Girls: 2023 Wimbledon (Week 28)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Girls: 2023 Wimbledon (Week 28)

DavidC · Tennis legend

It's a very strong line up in the girls singles quarters, so progress for our 2 will be tough

(1) Alina Korneeva (WTA 324 seeking her 3rd GS of the year) v (8) Ena Koike (Roehampton semifinalist & WTA 941)
Ranah Akua Stoiber (WTA 1010) v Nikola Bartunkova (WTA 348)
(5) Renata Jamrichova (WTA 635 & Roehampton champion) v (WC) Mika Stojsavljevic
(7) Sayaka Ishii (WTA 600) v (2) Clervie Ngounoue (WTA 537)

Nix · Futures level

DavidC wrote:
It's a very strong line up in the girls singles quarters, so progress for our 2 will be tough

(1) Alina Korneeva (WTA 324 seeking her 3rd GS of the year) v (8) Ena Koike (Roehampton semifinalist & WTA 941)
Ranah Akua Stoiber (WTA 1010) v Nikola Bartunkova (WTA 348)
(5) Renata Jamrichova (WTA 635 & Roehampton champion) v (WC) Mika Stojsavljevic
(7) Sayaka Ishii (WTA 600) v (2) Clervie Ngounoue (WTA 537)

Looking forward to watching these matches. Not just the two involving our two girls. Certainly think they should be high quality.

So impressive for both to get into the quarter finals but particularly Mika. Unusually for GB girls she has a bit of fierceness about here which is good to see.

Nix · Futures level

Hannah and Isa take the first set in their doubles match. They seem to be having a ball! Would be great for them if they could see it through.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Nix wrote:
Hannah and Isa take the first set in their doubles match. They seem to be having a ball! Would be great for them if they could see it through.

Absolutely - they were positively joyful, just bouncing around the place, and laughing biggrin

AND they won .... smile

DavidC · Tennis legend

The ITF are leading on the British junior charge, with a few stats and interview with Ranah - read it here

DavidC · Tennis legend

With the second round complete we have two pairs (or part) in the quarters

Doubles R1 (L32)

(1) Perez Alarcon/Quevedo (PER/USA) d. Gilheany/Piani (AUS/GBR) 7-5 7-6(3)
Klugman/Lacy d. Jones/Milic (AUS/SLO) 6-4 6-2
Ivanova/Rowinska (BUL/POL) d. Blackford/Roach 6-1 7-5
(8) McDonald/Moyano (GBR/ARG) d. Konstantinova/Kostovic (BUL/SRB) 6-4 6-4
Esquiva Banuls/Genis Salas (ESP) d. Haddad/Read 6-4 6-2
(9) Stoiber/Xu d. Cooling/Rylatt 3-6 6-4 [10-4]
Oluwadare/Stojsavljevic d. Slama/Smejkalova (USA/CZE) 7-5 6-4

R2

Klugman/Lacy d. (7) Bartunkova/Vargova (CZE/SVK) 7-6(1) 6-3
(8) McDonald/Moyano (GBR/ARG) d. Esquiva Banuls/Genis Salas (ESP) 6-4 5-7 [16-14]
Kovackova/Samsonova (CZE) d. (9) Stoiber/Xu 6-2 4-6 [10-5]
(5) Kinosh1ta/Saito (JPN) d. Oluwadare/Stojsavljevic 6-3 6-1

QF

Harmon/Ray (USA) v Klugman/Lacy
(8) McDonald/Moyano (GBR/ARG) v Kovackova/Samsonova (CZE)

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Nice that, in the girls, the players left in the doubles (the three of them in this case) are not the same as the two left in the singles

In the boys, obviously, Henry is in both.

But it's nice that it's shared around here

DavidC · Tennis legend

R3

Ranah Akua Stoiber d. Francesca Pace (ITA) 6-3 6-4
Nikola Bartunkova (CZE) d. Mingge Xu 6-3 6-2
(WC) Mika Stojsavljevic d. (13) Emerson Jones (AUS) 6-1 7-5
(7) Sayaka Ishii (JPN) d. Hannah Klugman 6-4 6-4

QF

Ranah Akua Stoiber v Nikola Bartunkova (CZE) Court 3 match 1
(5) Renata Jamrichova (SVK) v (WC) Mika Stojsavljevic Court 12 match 2

dodrade · Satellite level

Coup Droit wrote:
Hannah lost 4-6 4-6

A really good useful match. Nothing she did majorly wrong. First serve percentage could have been a bit higher. One poor game at 4-3 when she allowed Ishii to break back too easily.

But the older, more experienced player managed to dicate the match well, even when she was seemingly on the backfoot herself. Didn't allow Hannah to start flowing properly. Impressive.

But the last 16 at her age, and stage, is a good showing. She'll be disappointed but that's tennis, you can't win them all.

She seems to have had a tougher draw than Ranah or Mika but should be a real contender next year.

TW18 · Lower Club Player

dodrade wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
Hannah lost 4-6 4-6

A really good useful match. Nothing she did majorly wrong. First serve percentage could have been a bit higher. One poor game at 4-3 when she allowed Ishii to break back too easily.

