The Ren Sisters and Laura Robson Thread.

john · Top national player

RE: The Ren Sisters and Laura Robson Thread.

Drew · Jul 7, 2008

From Wimbledon.org...

Best of British

You might think either defending mixed doubles champion Jamie Murray or his younger brother, great British singles hope Andy, would be featured here, but Rafael Nadal gave Andy a masterclass in top tennis, and Jamie, with new partner Liezel Huber, fizzled out in the mixed semis.

No, the new bright British breakthrough came in the form of a left-handed, 14-year-old girl, who won the girls singles championship in a cracking three-setter.

Unseeded Laura Robson ousted the top seed and the ninth seed on her way to the final, without losing a set. And she cant get more local to the Championships, as her family live in Wimbledon, a short walk from the Club. Robson moved to the UK from Australia, where she was born and lived for her first six months. There are rumours that the Australians have been trying to claim her for their own.

At senior level she is already ranked 271 by the WTA.

From :

http://www.wimbledon.org/en_GB/news/articles/2008-07-06/200807051215276618625.html?promo=rss

gazzpash · Club Coach

M Oudin who Laura beat was ranked 272 so maybe they got confused there

Bladetiger · Pro player

Guess Laura's took over the Ren sisters thread a little and why not, does anyone know what theyr're up to. I believe Jessica's thought to be the better bet isnt she?

As for Laura her whole approach was just as refreshing as her tennis. She must be both protected and challenged, girls develop so much quicker than boys that juniors is of pretty limited value once they're good enough and it would be good to see her developing her skills in a tough environment playing some 25K's and so on.

Will also be interesting to see whether she immediately kicks on or whether the attention takes her eye of the ball.

All in all she is by a mile the most exciting junior we've had since Andy Murray and I cant wait to see how she develops.

Do you think we should be asking the US federation to give her a WC for Senior qualies or is it too soon.

If she's beating #272 ranked players now then she cant be too far off being a credidible wc recipient. And I would think at qualies level she'd be a better draw than the US Number 25 or something.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Why has Robson overtaken Jessica Ren? Who knows... I think one reason is that she trains full time (I guess) where as the Rens don't.

Maybe she'll catch up one day, you never know! I guess that the Rens will improve a hell lot after a year or two. It's not possible to get an early start in this era if your game isn't heavily based on power and/or you are at school till 15/16, isn't it? I think we just need to appreciate (and blindly trust!) the fact that different players mature differently.

I don't think we should ask for an USO wild card, not yet - next year would be great, though, if she can get her ranking to a decent level.

She'll deal with all the hype, I'm sure. In today's tennis world, you can't be this good and not get talked about. You have to deal with it and given that players like Larcher De Brito are doing perfectly with twice the hype from a far younger age, there's no reason to think that Laura can't.

-- Edited by Greenleaf at 19:35, 2008-07-07

Mervatron · Masters Series Champion

The reason Laura has 'overtaken' the Rens is her style of play. Jess and jen play a much more defence oriantated game, thats why they've had so much success at under 12 but ads they have moved up haven't done so well but have still done well.

If they keep improving they will do quitr well but look at Hannah Colling she never even broken the top 200 and she was ranked 15 in juniors. She had like no power and played a Martina Hingis style game, maybe not quite as well.

Salmon · Tennis legend

How weird... Robson isn't on the lists for USO Juniors.

I hope that this is a strategic move (although I don't understand what sort of strategy) and not due to a lack of information.

Shame, as if she somehow got the title there (which wasn't likely as the field is much tougher than Wimbledon), she would become only the fourth 14 year old to win two Junior Slams in the Open Era - after Capriati, Hingis and Lucic.

Hopefully she'll now play all the weak tourneys and get to world number 1 by AO.

-- Edited by Salmon at 05:45, 2008-08-28

Salmon · Tennis legend

Thanks to Simon!

http://www.itftennis.com/womens/tournaments/tournamentacceptancelist.asp?tournament=1100018010&event=&order=Position

La Robson is on the alts list for qualies but she'll obviously move up.

Come on, Abi Tordoff.

Salmon · Tennis legend

I wonder if Laura could play in Luxembourg Tier II. Given that it's an Octagon event and Luxembourg doesn't have too many top 400 players, she could manage a main draw wild card and will almost surely get a qualies wild card.

(They got Dimitrov a main draw one in Rosmalen ahead of so many Dutch players and that was before he had won Wimbly.)

