British Tennis Forum

9vicman wrote:

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How quickly the hunters become the hunted. Hannah winning the Orange Bowl aged 14 and now there are lots of 2009ers (and younger). Appreciate Hannah's had exams and it's not a sprint, but a reminder that progress for most players is not linear.

Talking of which, what has happened to the Fruhvirtova sisters?

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 One doing OK, the other not so good. The three young GB juniors, Mimi, Hannah and Mika, are not wholly firing on all cylinders, but that is to be expected. Mimi is recovering from injury but has a very respectable senior  ranking in the low 400s for a 17 year old. She will come through I am sure. Mika and Hannah are in that imbetween stage, balancing school, education and their tennis careers. As a result I dont think we should expect too much of them all until they reach 19. Then I expect  them to move. Everyone will have their own trajectory. I hope though we dont have to wait as long as we did for Katie B to to reach their potential.

Rose wrote:

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Var wrote:

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9vicman wrote:

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How quickly the hunters become the hunted. Hannah winning the Orange Bowl aged 14 and now there are lots of 2009ers (and younger). Appreciate Hannah's had exams and it's not a sprint, but a reminder that progress for most players is not linear.

Talking of which, what has happened to the Fruhvirtova sisters?

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 One doing OK, the other not so good. The three young GB juniors, Mimi, Hannah and Mika, are not wholly firing on all cylinders, but that is to be expected. Mimi is recovering from injury but has a very respectable senior  ranking in the low 400s for a 17 year old. She will come through I am sure. Mika and Hannah are in that imbetween stage, balancing school, education and their tennis careers. As a result I dont think we should expect too much of them all until they reach 19. Then I expect  them to move. Everyone will have their own trajectory. I hope though we dont have to wait as long as we did for Katie B to to reach their potential.

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 Whilst I agree with everything you say, I think the LTA have got to question why they have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on Hannah. All they have done is accelerated her progress from the age of 12-14 and now she is slowing down to where she probably would have been if they had let her develop at her own pace. Yes, she is good but she wasnt playing main draw grand slams at 15 like Coco was. The fact that a lot of 2009 borns have caught her up, or are catching her up, surely shows that there was no rush and if anything they might have actually harmed her development by putting so much on her at a young age. She has also never had to be hungry for it as everything has been given to her very easily. It wouldnt surprise me if shes not one of the top young GB players in five years time

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 Isn't this somewhat of an overreaction to losing a semi-final? Hannah has already had a successful year with a J300 victory and the grass and hard court swings to come. Teenage phenomenons like Coco and Mirra are very rare in Tennis these days and Hannah is hardly a failure for not matching their exceptional progress at the same age. Perhaps after her Orange Bowl victory expectations for further instant success were premature but I still have every confidence Hannah will have a very successful senior career.

Yes, I am sorry but I thought it a big overreaction ( generally and with regard to her SF loss here ) for some of the reasons mentioned in other posts, such as progress is not linear, some of her other recent clay results anyway, and clearly a rather good opponent who beat Jeanjean WR 116 In that run to the WTA Bogota 250 SF in early April. It actually looks a more than decent scoreline in defeat.

And Hannah just turned 16 in February.

-- Edited by indiana on Sunday 25th of May 2025 02:11:35 PM

dodrade wrote:

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Rose wrote:

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Var wrote:

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9vicman wrote:

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How quickly the hunters become the hunted. Hannah winning the Orange Bowl aged 14 and now there are lots of 2009ers (and younger). Appreciate Hannah's had exams and it's not a sprint, but a reminder that progress for most players is not linear.

Talking of which, what has happened to the Fruhvirtova sisters?

---

 One doing OK, the other not so good. The three young GB juniors, Mimi, Hannah and Mika, are not wholly firing on all cylinders, but that is to be expected. Mimi is recovering from injury but has a very respectable senior  ranking in the low 400s for a 17 year old. She will come through I am sure. Mika and Hannah are in that imbetween stage, balancing school, education and their tennis careers. As a result I dont think we should expect too much of them all until they reach 19. Then I expect  them to move. Everyone will have their own trajectory. I hope though we dont have to wait as long as we did for Katie B to to reach their potential.

