Daniel Cox [seeded 1]: The 15 year old from Lancashire is now training at the LTA academy in Loughborough under the tutelage of Marco Andrez. Cox gained his first ranking points in India in December and following a spell playing futures events in Spain, he played his 1st ever junior tournament in Sutton last week. He reached the semis before losing to 16 year old Sean Thornley in 3 sets. Cox needs to fill out his frame as he's currently only 52 kg. His best junior achievement was in being the 2nd singles player for the British team which won the world junior team title in 2004. He is the national U14 and U16 champion.
Lewis Barnes: Another extremely promising 15 year old and the number 1 singles player in the GB team who won the world junior team title in 2004. He also trains with Daniel Cox at the Loughbrough tennis academy. He's played a few futures qualifying events on the senior circuit and his best achievement to date is reaching the final qualies round of GB F14 in 2005 when he lost in 3 sets. He lost in rd2 of Sutton last week.
David Rice: Number 2 seed this week. 16 year old Rice is Hertfordshire's top junior and also GB's no 2 junior behind Graeme Dyce and will be eligible to go for French Open juniors qualies in May. He reached the quarters of Sutton last week and prior to that played a succession of clay-court events in South America. He's tried his luck in futures qualies several times but with little success. He has played Daniel Cox twice but has lost heavily both times. He's highly rated by the LTA and Neil Harman of the Times.
Daniel Evans: For more info see the thread on Sutton last week. Probably our number 1 junior prospect at the moment. Trains with Cox and Barnes at Loughbrough and also part of GB squad which won the world junior team championships in 2004. Has taken a set off Matt Smith and produced creditable performances in futures main draws though yet to win a main draw match. Won Sutton last week and the number 1 GB U16 in Europe.
Sean Thornley: Beat Cox in Sutton last week before losing to Evans in the final. Favours grass courts. Took a set off Josh Goodall in Sunderland Challenger qualies last November by a score of 6-1. Sean is 16.
We got the match-up we were waiting for in the final:
Semis:
D Cox [GB][1] bt T Hewitt [GB] 6-2, 7-6[6]
D Evans [GB] bt D Rice [GB][2] 1-6, 6-3, 6-3
David Rice did well to take a set 6-1 off Dan Evans, it looks as though it was pretty comfortable for Dan after that.
So Cox v Evans, the clash between the two brighest teenage prospects in British tennis - I expect there'll be many more of these matches in years to come. This is the first tournament encounter between the two. My pick is Evans, he's bigger and bulkier, I reckon he'll have too much power for Dan Cox
So a 2nd title for Dan Evans in two weeks, impressive stuff. Looks like it was a very close battle between these two, I hope Dan Cox is ok and his injury isn't too serious, whatever it may be.
Both of them are extremely good prospects for the future and should definately get awarded wildcards into Wimbledon juniors this year. I rate Evans ahead of Cox because although they're the same age and Cox has a world ranking, Evans has a more powerful game - he's more advanced physically in terms of power and build at this point in time - taking a set of Auckland recently was very impressive.
I hope Dan Evans will travel to play some futures events abroad in coming months, he says he likes clay so maybe he should try some futures qualies in Italy, Spain or Portugal.
I reckon both will be in qualies [or will get a wildcard] for the upcoming clay-court futures events in Bournemouth and Edinburgh.
-- Edited by UltimateSlabbaFan at 08:15, 2006-04-24
I'll keep an eye out for both of these guys. They seem to be very special. I wish that they play a few futures events in India. They show all of it live so Ill be able to watch them.
It's a shame that you hadn't heard of Dan Cox last December as he and Matt Smith played 3 futures events in India and Dan gained his first world ranking point with a series of superb wins.
Hopefully he'll return to India and you'll get to see him.
Last December I had not heard of even Andy Murray. I didnt know what Tim Henman or Greg Rusedski looked like. I didnt even know what 'double fault' meant.
Cox had a brilliant win over Gurmehar Singh. I am looking forward to seeing again. He will obviously be better this year.
I expect he'll be back to India probably sometime in the autumn, unless he's had a dodgy curry lol !! I expect that he'll want to defend his ranking point in December.
There was one in Calcutta last year, but nothing out here is planned as of yet. Ill almost surely go to see Brits in action if we have one later in the year.
