I wanted to shout out for Andy Lapthorne, who won an AO title, and Mika for her USO Juniors title. But I have to vote for the one that caught my imagination the most and that is Jake!
Jodie impressed me with her strong start to the year and then her sensible comeback after injury where she seems to have done a lot of work on her mental fragility. Mika had impressive results in both juniors and seniors. I've enjoyed watching Luke have success with various partners and move beyond regularly performing well in high-level challengers to winning an ATP250.
But I had to vote for Jake. He didn't just start his post-college career with a bang by winning the Nottingham 125 Challenger but went on winning, including getting through a round at Wimbledon and taking a set of Djokovic. By the end of the year, those 4 Challenger titles (and a win at ATP250 level) meant he'd broken into the top 100, and has stayed there: no dipping in for a couple of weeks and then dropping back out. And not all those wins have come easily: he's had a lot of 3-set matches where he's had to dig deep and fight hard and figure out after losing the first set how to counteract what's coming at him from the other side of the net. That 83% Win/Loss record suggests he's pretty good at that!
-- Edited by Tanaqui on Saturday 4th of January 2025 08:12:07 PM
Jodie impressed me with her strong start to the year and then her sensible comeback after injury where she seems to have done a lot of work on her mental fragility. Mika had impressive results in both juniors and seniors. I've enjoyed watching Luke have success with various partners and move beyond regularly performing well in high-level challengers to winning an ATP250.
But I had to vote for Jake. He didn't just start his post-college career with a bang by winning the Nottingham 125 Challenger but went on winning, including getting through a round at Wimbledon and taking a set of Djokovic. By the end of the year, those 4 Challenger titles (and a win at ATP250 level) meant he'd broken into the top 100, and has stayed there: no dipping in for a couple of weeks and then dropping back out. And not all those wins have come easily: he's had a lot of 3-set matches where he's had to dig deep and fight hard and figure out after losing the first set how to counteract what's coming at him from the other side of the net. That 83% Win/Loss record suggests he's pretty good at that!
-- Edited by Tanaqui on Saturday 4th of January 2025 08:12:07 PM