these tournaments now she'd tasted success at Senior level. Either way, not too much to worry about I reckon. Onto bigger and better things

korriban · Challenger level

john wrote:
Katie :( Ah well, rankings don't mean a great deal in Juniors imo, so it could be that the Japanese girl will turn out to be a great prospect, or maybe Katie isn't quite committed to these tournaments now she'd tasted success at Senior level. Either way, not too much to worry about I reckon. Onto bigger and better things

I sort of agree. But then nobody is forcing her to go out to Japan, and if you look at the cost of sending her and others out to Asia for a number of weeks, including flights, transport, hotels, food/drink, coaching staff, fitness, equipment etc I'd want to be absolutely certain she WAS committed to these junior tournaments - and I'm fairly certain she is.

I'd like our prospects to experience and demonstrate what it takes to WIN tournaments, even if they are Junior tournaments. It's true that junior tournaments don't "matter" quite so much - but winning multiple matches away from home, including those where you are not yet used to the conditions or where your form is poor on the day, yet finding a way to come through at the business end is an attribute which is probably more important than almost anything else long term. In that sense I wish we could lay claim to more serial winners, but we can't.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, pity for Katie, and of course we'd love WINs. But she's lost to an apparently in form player ( possibly, hopefully, extremely underranked ) playing at home. Anyway, whatever, just a hiccup hopefully. So, onward..

DavidC · Tennis legend

Not a good day for Gabi, losing in singles and then her doubles partnership retired. At least the others all won their opening doubles. Harriet and Katie are seeded 3, and I expect a strong response from them after their surprising singles losses. The two remaining Brits in singles face daunting tasks.

R1 (L64)

(10) Priscilla Hon (AUS) d. Gabriella Taylor (GBR) 6-4 6-3

R2

Emily Arbuthnott (GBR) v (5) Ziyue Sun (CHN)
Freya Christie (GBR) v (4) Ivana Jorovic (SRB)

DavidC · Tennis legend

Play yesterday was washed out by typhoons, but they were able to play round 2 today, albeit with abbreviated third sets, and Emily eked out a super win, her first over a top 50 player. She has progressed rapidly this year, gaining the LTA no. 1 ranking at under 18 level after strong domestic performances, beating Gabi Taylor in the under 16 nationals and claiming her first ITF title. Next up is a big local hope, who won Les Petits As, and was at that time the highest ranked '96 (in ITF Juniors) but has stalled somewhat since (though is 14-2 in juniors this year). Freya did respectably against the number 4 seed, who won 4 consecutive tournaments (including a G1) in the summer, thumping Freya 1 & 1 in the process.

R2

Emily Arbuthnott (GBR) d. (5) Ziyue Sun (CHN) 6-3 2-6 [11-9]
(4) Ivana Jorovic (SRB) d. Freya Christie (GBR) 6-2 7-6(?)

R3

Kanami Tsuji (JPN) v Emily Arbuthnott (GBR)

DavidC · Tennis legend

Brilliant stuff from Emily, who in her maiden GA event reaches the quarters in both singles and doubles. In theory she could play 4 matches tomorrow, though that would require a major upset in the singles against top seed Varvara Flink, who has won 2 G1s and a GA this year, and reached the WTA top 500.

R3

Emily Arbuthnott (GBR) d. Kanami Tsuji (JPN) 6-4 6-3

QF

(1) Varvara Flink (RUS) v Emily Arbuthnott (GBR)

DavidC · Tennis legend

As expected Varvara was a step too far for Emily (she and Freya's conqueror have gone on to be the finalists). She also lost her doubles quarter-final, but Harriet and Katie may still be in the tournament. The live score on their quarter-final is still showing at 2*-3 - although the match after it appears in the results section, so clearly there has been a glitch (Alex's doubles quarter-final is genuinely on the live score at 2-2)

QF

(1) Varvara Flink (RUS) d. Emily Arbuthnott (GBR) 6-2 6-1

DavidC · Tennis legend

Harriet and Katie did come through that match. Harriet is therefore one match away from repeating last year's final (with Katy Dunne)

SF

(7) Okamura/Tjandramulia (JPN/AUS) v (3) Boulter/Dart (GBR)

DavidC · Tennis legend

SF

(7) Okamura/Tjandramulia (JPN/AUS) d. (3) Boulter/Dart (GBR) 7-5 7-6(8)

Ivana Jorovic won the singles title