The European junior championships is taking place this week on Swiss clay. As in the mens GB have two representatives.
Rd1: N Cavaday [GB][7] bt T Mohorcic [Slo] 6-0, 6-1
J Larsson [Swe][8] bt D Armstrong [GB] 6-2, 6-0
Great win from Naomi, thrashing the hapless 16 year old Slovenian, ranked a lowly 246 in juniors and with no senior ranking.
Deborah Armstrong was pretty much outclassed, her 18 year old opponent was ranked about 100 places higher in juniors [jr:113] and also has a senior circuit ranking of 449. Deborah is still only 16 but she's improved a lot this season, gaining her first ranking points on the senior circuit and improving her junior ranking to 278.
Naomi must have beaten Sweden's Sabina Gunnarsson in rd2 before defeating Germany's Katerina Killi in rd3.
That's another excellent win, Killi is 17 and no 68 in juniors. She beat one of the seeds in rd1. Her best results this year have been making semis and finals in G2 events and winning a G4 event, all on clay. She's also currently ranked at a career high of 683 in the seniors following her winning a round at a 25K challenger in Germany recently.
Cornet will be extremely tough for Naomi, the French 16 year old is 24 in juniors and she made the quarters of the French Open juniors and won the prestigious Banana bowl on clay in Brazil earlier this year. She's ranked 205 in seniors and won a round at the senior French Open this year, beating Virgina Ruano-Pascual in 3 sets in rd1 before losing to Tathiana Garbin. She's been playing 25K challengers in Italy and won one at the beginning of July and made a final last week.
im surprised she not ranked even higher than 24 considering her form in the seniors. looks like naomi has to play very well on clay, which is probably cornet's favourite surface, looks like its naomi's best surface too after her success in france back in april. if naomi plays her best like against ai sugyima at wimbledon, then it will be a close match.
That's a shame but had to be expected as Cornet is a classy player on clay - probably the best in this field. I agree with Vik - her ranking of 24 doesn't really reflect her standard, she should be in the top 5.
Still, good that Naomi gave her a pretty close match. Naomi has learnt her tennis on the clay courts of Queenswood, Hertfordshire but she's probably at her best on fast surfaces like grass or indoors where her big 1st serve and attacking baseline game are most effective.
