British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

Andy Parker wrote:

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It's remarkable to see all the top 4 seeds in the semi-finals and I can't wait to see what happens.

I agree Indiana with you that for Hannah and Mika to progress needs them to have top coaches and good people around them, but with Mimi still progressing and Alicia and Sofia having excellent seasons and threatening to really break through, I don't feel it is that shallow in terms of the depth of our younger players in women's tennis. Looking at the last 50 years or so, we seldom have that many top 100 players at the same time.

Tennis is much more competitive globally, with each year, players from a more diverse set of nations coming through. Lots of the old guard, including France, Spain, Italy and Australia are producing less top players than they used to I think (not that I have stats on this), but when I think back to the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's, those countries always seemed to have a steady stream of top players coming through, and now it is much less in numbers and quality, I think.

It is though frustrating to see Emma, Sonay, Jodie and Katie S hampered by injuries, and were each of these to have had injury free careers, we might well be having easily the most successful era in GB modern tennis - as it is, with Katie B and Emma currently in the top 100, Fran and Harriet around that mark, and Sonay and Katie S in the top 200, I don't think even among our senior players, things are that bad. Chuck in our next batch of good youngsters all knocking on the door to the big time, and my glass is still half full at least.

-- Edited by Andy Parker on Thursday 10th of September 2026 12:45:34 AM

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 And a few players in the top 100 in doubles as well.