The Ren Sisters and Laura Robson Thread.

Salmon · Tennis legend

RE: The Ren Sisters and Laura Robson Thread.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Actually it's more interesting. The tournament in Czech Republic that she played, started on 21st Jan, which is her birthday.

ITF says - "...a player's age is determined by his/her age as of the date of the start of the qualifying draw, Main Draw or doubles draw in which they are participating. They must have reached their birthday by the time the draw in which they are listed begins."

So taking a flat you-turn-a-year-older-at-midnight or the exact age? I suppose it's the latter as they say "birthday", but who knows...

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

If possible Laura should play Canadian Open, Us open, Eddie herr, orange bowl, warm up for Aus and Aus open.

Inbetween i think she should mplay a few 10k's, 25ks to get a senior ranking by the end of this year.

I think after the 3rd round win Laura is looking like climbing to 26, a semi final might be enough for top 20 with Radwanska loosing over 500 points.

Salmon · Tennis legend

It's fun 'deciding' schedules in front of a computer!

No hurry, but it'll be a waste of time if she does 10Ks. Most players of her level start with 25Ks or bigger. I think she should do 25Ks, plus one 50K and get a main draw WC into the 75 that's there in Britain.

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

Sharapova started with a 10k out in Japan on clay.

I think its good to test the waters and not advance too quick and possibley loose matches

freerider · Futures level

in her interview i think she said she was going to start seniors at the end of the year

Salmon · Tennis legend

Actually Sharapova started out with a wild card in a 75K, followed by a 25K and then a Tier I!

She did play a 10K after this, but that was for a very different reason - she played a Grade 1 in Japan and it wouldn't be worth the money to send her there for just week. So she played a 10K the week after.

Anyway, I'm sure there are loads of top players who do 10Ks when they are 14. I'm saying that generally it's not a smart thing for a simple reason - at this age, you struggle more with consistency than with performing big. So it's much more likely that you'll win two rounds at a 25K than win a whole 10K. Besides, you are always as good as the players you can beat regularly - top 14/15 year olds can beat top 300 players and with AER, it's not possible to get to that level by doing 10Ks only or chiefly 10Ks, even.

Not that it'll be too bad if she starts with one or two 10Ks as there's no hurry, seriously.

Peter too · Tennis legend

Laura's opponent in the final has won a 25K so the final should provide a good test on her progress. If she plays well it may well be worth trying a $25K WC later in the year. It would be nice to see her at Felixstowe but she would probably benefit more by having a break to recover from her recent exploits.

goldfish · Futures qualifying

As mentioned on the Wimbledon juniors thread, Carl Maes, speaking on R5 live this evening, mentioned that Laura would be competing in 25Ks later in the year, not sure yet about the US Open juniors, hoped she would be part of the 14s team with Jess Ren and Joanna Henderson but no mention of any 10K tournaments.

Happycynic · Pro player

Laura will make it up into top 5 juniors with her wimbledon win (500 points on its own); this means she'll easily be top 10 juniors year end, and get 3 JE entries for ITF seniors in '09.

Will give her some options for next year.

Will be, I am sure, an interesting year.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Mervatron wrote:

Hopefully Laura can continue her climb. She should be looking at breaking close to the top 100 by the end of 2008

Amazing how fast players come through when they are ready. Looking at her game I'd have thought she should be better on hardcourt as she looked lost at the net, so must be one of the favourites for the US Open juniors. Chances are the winner of that event will finish the year world no 1.

Wouldn't surprise me at all if she blows the field apart at the US Open.

Drew · Jul 5, 2008

Laura quoted on the bbc saying 'not playing the uso...due to age restrictions'

Salmon · Tennis legend

That's so, so weird.

Like I said in quite a few previous posts, she gets 4 extra tourneys now and it'll madness if she chooses some small fry ones like Yucatan instead of USO. Unless the ITF has changed the rule very recently, is it possible that her management is not aware of the extra tournaments?

goldfish · Futures qualifying

Was I dreaming? I thought I read somewhere yesterday that Laura had been given a WTA ranking of 271 but don't know where I saw it now. Is this possible?

Salmon · Tennis legend

No, it was a dream/some journo writing wrong stuff!