New Kids on the Block Update -Who has made on the Pro Tour From Junior ITFdays

In 2008 I wrote an Article called New Kids on the block.It Listed the top 20 Junior Boys and Girls ITF junior World rankings. I thought it would be a great exercise 4 years on to have a look at that list and see where they are on the Pro Tour Present day 2012.Here is the link to the previous article Eye of The Tiger: New Kids on the Block. Lets look at the 2008 Boys rankings first.

1 YANG, Tsung-Hua TPE 21 2012 164

2 TOMIC, Bernard AUS 19 45

3 BERANKIS, Ricardas LT 22 148

4 DIMITROV, Grigor BUL 21 69

5 RAMIREZ, Cesar MEX 22 430

6 KONTINEN, Henri FIN 21 528

7 PEREIRA, Jose BRA 21 415

8 CUNHA, Henrique BRA 22 1383

9 HARRISON, Ryan USA 20 48

10 GOFFIN, David BEL 21 59

11 AREVALO, Marcelo ESA 21 411

12 JANOWICZ, Jerzy POL 21 109

13 VAZQUEZ-VALENZUELA, Juan ARG 21 697

14 GRIGOROV, Alexei RUS 22 1056

15 STEBE, Cedrik-Marcel GER 21 82

16 BHAMBRI, Yuki IND 20 220

17 KLAHN, Bradley USA 21 661

18 RUFIN, Guillaume FRA 22 142

19 SIRIBUTWONG, Peerakit THA 21 754

20 KUZNETSOV, Andrey RUS 21 137

The number at the start of the name on the left is what the player was ranked in 2008,the next number is their age now and the last in Red is current Pro Tour Ranking.Of course some of the younger players would of no doubt improved their junior ranking but this list is as they stood in 2008.Bernard Tomic is the best performed in the buys with a ranking of 45 on the senior tour he is also the youngest of this list still only 19.Ryan Harrison the young American has risen and at 20 is the next best at 48. Dimitrov who beat Tomic at Junior Wimbledon a couple of years ago is also promising and starting to have good results and is 69 and David Goffin from Belgium is 59.Stebe the German is 82.So the breakup is pretty telling from this group 1-20 0 players 20-40 0 players 40-60 3 players 60-80 1 player 100-200 5 players 200-400 1 player and 400+ 9 the biggest group. My first article said that not every one will transgress their junior ranking to the seniors and this is very much so looking at these stats.At the time I first wrote the article Logan Mackenzie from New Zealand at that time was 108 he went on to have a career junior high of 64 he sits currently ranked 1274 in the senior ranks at 22 years old.Its very hard to be a Pro even harder to be a high ranking one.

Will the Girls be the same, my first thought was the household names like Williams,Sharapova,Clijsters,Graf all had great results at a young age and were well on there way to greatness at the end of their teenage years.

1 RUS, Arantxa NED 21 67

2 HALEP, Simona ROU 20 45

3 OUDIN, Melanie USA 20 123

4 LERTCHEEWAKARN, THA 20 174

5 ROBSON, Laura GBR 18 113

6 BOGDAN, Elena ROU 20 235

7 BOGDAN, Ana ROU 19 558

8 JOVANOVSKI, SRB 20 93

9 NARA, Kurumi JPN 20 152

10 LYKINA, Ksenia RUS 22 341

11 ROMPIES, Jessy INA 22 578

12 KONTA, Johanna AUS 21 210

13 HERCOG, Polona SLO 21 63

14 HOFMANOVA, Nikola AUT 21 322

15 KERKHOVE, Lesley NED 20 396

16 KUCOVA, Kristina SVK 22 274

17 CHERNYAKOVA, Elena RUS 21 576

18 HENDLER, Tamaryn BEL 19 178

19 MLADENOVIC, Kristina FRA 19 154

20 MOORE, Jessica AUS 21 688

Simona Halep at 45 is the best ranked in the seniors from this group certainly no one yet pushing top 20.Watch out for Laura Robson GBR at 18 is the youngest of this list and had a great Junior career.Again no one has eqalled their junior best ranking yet.In 2008 New Zealand Sasha Jones at the time of writing was 165 she went on to a Junior career high of 11 and sits now at 173 on the Pro Tour. I will let you make your own assumption , I certainly have always said dont read into too much the Junior ITF rankings as prooven in this little exercise it is indeed harder to make it on the senior tour.Just recently befor Wimbledon I posted the top 10 girls in the current junior world rankings I will post the top 20 boys and Girls for 2012 as they stand now and maybe in a few years I will do the same exercise.

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