British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Week 42 - ITF W35 Birmingham, Great Britain - Indoor hard

Var · Futures level

Coup Droit wrote:
The question now is whether Mika can use this as a springboard

After all, she won a W35 last spring too - and everyone got very excited - and then nothing really happened (in adults)

And here we are again

However, I say this tongue in cheek - as she was so very young last year, and restrictions, school, everything played a big part. Now it's different (IMO). It's the real start of WTA tennis, here we come. But it's still worth mentioning as an aside....

Plus when Mika turns 17 in December she will still be on a max of 16 or 17tournaments? Its tough to break through on such a low counter. I think my worry is her lack of form on grass this year, with the UK grass court season potentially offering our younger players the opportunity to amass points with WCs into higher value tournaments. I would say Mimi benefited this year. Although she still needs to push on now, with no restriction on tournaments entered.

Lambda · ATP level

She will be allowed to play 20 tournaments - standard 16 for a 17 year old plus 4 for being a top 5 junior last year. Nothing can be read into her grass form this year. She was coming off sitting GCSE exams - and took some the same week she played Nottingham. She had played very little in the weeks beforehand studying for her GCSEs and would have been a little rusty.

indiana · Tennis legend

I'd be more optimistic. 16 or 17 tournaments is relatively not too bad though yes needs some careful scheduling. And as CD indicates there could be a load of reasons for her grass court form earlier this year.

She can continue to progress upward and develop her game further. No need for a particularly huge breakthrough anyway. More steadily might be better although clearly varies from player to player, and she seems very ambitious.