Boys & Girls: Australian Open, hard - Grade A (Weeks 3/4)

indiana · Tennis legend

Boys & Girls: Australian Open, hard - Grade A (Weeks 3/4)

wolf · Tennis legend

QF: (7) Bianca Andreescu (CAN), age 16 JWR 32 / JCH 3 at age 15 (WR 294) beat (4) Emily Appleton, age 17 JWR 12 (WR 752) 6-2 6-2

The result not exactly a surprise, but pity Emily couldn't make it slightly closer.

TheTraveller2 · Lower Club Player

Interesting that both Jodie and Emily are in their final year of eligibility for juniors and this is the first time they have played Australia. I wonder if they plan to play all the junior slams this year due to potentially being seeded in all of them, or has this experience (losing to younger, but exceptional, players fairly early on, in what is typically the weakest of the junior slams) prompted them to maybe focus on their transition out of juniors?

Spectator · All-time great

I hope it hasn't, at least for the next two. There's no huge expense for a GB player in doing RG and Wimbledon, and I'd guess they're quite exciting to play. The Slams are at a level where they can still learn from the matches - indeed Andreescu is probably more highly ranked than anyone they'd encounter in a 10K. So if the rest of their time is transition, why not enjoy two junior slams as well.

DavidC · Tennis legend

The girls final will be between the top seed and the wunderkind. Rebeka Masarova won Roland Garros before being bemused by Gabi Taylor at Wimbledon, and surged up the WTA rankings by reaching the semis in her first event (Gstaad) defeating Jelena Jankovic. She just edged out Bianca Andreescu whilst Jodie has still come the closest to beating Marta Kostyuk . Israeli Yshai Oliel beat the top seed to face Zsombor Piros of Hungary in the boys final

DavidC · Tennis legend

The 14 year old Kostyuk has claimed her first grand slam title, as against Jodie winning 6-4 in the third. Hungary has their first winner of a boys grand slam since Marton Fucsovics won Wimbledon in 2010, with Zsombor Piros also winning in 3

Spectator · All-time great

If I were Ms Burrage, I'd be feeling fairly pleased about my showing - as well as challenged to take things forward.

indiana · Tennis legend

Yes, I watched and was pretty impressed by Jodie against Kostyuk, and what's followed has seemingly backed that up as a display.

Yes, some of the top junior age girls not here, but I'll be following Jodie with interest as she transitions into seniors.

skibbarriz · Strong Club Player

Imo she'd be better off going to US College. She's not an elite junior and was in real terms overranked significantly in both singles and doubles.

She's not of the calibre where it's a sound decision to turn pro. But her being among the best of the British juniors influences how people thing.

She has an artilce saying how at 14/15yrs she skipped UK National Championship events becasue the quality was too low. But in terms of international junior quality, ie slams. the quality is too high. And this is when she is 18, having not previously made it into the draws through her junior career.

I understand that she's been in GB junior Fed Cup and all that so is (or has been) a big fish in our small pond. But i think that distorts players and the people around them expectation of what the next step is.

I'm saying this assuming she's not aiming for the situation of the Darts's and Dunne's because that is what events suggest she would be emabarking on.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Needless to say, I don't agree

But that's what's life's about......

Assuming she's got no ongoing effects from the injury, I think she's fine to turn pro and skip college (unless she wants to go, of course). I agree that being a big fish in a small sea (as many of the UK players are, almost by definition) doesn't do them many favours. And junior tennis is not a particularly useful yardstick. I also have no idea about her family etc. (very important).

But she has a game that is going to suit adult tennis very well. And plenty of time to make it fit. I also think it's way too soon to imply that Katy and Harriet have 'failed' because they're no higher than 250 or whatever.

Go Jodie !

skibbarriz · Strong Club Player

I dont mean to say those 2 have failed or will never meet with success. But the JWR 1-5 is typically from where players make a fast ascent in pro tennis and 10-20 less so, perhaps never making the main tour.

Naturally it's more interesting for an observer to have new players on the pro tour that they've followed in juniors. And I wish her well.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

You are right it is interesting that we have two top 20 juniors who by the end of year will turn 18.

Looking back from 2013 to 2004 there are usually one or two girls who appear in the end of year rankings as 18 year olds, the majority finish with juniors at 16 or 17. There are one or two where they were top 5 players at 17 and 18, Euginie Bouchard for example where I presume they were just after trophies??

There is the group were players just squeeze in at 18 and have no or a very numerically high senior rank who generally struggle to transition.

Another group who appear in junior top 20 for the first time as 18 year olds but with good senior ITF ranks who do pretty/very well, here transition seems to have been a priority and the rankings a product of process, i.e. Juniors was not a priority at 16 and 17

The group that Jodie and Emily potentially fall into is the group that squeeze into the top 20 at 17 play on and improve their junior rank as an 18 year old, including Caroline Garcia, Elize Mertens, Julia Cohen (peaked at 17 yo rank on way down at 18 year end), Aleksandar Wozniak. This group generally transition to break the top 100 as seniors. This correlation is obviously strongest when their senior rank is also decent, top 400.

Obviously the end of year rank is only a snap shot but does include points scored in all slams in that calendar year and there is the potential to gain more detail by looking at age of CH, but from this snap shot historically staying on to play juniors at 18 doesn't appear in any way detrimental for players in Emily's and Jodie's position, taking into account lost time due to injury in Jodie's case their position is pretty similar.

Good luck to both!

-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Monday 30th of January 2017 02:40:24 PM