Dan Cox

Salmon · Tennis legend

RE: Daniel Cox.

Bladetiger · Pro player

No I was referring to this:

http://www.itftennis.com/juniors/history/juniorworldchamps/index.asp

I understand that you are on about the team championships.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Ahhh... you were speaking about year end number ones.
It's highly confusing... the team competition is called "World Junior Tennis".

Some good names here -

http://www.itftennis.com/juniors/teamcompetitions/14under/boyswinners.asp

Sheddie · administrator

The tournament director last week [Carl Baldwin], was very impressed with Dan Evans' performance. He felt that Dan showed a lot of promise for the future.

He said:

“Lee Childs didn’t play badly against Dan Evans, but it was a very close two sets. It was just that young Dan was very good and that is the main story.

“Dan is another one who we will see over the next few years quite how good he gets."

Sheddie · administrator

The reason why Dan withdrew from Eddie Herr and the Orange Bowl is because he injured his knee. It's not a bad injury, he's just withdrawn as a precaution.

I'm told that Josh Milton has been hitting a lot with Andy Murray lately

Salmon · Tennis legend

That is bad!

I hope that he is doing all right now.

Sheddie · administrator

From what I heard, the injury isn't too bad, he's just resting it as a precaution. He's not playing any more tournaments this year, just getting ready for the start of the new season.

The first British tour event of 2007 is in Nottingham and it's just after Christmas which several of the juniors aren't too happy about

davidB · Junior player

oh please... silly little buggers... TAKE ALL THE WILD CARDS YOU CAN GET!!!!

Sheddie · administrator

However, the tournament in Nottingham isn't a ranking points event...just British tour [semi-professional circuit of tournaments just in Britain from Jan-Nov which offer prize money and national rating points but no world ranking points.]

The first 15K futures starts a week later in Sunderland. I think the Nottingham field will be pretty strong, there will be lots of players using it as a warm-up for the futures. Could even see players like Matt Smith and Lee Childs playing there.

Sheddie · administrator

Drew wrote:

Bladetiger wrote:

Iwas talking to someone at the LTA about Evans and Coix yesterday and haveto say they weren't particularly excited about either prospect , basically feel that they have both got a fair bit of growing to do to be able to cut it at adult level.

The consensus was that neither of them are as good as Mark Hilton was at their age and that they just arent exceptional enough to overcome their physical disadvantages unless they really grow some this next couple of years, both of them are small and light.

Obviously boys do grow later than girls so it's quite possible they could grow a fair bit yet, and nothing to say that my contact will be right, but thought some might be interested in the view.

I hear what you are saying.....but this was said exactly of Andy Murray...'too short'....'he will never grow'....I hope that Mrs Cox and Mrs Evans can keep feeding their boys with the best home grown royal jelly !!!!

Yeah, when Murray was 16, he was only 5ft 2 or something. I spoke to someone who saw him at Wimbledon qualifying and they said that he had great racket hand skills but he wouldn't become a top player as he was way too short and just got hit off the court.

How wrong that person was ! Within a year, Andy was 6ft 2 and making massive inroads through the rankings

Sheddie · administrator

Regarding the earlier discussion on page 3 of this thread about Daniel, I do agree with Bladetiger.

Cox has had some extremely promising results so far but it's way to soon to predict that he will make top 100, the level of men's tennis is so high at the moment, you really have to be exceptional to be able to break through.

Even if Dan makes the top 10 juniors, it's still way too early to say whether he'll then break the top 100 in seniors. So many world-class juniors have failed to make that transition. Seb Rieschick was world junior no 1 but he hasn't been able to to break through to challenger level and is currently ranked around 400 [with a career best of about 315]. Zverev will definately make it sometime next year but I doubt Stakhovsky will do and he made the USO juniors final. Jamie Baker was an exceptional junior - he reached no 6 but still has a long way to go before top 100. There are many more examples.

When comparing Dan with Andy, you do have to consider that within a year, Andy had grown over a foot [developed a big serve and obtained more juice on his groundstrokes], made the quarters of a challenger beating a top 100 player, won a 10k and made a semi of another and reached the junior top 10. It was an incredible rise but unless he'd grown I doubt it would have happened.

If Evans and Cox grow substantially over the next year, then that will definately aid them hugely. The Rochus brothers are the only players in the top 100 who are less than 5ft6.

With Hilton, he showed a lot of promise early on in the juniors but he didn't really make anything of an impact, possibly because of his size. His best ranking was 72. He was able to dominate the futures circuit in Britain but when he tried to move up to challenger level, I think his lack of a big serve stopped him getting any further

Rochelle · Lower Club Player

Thanks for that David, that was an intresting read. i never used to follow junior tennis so i didnt know all that .
Yeah Daniel is really short and although when i watched him his serve was really good and he was good at the base line a groth spurt will deinetly aid him ... do u think he will grow soon?
i hope he is able to make a good conversion from juniors to the main tour . i think alot of the time determination and passion is a big aspect of if the juniors are able to make it on the tour level, if they dont have the desire to sucseed then 9 out of 10 times they wont , just my views

Robxon · Lower Club Player

Dan has a bipartite patella which he has had for a number of years, This is the same condition/injury that kept Andy Murray out for six months. Therefore great care is needed with any potential strain on his knees. I am not saying that this is his the cause of his latest injury scare, merely that this may be an on-going concern throughout his career.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Wow! Yet another similarity he has with Andy.

There is no doubting the talent. I think that he will grow.

Salmon · Tennis legend

ultimateshedman wrote:

The first 15K futures starts a week later in Sunderland. I think the Nottingham field will be pretty strong, there will be lots of players using it as a warm-up for the futures. Could even see players like Matt Smith and Lee Childs playing there.

Many of the top juniors, I guess.
Barring Barnes, Pauffley and Smethurst for sure. They are going to Sweden to play some Juniors - a G3 and a G4. The list for the first one is out, so I am assuming that they will play in the second one too.

http://w2.salk.se/salkopen/lottn-bilder/accboys061130.htm

-- Edited by Greenleaf at 11:25, 2006-12-02