2019 Rankings

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

2019 Rankings

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Quite impressive that there are now four 2003-born boys in the top 10 juniors boys.

Strangely, the 2003 born boys in the top 50 are:

JWR 1
JWR 2
JWR 4
JWR 8
JWR 37
JWR 46

A real bunch at the top end, and hardly any lower down (not even in the 50-100 spots)

Other point to note is that, in the top 20, Japan has three boys and USA has 4.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

I see Garland turned 18 today (happy birthday Joanna). I remember reading something from Naiktha's dad saying once Naiktha turned 18 she could decide who she wanted to represent (and obviously switched a few years later), so perhaps you can't switch nationalities prior to that milestone. She probably has absolutely no intention of ever switching, but maybe/hopefully one to keep an eye on in the coming months/years.

I guess she'll be done with juniors soon enough - possibly US Open her final one?

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Ace Ventura wrote:
I see Garland turned 18 today (happy birthday Joanna). I remember reading something from Naiktha's dad saying once Naiktha turned 18 she could decide who she wanted to represent (and obviously switched a few years later), so perhaps you can't switch nationalities prior to that milestone. She probably has absolutely no intention of ever switching, but maybe/hopefully one to keep an eye on in the coming months/years.

I guess she'll be done with juniors soon enough - possibly US Open her final one?

You certainly can switch before then because Myah Petchey switched to GB from South Africa a few months ago and she's not 18 till September.

Jojo Back also switched, far younger.

David always mentions Jo Garland as she obviously is a top pick for 'possible' change - as you say, she may never intend to but she has quite strong UK ties, via her Dad, and plays team tennis here, amongst other things.

And what you intend at 18 can be quite different from 21 .....

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
Ace Ventura wrote:
I see Garland turned 18 today (happy birthday Joanna). I remember reading something from Naiktha's dad saying once Naiktha turned 18 she could decide who she wanted to represent (and obviously switched a few years later), so perhaps you can't switch nationalities prior to that milestone. She probably has absolutely no intention of ever switching, but maybe/hopefully one to keep an eye on in the coming months/years.

I guess she'll be done with juniors soon enough - possibly US Open her final one?
You certainly can switch before then because Myah Petchey switched to GB from South Africa a few months ago and she's not 18 till September.
Jojo Back also switched, far younger.
David always mentions Jo Garland as she obviously is a top pick for 'possible' change - as you say, she may never intend to but she has quite strong UK ties, via her Dad, and plays team tennis here, amongst other things.
And what you intend at 18 can be quite different from 21 .....

Yeah, fair point re Myah, and Mr Bains said after 18 it was always going to be her choice as to who she wanted to represent, so must have just been a personal milestone for them rather than anything official. I do occasionally check Joanna's social media (probably because I think there may be a chance she does switch) and she does reference England as being home and the grass being the highlight of the season. I guess she'll just do what's right for her and how she feels, and if her progress doesn't go as well as she hoped, she may possibly give it more thought, if she hadn't switched beforehand. WTA tennis is obviously massively expanding in that region, but interestingly, Taiwan actually lost it's only full WTA event and was replaced with a 125k event. I did also mention during the grass season, between Surbiton and Ilkley, that young En Shuo Liang went from England to one of the stans beginning with T (Turkmen or the other one) to play Fed Cup (for Taiwan) and back here again, whereas Joanna didn't - she might just not have been selected, but I did feel that was kind of significant at the time, because once you represent a nation at competitive level, it does kind of become official and can cause problems like for Bedene and Tomljanovic.

On a side note, I was watching a bit of the Fery/Samuel doubles match the other day, while waiting for another match to start, and I noticed the commentator mention a couple of times that Arthur does 'feel a little bit English (might have been British) but is keeping his options open' and I kind of took that as being if he is pretty successful in a few years and heading in the direction he wanted, he would probably switch to France, but if he was languishing and behind the wealth of talent that France has then it would be more worth his while sticking as he would be higher up the respective pecking order in terms of WCs and possible DC participation.

-- Edited by Ace Ventura on Tuesday 16th of July 2019 10:30:50 AM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Curious. Re Arthur....

I'd have thought they'd be no advantage to switching to France later. I mean, however good you are, you're going to be one of pack, so you'll be fighting for a DC slot and for a wildcard, if you're just outside. Whereas in Britain, you'll be a shoe-in. Even if you're top 'French' player, and top 20, what will that give you that being top GB player doesn't?

I wonder if it's more to do with the level of support the LTA are giving him now?

No inside knowledge but from all I've read, I got the impression that Arthur was not one of the LTA's picks, he was doing it pretty much on his own, with big family backing, of course. Of course, that may well have changed now (the LTA are amazingly quick to jump ship as soon as they see they got it wrong - shame they don't put more attention on being wider scope and getting it right in the first place).

