The LTA has a strategy for player development and as part of that it provides support (financial and non-financial) to a select few juniors and seniors who they think have the greatest potential to be WTA/ATP top 100 within 5 years through what they call a 'Pro-Scholarship program'. The 6 juniors on the program are - Emma R, George L, Jack D, Fran J, Anton and Aidan, the other 6 are older players. From my understanding there are 2 national tennis centres in Loughborough and Stirling from Sep 2019??? and those centres will also start grooming the next round of selected much younger players . Hopefully out of this crop(s) of selected juniors GB will have a Laura or Heather, so fingers crossed!
-- Edited by cya on Wednesday 10th of July 2019 07:43:24 AM
But you still need as wide a base of players as possible to enable more to climb to the top of the pyramid - there needs to be more inclusivity from players who develop a bit later to those whose families don't have the finances to pay for coaching / tournaments/ travel etc. Old hat I know, but still needs to be properly addressed
2 Americans and 2 Europeans. Navarro reached the FO final but was beaten by Fernandez, and having just turned 18, I'd imagine the US Open will probably be her last chance, so time running out if she is to win a jr slam. Snigur has had a fair bit of success on the ITF scene this year, winning a W25 event and beating Maia - Navarro actually beat her in 3 in the QFs of the FO, so a chance for revenge.
Unlike Raducanu, Parry was given a MDWC into the FO seniors and won a round there, and is now just outside the top WTA 300, so will have a decent chance of a Wimbledon MDWC if she wins and improves her ranking enough. Snigur, Parry and Noel actually all made the Roehampton semi finals the other week and Snigur beat Noel in the final, which could happen here, Navarro was of course upset by Sasha in the first round.
I got a chance to watch a bit of the Navarro, Parry and Noel matches today (Snigur was on a non streamed court), but both matches are on Court 5 tomorrow, so I doubt there will be a stream available. Huge opportunity for the 2 finalists though - an ample filled Court 1, BBC television, and a potential MDWC for 3 of them.
2 Americans and 2 Europeans. Navarro reached the FO final but was beaten by Fernandez, and having just turned 18, I'd imagine the US Open will probably be her last chance, so time running out if she is to win a jr slam. Snigur has had a fair bit of success on the ITF scene this year, winning a W25 event and beating Maia - Navarro actually beat her in 3 in the QFs of the FO, so a chance for revenge.
Unlike Raducanu, Parry was given a MDWC into the FO seniors and won a round there, and is now just outside the top WTA 300, so will have a decent chance of a Wimbledon MDWC if she wins and improves her ranking enough. Snigur, Parry and Noel actually all made the Roehampton semi finals the other week and Snigur beat Noel in the final, which could happen here, Navarro was of course upset by Sasha in the first round.
I got a chance to watch a bit of the Navarro, Parry and Noel matches today (Snigur was on a non streamed court), but both matches are on Court 5 tomorrow, so I doubt there will be a stream available. Huge opportunity for the 2 finalists though - an ample filled Court 1, BBC television, and a potential MDWC for 3 of them.
I usually like to watch some of the girls' semifinals (they nearly always are streamed), so was a bit miffed when they scheduled them for court 5. As it happens both were very one-sided, so perhaps it wasn't a bad year to miss out. It will therefore be a Roehampton final rematch between Daria Snigur and Alexa Noel. The American only won 3 games at Roehampton, so I hope there is an improvement tomorrow for the sake of having a competitive final
2 Americans and 2 Europeans. Navarro reached the FO final but was beaten by Fernandez, and having just turned 18, I'd imagine the US Open will probably be her last chance, so time running out if she is to win a jr slam. Snigur has had a fair bit of success on the ITF scene this year, winning a W25 event and beating Maia - Navarro actually beat her in 3 in the QFs of the FO, so a chance for revenge.
Unlike Raducanu, Parry was given a MDWC into the FO seniors and won a round there, and is now just outside the top WTA 300, so will have a decent chance of a Wimbledon MDWC if she wins and improves her ranking enough. Snigur, Parry and Noel actually all made the Roehampton semi finals the other week and Snigur beat Noel in the final, which could happen here, Navarro was of course upset by Sasha in the first round.
I got a chance to watch a bit of the Navarro, Parry and Noel matches today (Snigur was on a non streamed court), but both matches are on Court 5 tomorrow, so I doubt there will be a stream available. Huge opportunity for the 2 finalists though - an ample filled Court 1, BBC television, and a potential MDWC for 3 of them.
I usually like to watch some of the girls' semifinals (they nearly always are streamed), so was a bit miffed when they scheduled them for court 5. As it happens both were very one-sided, so perhaps it wasn't a bad year to miss out. It will therefore be a Roehampton final rematch between Daria Snigur and Alexa Noel. The American only won 3 games at Roehampton, so I hope there is an improvement tomorrow for the sake of having a competitive final
I was disappointed as well, but streamed them today on that joker site and watched most of the play, but it was one camera like the ITFs, whereas the boys on C18 had multi cameras, replays, and I'm pretty sure 2 commentators, Ronald Mc and I think there was another, plus a much bigger court. It's a bit of a dramatic change the girls going from C5 to C1 in such a short turnaround.
I was quite surprised Noel won so easily. Navarro had looked a bit vulnerable for most of the week and Snigur has been winning comfortably, so wasn't too shocked there. Obviously a much different setting tomorrow, and a lot more on the line, but yes, hopefully it is much more competitive.
A more competitive match than at Roehampton with Alexa Noel making flying starts to both sets (4-1 in the first and 3-0 in the second) only to lose both sets 6-4 - a complete meltdown towards the end with Snigur winning the last 12 points. I didn't see much of the match, and it was quite quaint to see a lot of forehand slices from Noel in particular, but it was clear that both have a lot of work to do on their games to make the WTA top 100. Although Snigur was mentally stronger her serve is very weak, and would be taken apart by Tour level players at present (her average first serve speed is just 120 km/h)
I'm pleased Snigur won because Noel's attitude didn't look great throughout, but yeah it wasn't the best match and Snigur will certainly need to work on that serve to make a bigger impact on the senior scene. I guess it's sort of a transition period for the juniors - if you look at the line up last year, there's a lot of talent who have left the junior scene and are starting to make an impact at WTA level - Swiatek of course, Gauff, Osiugwe, both Wangs, McNally, Fernandez and Tauson - that's a lot of quality omitted and it's not as if it was a shock final where favourites went out early because these two obviously made the final in Roehampton, and Daria was a lot of people's pre tournament favourite for the title here, if she could manage her nerves.
She's around 423 in the WTA rankings, won a W25 title earlier this year, and (although not a crazy accomplishment) she did beat Maia 2 months ago, including a bagel in the decider, so might have something about her, but I didn't really get the feeling that we could potentially be looking at something special like Swiatek last year and Potapova/Yastremska a couple of years ago. She could look to get her ranking high enough to make the qualifiers net year and then probably a MD WC for Wimbledon with it.