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.

ITF Weekly Round Up- World

Lets start close to home In Darwin Grade 3 Jarryd Chaplin ( Aus) defeated Ben Mitchell( Aus)6-3 7-5. Jarryd's Mother was a former top ranking Australian Female player Amanda Tobin.Girls Singles Mia Vriens(Aus) def Monica Wejnert(Aus)6-3 3-6 6-2.Kiwi's in the draw Amelia Harris(QTF)Tuscany Hamel R64,Leela Beattie R64.The full draw at this link.Kiwi Boys, Barret Franks(SF)James Meridith R16 ,Jordan Kelly-Houston(SF)view the boys draw hereIn Auckland ITF Grade 4 Finn Tearney def Trent O'KEEFFE 6-1 2-6 6-3 .Boys results hereIn the Girls Tanya SAMODELOK (RUS) (1) defeated Briar PRESTON (3) 6-4 6-7(1) 6-4 .Results here.The ITF Leeuwenbergh G4 Netherlands Boys singles, Ashot KHACHARYAN (RUS) (2) defeated Alexander VAN GILS (GER) (12) 6-3 6-1 Full results here.The Girls singles saw Anna Arina MARENKO (RUS) (1) defeated Bernice VAN DE VELDE (NED) 4-6 6-4 6-1 Results The German Junior Open 2008 Grade 1Andrey KUZNETSOV (RUS) (4) defeated Adrien PUGET (FRA) (9) 6-2 6-3

Personal note the Number 1 seed for this event Karim-Mohamed MAAMOUN (EGY) comes from an Egypt tennis Family who I became friends with when I coached in Cairo.The Girls event result was Sandra ROMA (SWE) (7) defeated Alexandra DAMASCHIN (ROU) (2) 6-1 6-2 . ResultsSally Peers from Australia reached the qtfs.

Over in Greece at the ITF Corfu Cup Grade 5 The winner of the boys singles was Dominik MATOUSEK (CZE) (3) defeated Pier BISBIKOS (GRE) (2) 2-6 6-3 6-2 .Result Link.The results of the Girls event was Ksenia GOSPODINOVA (RUS) (8) defeated Katharina MORTH (AUT) (1) 1-6 7-5 6-2 .Link Grade 4 St.Maarten Juniors Open 2008 in the Netherlands Christopher DIAZ-FIGUEROA (GUA) (2) defeated Yasutaka UCHIYAMA (JPN) (3) 6-3 6-1 Results and the girls results Sachia VICKERY (USA) (2) defeated Laura-Alicia AGUILAR (MEX) (1) 3-6 6-2 7-5 ,Full results .Scottish Junior International Championships 2008Grade 5 Benedict CALNAN (GBR) defeated Marc WESTGATE (GBR) 6-1 6-1 ResultsThe Girls event Samantha VICKERS (GBR) (5) defeated Valeria OSADCHENKO (SWE) 6-4 7-5 Link

Tournaments in progress
24th Damascus International Junior Tournament G4 Syria
Scottish Junior International Championships 2 G4 Great Britain
7th AOTK TwigaCup G4 Estonia
ITF Jamaica Junior Tournament G4 Jamaica
airberlin Junior Open G4 Germany
14th Junior Open der Stadt Wels G1 Austria
International Flower Bulb Tournament G4 Netherlands
Brussels International Junior Tournament G5 Belgium
South African Airways Junior ITF G2 South Africa
Ex Pilsen Wilson Cup G3 Czech Republic

Ben and Riki McLachlan are in South Africa Competing . A Full round up of these tournaments next Sunday.