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Does the future of tennis lie in their hands ?
February 1st 2003 by Alex Gowing The williams sisters are so dominating that people are questioning the current breed of players as to are they capable of beating the sisters or whether they have the skills to do so. I think some players could but they are so intimidated that every time they are ahead in a match they choke. I think that the williams sisters have done too much damage mentally on the current crop of players. I believe that the consistent challenge against serena and venus lies in the junior ranks. The most promising prospects are: maria sharapova, tatiana golovin, michaela krajicek and viktoria kutuzova. Sharapova has showed amazing potential and monica seles herself said that sharapova as a 14 year old already hit like davenport. Which is a big compliment. In 2002 she reached the final of every challenger event she participated in and at 15 qualified for her first australian open. She was also the youngest player to reach the junior australian open, doing so as a 14 year old in 2002. During 2002 she also reached the junio0r wimbledon final and in her junior career to date has hit up a win/loss record of 47-9. In early 2003 she beat maggie maleeva in two easy sets in an exhibition event. Golovin doesn’t quite have the results that sharapova has but she has been pretty well hyped. Her biggest win on the senior circuit to date would have been a win over klara koukalova the player who beat seles in this years australian open. Golovin came into the junior ranks at a tough time when players like zvonareva, casanova and kuznetsova (current top 50 in the wta) were at there best and also current top 100 players in the wta sucha as safina and widjaja and the near top 100 ashley harkleroad as well as current juniors strycova and douchevina who have been dominating the junior tour but are yet to move into the senior ranks. With tough players like these dominating the junior tour golovin found it hard to reach the top but now that a few of them have moved on into the senior ranks golovin has come to dominance and has finally reached the junior top 10. But she is only 14 and still has time to develop and in 2002 she showed sings of development when she reached the semi-finals in both the junior wimbledon and junior us open. Krajicek is the half sister of richard krajicek the mens wimbledon winner in 1996. With a good tennis pedigree she dominated from the start in juniors. As a 13 year old she created a 33-1 junior record and know as a 14 year old it stands at 35-2. Kutuzova is less talked about than the others but I think with her result at the junior australian open this year she will be. She is a 14 year old and has reached the finals of the tournament. She is quickly rising up the junior ranks and is closing in on the top 20. I think the main threats to the top position in womens tennis are sharapova, golovin and krajicek and to a lesser extent kutuzova. But there are other promising players like julia cohen, alisa klebyanova and mary gambale not to mention the talents already in the high ranks of the wta tour. |
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