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 Whilst I agree with everything you say, I think the LTA have got to question why they have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on Hannah. All they have done is accelerated her progress from the age of 12-14 and now she is slowing down to where she probably would have been if they had let her develop at her own pace. Yes, she is good but she wasnt playing main draw grand slams at 15 like Coco was. The fact that a lot of 2009 borns have caught her up, or are catching her up, surely shows that there was no rush and if anything they might have actually harmed her development by putting so much on her at a young age. She has also never had to be hungry for it as everything has been given to her very easily. It wouldnt surprise me if shes not one of the top young GB players in five years time

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 Isn't this somewhat of an overreaction to losing a semi-final? Hannah has already had a successful year with a J300 victory and the grass and hard court swings to come. Teenage phenomenons like Coco and Mirra are very rare in Tennis these days and Hannah is hardly a failure for not matching their exceptional progress at the same age. Perhaps after her Orange Bowl victory expectations for further instant success were premature but I still have every confidence Hannah will have a very successful senior career.

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 Actually it was nothing to do with that result. Its nothing to do with any result. Its not even personal to Hannah. I was just saying that I think spending hundreds of thousands on a 12 year old does them no favours long term and puts an immense amount of pressure on them. I think Hannah will have a great career but I think she would have had that anyway if she had been allowed to develop in her own time. I dont think she will be outstanding for her age though. That doesnt mean I think she is a failure! Dont know where you got that from. 

JonH comes home wrote:

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Reaching a J500 semi at aged 16, regardless of what she has done earlier in her career, is nothing to be sniffed at. Still a great prospect . As are Mika and Mimi.

I bit like Emma winning the US, maybe Hannah winning the Orange Bowl at 14 (I think) put expectations on her from the public that are always going to be hard to live up to. You wouldnt undo winning such a title, and you dont win such titles without having inherent talent.

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 I think all 3 of them are still great prospects. But Mika has not had the chances Hannah has. Hannah was put on the pro programme at a very young age and has had considerable money spent on her. Mika has gone to the national academy with other young players (at a much lower cost) but their levels are now very similar. My point (which seems to have been misunderstood by many) is that players that young should be able to develop in their own time and that - unless they are in main draw grand slams at 14/15 - the teenage years are better spent the way Mika has. Taking her time to develop. Same as Raducanu did as she stayed in main stream school. To put all those expectations on Hannah at such a young age and to isolate her from girls her own age hasnt given her a huge advantage now. I think the LTA has tried to fast track her too much but she would have done well anyway 

I also agree Rose.  There was concern on this forum that Hannah would have done better staying away from the Pro path in Roehampton and instead mix in with the others of her age at one of the academies which would help socially as well as in building her game.  She seemed to plateau since the Orange Bowl success (and move to Roehampton ??) and others have caught up.

Regarding the Junior set up, once you get to the top of the rankings, most of the big tournaments are on clay.  Yes only 1 of the 4 Grand Slams is a clay tournament, but of the 11 Grade A tournaments, only 1 is on Hard last time I looked (Osaka) and all the rest are on clay.  This results in clay specialist countries (e.g. CZE) getting players fast up the rankings at the expense of British players who seem to avoid clay tournaments (At RG this year we only have Hannah and Allegra for the girls).  It has been a great move with foresight by Hannah and her team going to Spain to learn more about clay and then solely concentrate on clay for the first half of the year (she had to play on hard in the Nationals which would have been a hard transition so she did well to nearly win it).  I am sure this experience will do wonders for her senior career allowing her to excel on all surfaces. 

As always there are many facets to success at tennis and time will tell, but I think it is right at only 16 that she should be trying to develop her game as much as possible in all areas and this will create mixed results.  Getting to the semis at Milan and handling multiple long matches is very encouraging for this surface and I wish her all the best at RG and hopefully a QF or better result.