It is sad but we're in a transition phase. Emma's barely played juniors and surely would be top 10 now if she did.

Holly Fisher if fit surely would be a solid top 50 player now.

Matilda is fast rising but hasn't quite got there yet.

I have a feeling thing will be very different in 12 months time and beyond.

Mervatron2 wrote:

---

It is sad but we're in a transition phase. Emma's barely played juniors and surely would be top 10 now if she did.

Holly Fisher if fit surely would be a solid top 50 player now.

Matilda is fast rising but hasn't quite got there yet.

I have a feeling thing will be very different in 12 months time and beyond.

---

 I don't really see it that way.

Lots of countries have their top players (like Emma) only barely playing juniors - the US have two who have made it to the MD of Wimbledon !!! - and yet they still have plenty of other players who qualify as of right for this junior tournament. 

Plenty of other countries have injured players too.

Matilda is an exciting prospect. And Jasmine/Alicia etc. might well back her up. But we have barely any decent 2002-ers, and very few others, compared to other countries.  

And we never have had 5/6 prospects per year.

At most we've had 3 good top 100 juniors per year. Yes there have been 5/6 top 200 but not many have broken through.

Plus as we know junior tennis isn't always a true indicator.

It seems to me from following junior tennis that there are several problems. Firstly the talent spotting or 'cherry picking' that seems to go on from a young age could be counter productive. I appreciate that we need GB U12, U14 teams etc so need to select for those but otherwise those selected surely get a sense of entitlement whereas those not selected may be disillusioned. As tennis is such a difficult, multi-faceted sport involving technique, athleticism, fitness, strength, will to win, mental strength, variety, tactical acumen anong other things it would be surprising if anyone could pick out players at 12 who have a high chance of making it at 18 or 20. Occasionally it will happen, maybe Emma R, Katie S, but I think picking the right prospects at a young age is pretty unlikely. Some of those not selected actually are more determined when playing one of the chosen few so this selction maybe does have a positive, if unintended effect!)

Many of those achieving very high win percentages at U12 are extremely consistent and often good athletes but there is no guarantee any will cope with the power and pace of good U16 or older, or indeed pick up all the techniques needed. Likewise others who do well at U12 (especially girls) are those who develop physically at a young age ('12 going on 15') which others then catch up with later.

As for building 100 new indoor tennis centres.......in my experience currently you can often go to those that already exist (I don't just mean commercial ones like David Lloyd ones) and find your child playing on one court with all the others completely empty, this at a weekend or half-term during the day. The biggest problem with getting more juniors playing tennis is the cost and convenience for anyone not generally middle class with a reasonable amount of money. For junior ITFs if you live in Britain you can rule out being top 100 unless your parents are extremely well off (rules out most middle class as well) or have massive financial backing. A thousand a week to go to Finland or Germany probably and if the player loses in the first few days they may be there the rest of the week, not doing that much hitting, and missing their normal training at home (which parents may have already paid for in addition to the ITF).

This is one reason why there may well be British players coming from outside those doing lots of junior ITFS, who have just as much (or more) potential than those who do do them. We can only hope........

(PS I could go on, and have been wanting to post something like this for quite a while, hope no-one minds)

Our 9 WCs plus SE represent 8 of our 9 top junior ranked players players plus #13 Millie Bissett.

Now it's about more than pure rankings or should be and anyway #8 Myah Petchey, #10 Alicia Dudeney, #11 Jasmine Conway and #12 Morgan Cross were all not in qualifying so presumably unavailable. Jasmine in particular, if fit and available, at still 14 yo and by reports, seems a very good prospect.

But it is noticeable that very unusually more than half of Millie's ranking points come from doubles ( even after the initial doubles points are divided by 4 ) so she is probably very overranked against her singles results.

Still just turned 16 last month I wish her all the best but she seemingly hasn't lacked for opportunities and doesn't seem to have really pushed on over the last year ot two. I think she needs to soon. 

-- Edited by indiana on Saturday 29th of June 2019 09:05:45 PM

Emily+  won their doubles  6-4 1-6 10-8

Emily+ beat Vedder/Visscher

Sorry for any false news but livescores has been playing up again.

-- Edited by Strongbow on Sunday 30th of June 2019 02:08:08 AM