Tuesday, July 22, 2008

New Kids on the Block


Not every one makes the Transition of Top Ranked ITF Junior to Top Ranked ATP or WTA.Many talented youngsters are indeed playing on the men's and woman's circuits and not the junior circuit.Tennis is now truly a Global sport and looking at the top 20 in The Boys and Girls shows you just how true this is.Maybe a future grandslam winner will come from one of these ranked juniors. The Boys Top 20 is as follows:

1 YANG, Tsung-Hua TPE
2 TOMIC, Bernard AUS
3 BERANKIS, Ricardas LTU
4 DIMITROV, Grigor BUL
5 RAMIREZ, Cesar MEX
6 KONTINEN, Henri FIN
7 PEREIRA, Jose BRA
8 CUNHA, Henrique BRA
9 HARRISON, Ryan USA
10 GOFFIN, David BEL
11 AREVALO, Marcelo ESA
12 JANOWICZ, Jerzy POL
13 VAZQUEZ-VALENZUELA, Juan ARG
14 GRIGOROV, Alexei RUS
15 STEBE, Cedrik-Marcel GER
16 BHAMBRI, Yuki IND
17 KLAHN, Bradley USA
18 RUFIN, Guillaume FRA
19 SIRIBUTWONG, Peerakit THA
20 KUZNETSOV, Andrey RUS

The top New Zealand boy is Logan Mackenzie who is ranked 108.
The Girls are similar and showing again how global the game is.Two interesting rankings of note are Robson Great Britain , her parents are Australian but did move to England when Laura was very young. It was interesting that her British Passport was only granted a few weeks before Junior Wimbledon , of course Robson went on to win this event, and Joanna Konta the number 12 ranked junior girl although listed as Australian has been in the UK for a number of years and by all accounts will also gain a British passport. My Niece Gabrielle Grady had a few battles with Konta in the 10s age group in Australia.

1 RUS, Arantxa NED
2 HALEP, Simona ROU
3 OUDIN, Melanie USA
4 LERTCHEEWAKARN, THA
5 ROBSON, Laura GBR
6 BOGDAN, Elena ROU
7 BOGDAN, Ana ROU
8 JOVANOVSKI, SRB
9 NARA, Kurumi JPN
10 LYKINA, Ksenia RUS
11 ROMPIES, Jessy INA
12 KONTA, Johanna AUS
13 HERCOG, Polona SLO
14 HOFMANOVA, Nikola AUT
15 KERKHOVE, Lesley NED
16 KUCOVA, Kristina SVK
17 CHERNYAKOVA, Elena RUS
18 HENDLER, Tamaryn BEL
19 MLADENOVIC, Kristina FRA
20 MOORE, Jessica AUS

The highest ranked New Zealander is Sacha Jones at 165. Jones of course is playing more WTA events and currently playing World Team Tennis. ITF junior events are certainly a breeding ground for future champions but by no means a guarantee that the transgression to the senior tour is a foregone conclusion.

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