Just 14 years old? Well done to her! I'll put her on my list of ones to watch.

Tara most definately seems like a star of the future, here's some more information om her.

She's ranked 252 in juniors and has already won 2 grade 4 events, the most recent was in the Netherland Antilles on hard courts in July. The Canadian open juniors is quite a prestigious tournament, one of the main warm-up events for the US Open juniors. Tara beat her first top 100 opponent, Jessica Moore [no 61] in straight sets in rd2 before losing to the world no 10 in rd3. And that was all at the age of just 13.

She doesn't currently have a senior ranking but I doubt it'll be long before she gets one. Earlier this year she qualified for a 10K in Ecuador and that was her first senior tournament !

She grew up in Hong Kong and later moved to London. She went to the fabled IMG academies in Brandeton and receives a full scholarship there. She is rated very highly by the coaches there. Senior coaches regard her as the best British prospect in a generation. Plus Nick himself said about Tara and her opponent, after she won the U12 Girls' championship at IMG, "The way they hit the ball, that would have been an 18-under match 25 years ago."

R1:

[q] Tara MOORE (GBR) defeated Luciana SARMENTI (ARG) 36 76(4) 75

R2:

[q] Tara MOORE (GBR) defeated Marina GIRAL (VEN) 75 76(4)

QF:

[3] Florencia Molinero (ARG) v [q] Tara Moore GBR

-- Edited by Sally at 14:20, 2006-09-14

Go Tara!

Some brilliant results there from Tara, am I right that the women's ranking system works quite a bit differently to the mens ? I think you need ranking points from 3 tournaments to get a ranking. Has Tara got ranking points from 2 tournaments now [did she get points for qualifying for the Ecuador 10K earlier this year ?]

Some info on her matches this week:

Her rd1 3 set win for over a 20 year old Argentinian clay-court specialist, who's ranked 1121 with a high of 887 reached last year. That win was superb and then the victory over the Venezualan wildcard who'd thrashed the 8th seed in rd1 for the loss of just 1 game, was brilliant. She did well to take 6 games off the 3rd seed in the quarters, Florencia Molinero is ranked 505 and has had some impressive results in the last 12 months, winning 3 futures.

I think it's a very long time since a British girl, just turned 14, qualified and reached the quarters of a 10K on clay !!!

Does anyone know where she might head next ? To Guadalajara in Mexico for a 10K or maybe back home to Nottingham for the 10Ks there ?

Tara's not playing in Nottingham next week, she withdrew from the qualifying and hasn't been given a wildcard. She's not playing in Mexico either as she withdrew from that on 31st August and she's not entered for the G4 tournament in Texas. It appears that she's taking a week off.

The week after, she's entered for the qualifying for some 25Ks and 50Ks and she's also entered for a G4 junior tournament in Illinois.

Does anyone know how many pro tournaments girls are allowed to play per year ? Did these rules apply to the likes of Sharapova, Vaidisova etc or where exceptions made for them ?

UltimateFlemingFan wrote:

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Some brilliant results there from Tara, am I right that the women's ranking system works quite a bit differently to the mens ? I think you need ranking points from 3 tournaments to get a ranking.

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I think you need to have played 3 tournaments. Here is the WTA Official Rules. The stuff about gaining world ranking points is on page 191 and says: "Players must have at least three (3) vaild Tournaments to appear on the rankings."