So if his parents are negotiating with the LTA at the moment as to what level of support the LTA are going to give him in the next couple of years, (and possibly also talking to the FFT), then that might be why he's sitting on the fence rather.

Certainly, for me, makes more sense now than later.

Ace Ventura · Tennis legend

sports.orange.fr/tennis/wimbledon/article/wimbledon-le-fils-du-president-de-lorient-en-8emes-des-juniors-CNT000001h4Cp9.html

There's an article here, you'll probably be fine without the translated version, but this part is probably what the commentator was referring to, unless he'd had a personal conversation with him:

"I was born in Sèvres in 2002, my two parents are French but I live here since the age of six months. So, I feel a bit English anyway. I have dual nationality and it is not possible to train in France but I keep the doors open ... ", said the young element according to RMC.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Tx. I hadn't realised that the quote came from a French interview. It's possible, then, that he was just trying to be polite and diplomatic - after all, it could look a little rude to say I was born in France, my parents are both French, but I'm completely British and don't feel French at all.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

21/07/19

Boys Top 100 JWR and main upward movers:

41 MATUSEVICH, Anton 0
62 FERY, Arthur ('02) 0
76 WENDELKEN, Harry -1
77 FEARNLEY, Jacob -1
87 BAKER, Blu 0

122 WEIGHTMAN, Oscar +10

1261 GRAVENEY, Monty ('02) +349
1489 JOHNSON, Gabriel L V ('03) +507
1837 ACAROGLU, Derin ('03) +44
2192 FORAN, Oliver - NEW IN
2290 BARR, Elbert ('02) +337
2574 PHILIBERT, Nicolas ('05) +53

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

22/07/19

Girls Top 100 JWR and main upward movers:

72 MUTAVDZIC, Matilda ('04) +1

795 PASKAUSKAS, Kristina ('04) +54
1427 LAWRENCE, Freia ('03) +630
1527 MOKHTARI, Kiana ('02) +263
2446 MCDONALD, Alexandra ('04) +439

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

THere's been a change in the ITF junior draw criteria, rather like in adults with ITF junior reserved places.

As of 2020, reserved places in the main draws of ITF Junior tournaments in Europe will be available for players based on their U16 Tennis Europe ranking.

Grade 2, 3 and 4 ITF events will keep 2 or 3 places in the MD for players in the top 5/10/20/50 of the tennis europe rankings

The exact details are here:

www.itftennis.com/news/309263.aspx

David and others (including tennis parents on this forum) will know better than me, but it seems that this will not really help the GB players as we have exactly the same problem - lack of events!

Last year, I believe, the GB did not host a single U16 tennis europe event.

In fact, the last one was in 2016.

So GB players will still have to travel abroad to try and get tennis europe points, which all comes round to the same thing.

(It has to be said, in the LTA's defence, that U16 events are pretty low on the list for most federations, and I assume that one of the motivations for this change to raise the profile of U16 events)

So, in general, it seems a decent idea - a more tiered pathway. But not sure it'll help our lot much......

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

29/07/19

No movement of any note for the girls.

Boys:

42 MATUSEVICH, Anton -1
62 FERY, Arthur ('02) 0
74 WENDELKEN, Harry +2
76 FEARNLEY, Jacob +1
87 BAKER, Blu 0

475 RUTTER, Matthew ('03) +32
953 BASING, Max ('02) +333
1126 OMORI COWIE, Haruki ('02) +47
1268 KNOX JONES, Alexander ('03) - NEW IN
1449 JOHNSON, Gabriel L V ('03) +40
1528 JENKINS , Wil ('04) +79
1664 ACAROGLU, Derin ('03) +173
2314 FORREST, Jamie ('03) - NEW IN

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

05/08/19

Girls Top 100 JWR and main upward movers:

72 MUTAVDZIC, Matilda ('04)

721 PINEDA, Andrea ('04) +14
722 SMITH, Hannah ('04) +37

1022 DARLEY, Cheri ('03) +145
1822 ROOK, Olivia ('03) +632
2420 KEMPSTER, Sashi ('03) - NEW IN

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

05/08/19

Boys Top 200 JWR and main upward movers:

51 MATUSEVICH, Anton -9
63 FERY, Arthur ('02) -1
73 WENDELKEN, Harry +1
76 FEARNLEY, Jacob 0
89 BAKER, Blu -2

1011 REVELLI, Giacomo ('02) +89
1530 HABIB, Ali ('02) +308

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

12/08/19

Boys Top 200 JWR and main upward movers:

51 MATUSEVICH, Anton =
63 FERY, Arthur ('02) =
73 WENDELKEN, Harry =
76 FEARNLEY, Jacob =
89 BAKER, Blu =

1123 KNOX JONES, Alexander ('03) +150
1375 RIDOUT, Freddie ('04) +103
1445 GRAHAM, Archie ('03) +289
2140 JANSEN, William ('04) +513