Emily alledgedly turned down a place at Vanderbilt who reached the finals of the NCAA College team tennis tournament. I just wonder where she would sit in that team ie. the position she would have played. I think she would have probably settled in the no 4 slot and possibly played Emily Arbuthnot who has had a very good 2nd season in college tennis. She is likely to win plenty of trophies but realistically I dont think will ever play in the no 1 slot for Stanford and although hypothetical Emily App would have found herself in a similar position in a very competitive programme.
Although they lost, their no 1. Astra Sharma was selected as the best no 1 in the whole tournament she was part of the championship winning team in 2015 and ranked 397 WTA. She played doubles in the AO at the beginning of the year and although ranked slightly lower in doubles beat the no 3 pair our Emily Arbuthnot and the freshman and ex top US junior Micheala Gordon (JCH 21, ITF CH 478 ). She beat Michela in the no 1 singles match over 3 sets, a 25K standard match up?.
Over the last year she has played AO doubles, Hobart QWC, 2 60Ks 8 25Ks (1 Final) 5 15Ks (winning 3, a SF and a QF). Astra has been at college for 5 years ie. redshirted her freshman year but it has been a very positive experience and she will base herself there (in Nashville) ie. probably maintaining college links as she attempts to make the LTA.
With the changes due in terms of a reduction in the number of players with WTA ranking and as I understand it 15Ks disappearing I can see US college Tennis becoming more attractive and there being a real bump up in the quality of players playing on the back courts in the power conferences ie at nos 4, 5 and 6 in the power conferences ie. PAC 12, SEC, ACC, with Big 10 and Big 12. If you are really dominating as a sophmore or junior (as Cam did) there is the option to drop out early, generally players would be at a level where they would dominate 15 k fields and be very competitive at 25k.
I didn't think the 15ks were disappearing but that they would form part of this new transition tour as it were. Also for men, so would the early rounds in 25ks form part of this, ie the pts will only count towards the transition tour and not the atp tour. For me the best analogies are the ways that golf tours are organised, which again are regional until you reach the larger tours - and of those it is only really the European tour that is truly international.
With regards to Emily, she may well be regretting her decision, since it's not yet at all clear she has the ability to reach and thrive on the WTA tour. If the transition tour was in existence a year back she may have made a different decision. She now has to attempt to cross the bridge between transition and wta - hence the 25k tournaments - and if she hasn't made it by early next year, may have another decision to make. She's still only 18, nothing to stop her yet from still going back to higher education, though I guess she's missed the attractive offer.
Thanks for the clarity on the changes, bit behind the 8 ball on the detail. It was really just an observation trying to assess the levels and how things may change. Admittedly using Emilys progress this year as a benchmark. Jodie Burrages has been similar as a junior and now in transition. To keep things in perspective they are obviously both very talented individuals
I am sure she has lots of options as would Jodie who held a place at Florida which like Vanderbilt is a top academic school as well as athletic. I think playing in an NCAA affiliated college would be an issue but not necessarily entering a British University with strong Tennis and decent academic programmes eg Bath again that might be a different way of approaching things, definitely not one fit for all and flexibility is really important to make the most of your talents.
My general impression is that Emily Arbuthnott in clearly many fewer senior outings has looked to be generally a fair bit better than Emily Appleton, whose decision not to follow the college route continues to look at least as questionable as it did when the decision was made.
A state of emergency has been declared in Florida as the state prepares for the first named subtropical storm of the season. Torrential rain is expected over the coming days. Whether Emily gets to play her already delayed doubles QF today looks in doubt. One of her opponents in the doubles has been taken to a third set in their singles QF but they are only managing a few points between rain showers. Next week Emily is supposed to be 100 miles down the coast in Naples.
My general impression is that Emily Arbuthnott in clearly many fewer senior outings has looked to be generally a fair bit better than Emily Appleton, whose decision not to follow the college route continues to look at least as questionable as it did when the decision was made.
Eden Richardson who has had a storming start as a freshman in the SEC playing no 1 for LSU is getting regular high quality matches. Anna Loghlan joins her next year, Olivia Peet and Nell Miller start next year at Texas Tech. Lauryn John-Baptiste has had similar success playing no 1 at Arizona State in the PAC 12.
Generally the girls playing No 1 in these conferences would be good 15K (ie SF/F week in week out) approaching 25k standard. If you are dominating 15k stepping up to 25k and breaking the top 500 as junior then continuing to play 25ks and 60Ks is the way forward but if you are still focusing on juniors at 17/18 playing power conference college tennis will open more doors than it closes.
With both singles and doubles still at the QF stage and rain delaying play today and being forecast for the next couple of days the OOP is now saying that the doubles has been abandoned.