She could get to play top 100 players even in qualies, so it's definitely something her coaches should have in mind.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Salmon wrote:

I wonder if Laura could play in Luxembourg Tier II. Given that it's an Octagon event and Luxembourg doesn't have too many top 400 players, she could manage a main draw wild card and will almost surely get a qualies wild card.

(They got Dimitrov a main draw one in Rosmalen ahead of so many Dutch players and that was before he had won Wimbly.)

She could get to play top 100 players even in qualies, so it's definitely something her coaches should have in mind.

That would be a good move. Given that she's going to be playing Wimbledon next year, I think they should be making a serious effort to get her practice against good quality opponents.

She's got 1 WTA tour wc and 2 ITF wc that she can use before she's 15 in Jan so she might as well use them. And then from 15 to 16 she's only allowed 3 WTA tour/ITF wildcards, one of which which will be Wimbledon.

So to use her wildcards up on 10K events is not a good idea unless she only intends to play 3 tournaments before her 15th birthday in Jan, because she's guaranteed points if she plays qualies for 50K and above, or maindraw 25K and above (unless I've misread the rules).

It seems you need to win 1 round at a 10K to get 1 point.

-- Edited by kundalini at 15:42, 2008-08-29

Salmon · Tennis legend

Which is why I think she should do a few Juniors and get to world number 1 by the year end. Then she would get an entry into one 100K and two 75Ks (or anything below that) without having to use her wild cards.

It's okay that she skipped USO, but she should definitely do Osaka Mayor's in Japan in October.

ForeverDelayed · Grand Slam Champion

Salmon wrote:

Which is why I think she should do a few Juniors and get to world number 1 by the year end. Then she would get an entry into one 100K and two 75Ks (or anything below that) without having to use her wild cards.

It's okay that she skipped USO, but she should definitely do Osaka Mayor's in Japan in October.

Suggesting someone should play juniors.... are you sure you're feeling alright?

But yeah, she should play the bigger junior events (wouldn't know which one's though) to try and get the junior number 1 spot, as it would mean she'd be even more likely to be offered WC's to the bigger events (and maybe get some JE's if they exist on the women's game)

In terms of what senior events she should play... obviously she should try and get as many points as quickly as she can, so guessing at 25K's and 50K's, but maybe 1 10K could be played as well to try and get her a senior title.

Salmon · Tennis legend

ForeverDelayed wrote:

Suggesting someone should play juniors.... are you sure you're feeling alright?

I'm not against people playing Juniors, actually (most contrary, in fact). I just think that if you're world class, you should stop playing them at the age of 16 if you're a girl, and at the age of 17 if you're a boy.

Yes, you have JEs in women's tennis -

Rank 1 - One 100K and two 75Ks.
Rank 2 - Two 75Ks and one 50K.
Rank 3-5 - Two 50Ks and one 25K.
Rank 6-10 - Three 25Ks.

These are according to positions in the Year-end ranking list (which isn't necessarily what the ranking list looks at the end of the year *). Obviously you can get JEs at lower events - like being eligible for one at a 75K but taking one at a 25K.

So if Laura is eligible for JEs, she'll need to qualify just four times out of the 10 tournaments that she can play between her 15th and 16th birthdays.

* The difference is that you need to play a certain number of Grade 1s/Grade As to qualify for the Year-end list. Can't remember the exact numbers right now.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Salmon wrote:

Which is why I think she should do a few Juniors and get to world number 1 by the year end. Then she would get an entry into one 100K and two 75Ks (or anything below that) without having to use her wild cards.

It's okay that she skipped USO, but she should definitely do Osaka Mayor's in Japan in October.

It will be tough to overtake whoever wins the US Open, assuming it is one of Rus, Lertcheewakarn, Oudin, or E.Bogdan. If someone else comes through then I guess Laura would have a decent shot at no 1 if she wants it.

kundalini · Specialist Reporter + Intermediate Club Player

Salmon wrote:

Yes, you have JEs in women's tennis -
Rank 1 - One 100K and two 75Ks.
Rank 2 - Two 75Ks and one 50K.
Rank 3-5 - Two 50Ks and one 25K.
Rank 6-10 - Three 25Ks.

So if Laura is eligible for JEs, she'll need to qualify just four times out of the 10 tournaments that she can play between her 15th and 16th birthdays.

Interesting. I wasn't aware that so many of the top 10 got them.