Monday, November 19, 2012

16 year old Aussie beats New Zealand Davis Cup Team

I've been following a couple of younger Aussie Junior players pictured above.Nick Kyrgios 17 who hails from Canberra ACT and Thansasi Kokkinakis 16 .Two weeks ago Kokkinakis defeated  New Zealand Number 1 Jose Statham and then Michael Venus in the Bendigo Futures.The young Aussie has played more Future events on the Pro Circuit than the ITF junior Circuit.Gaining results on the bigger stage for me is a clearer picture how that junior will transgress to the Pro Tour.Far too many juniors play way to many ITF junior tournaments. The high performance program locally must take a close look re funding and results and the amount of ITF tournaments juniors are playing and where they have accumulated points, I mean if your not making it on the Junior scene then how the heck will you make it on the Pro tour?Most New Zealand juniors can gain a US college scholarship with a decent ITF junior ranking , I question this pathway if you want to make it at pro tennis, College Tennis Life is pretty good...is it tough enough to develop into a top 100 player for New Zealanders I think not. However in saying that it does add security and players come out of it with a degree and I think it  is the best option for most New Zealand junior tennis players.If you want to look up Thanasi's activity click HERE. Nick Kyrgios is the 4th ranked ITF junior in the world , he has been rising up the junior rankings with some great results including a narrow loss to World Number 1 Junior Filip Peliwo from Canada recently at the US OPEN JUNIORS.Some of my recent articles about ITF junior rankings are made relevant in this stat Kokkinakis has a  Junior Ranking of 1252!Kyrgios is 4.Thanasi on the Pro tour is ranked 754 Kyrgios is 831 on the Pro men's tour.Let me say that the team that is looking after these guys are making sure that they out there playing their fair share of Futures and for me thats the right way to go after all the only points that matter and effects your bank balance are points earned on the Pro Tour. Kyrgios playing activity can be found HERE