But the older, more experienced player managed to dicate the match well, even when she was seemingly on the backfoot herself. Didn't allow Hannah to start flowing properly. Impressive.

But the last 16 at her age, and stage, is a good showing. She'll be disappointed but that's tennis, you can't win them all.
She seems to have had a tougher draw than Ranah or Mika but should be a real contender next year.

Yes, it seems to me there is a larger discrepancy between the adult and junior quality of players and Hannah, Mimi, even Hep and Isabelle faced stronger opponents early doors and a tougher draw than Mika S. Adult tennis seems to be more evenly matched in draws. Ranah now faces Bartunkova, whom I doubt she will overcome, seeing Bartunkova took out Mimi and Hep too. I think Hannah will be smarting that she's not advanced further - pure quality player and has been a natural from aged 5, cut above the rest. She'll get there. Mimi didn't seem to be herself out there the last couple of days. I wonder what that's about. Pity - she's such a strong contender in any draw.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Just wondering - and I know Ill be told it doesnt really matter - with singles and doubles points taken into account, Will Ranah jump above Ella in the next junior rankings list? I guess both are still in doubles as well as Ranah in singles so maybe it is possibly ?

Var · Pro player

TW18 wrote:
dodrade wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
Hannah lost 4-6 4-6

A really good useful match. Nothing she did majorly wrong. First serve percentage could have been a bit higher. One poor game at 4-3 when she allowed Ishii to break back too easily.

But the older, more experienced player managed to dicate the match well, even when she was seemingly on the backfoot herself. Didn't allow Hannah to start flowing properly. Impressive.

But the last 16 at her age, and stage, is a good showing. She'll be disappointed but that's tennis, you can't win them all.
She seems to have had a tougher draw than Ranah or Mika but should be a real contender next year.
Yes, it seems to me there is a larger discrepancy between the adult and junior quality of players and Hannah, Mimi, even Hep and Isabelle faced stronger opponents early doors and a tougher draw than Mika S. Adult tennis seems to be more evenly matched in draws. Ranah now faces Bartunkova, whom I doubt she will overcome, seeing Bartunkova took out Mimi and Hep too. I think Hannah will be smarting that she's not advanced further - pure quality player and has been a natural from aged 5, cut above the rest. She'll get there. Mimi didn't seem to be herself out there the last couple of days. I wonder what that's about. Pity - she's such a strong contender in any draw.

Is it transition from junior to seniors. I am not sure if the LTA have this right. We have had good juniors recently who maybe s havent transitioned well. Arthur F number 22 at 17 took collegiiate route, others like Sonay suffered injury which set them back. Would welcome more expert thoughts on this.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I might be missing something - a couple of people have said that Mimi looked below par. I've always liked Mimi, since seeing her against Eva Shaw when she was only 13 at the Surbiton Nationals (such a shame that Eva's injuries are obviously still a big issue - she was our champion, showed great potential).

But I thought Mimi played really well here (until the last three games in the last match). She seemed strong, on song, playing her style of tennis. SHe played two super matches, including beating a top-10 player. And a third super match (for 80% of it) but lost to a better player. I thought it was a really positive showing.

I do think that junior matches, however, are a little more unpredictable. It's true that adult players can have a 'mare, can lose the plot, can choke from 5-1 up, or whatever. But it's more common in juniors. And it makes sense. Emerson Jones yesterday really should have figured out that she was overhitting all her forehands. But she didn't. Coz she's only 14.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

As to transitioning, I'm not sure what the answer is, or if we're worse than any other country. I'd really have to see stats on that. I know we obviously are very different from France in terms of structure for transitioning. But France is not knocking it out of the park either. Injury is definitely a problem (although, again, I don't know how we compare). Motivation changes. People talk about the problem of pushy parents and then having to do it for yourself. But there's also just life persepctive, it changes.

However, one important thing is that you're talking about the right group. i.e. only the best ones are going to transition. It's not point thinking we're failing to transition if, in fact, we're failing to find the best ones in the first place. And one thing that is miles better now is the number of junior domestic tournaments.

In 2018, ignoring Roehampton and Junior Wimbly, there were 5 ITF events in the UK. Five ! In 2022, there were 19.

Now, not only is this fairer in general but in terms of transitioning, it means that we have a far better picture of the true level of our players. As an example, I got 'told off' ages and ages ago by one parent for saying (politely) their child was not up to playing at J1/Junior Slam level and shouldn't be give a wildcard (IMHO). The parent's argument, reasonably enough, was that their child was national champion at age X, and still in the top 3 or whatever at age 17. (Said child lost 1 & 1, or suchlike, and never made any impact on tennis going forward). My point is that many would say that child hadn't transitioned properly - was one of our most promising juniors and never made it. I would say that child was never going to make it in a million years and the only reason they were there was (presumably) because they were part of the elite squad, for whatever reason, and others couldn't break down the door because there were no means to do so. Now I know we're a long way from perfect now but there is far better access and I think that out top players are genuinely ranked as they should be (as opposed to thanks to be schlepped left, right and centre by the LTA, wildcards etc). At least that means we've got the right cohort at the start.