A bright contingent of junior stars ready to shine:: San Diego Union Tribune
This story by Jerry Magee, a longtime tennis writer from San Diego, has a rather odd headline, but the first part contains an interesting look at the potential of two young tennis players, Coco Vandeweghe of San Diego and the world's top-ranked junior and US Open girls winner, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
The first pro is underwhelmed by Pavlyuchenkova and believes Vandeweghe is more likely to hold her own with a pro, citing her July loss as a wild card in the WTA San Diego event.
I disagree, and not because I think Vandeweghe is deficient in potential or talent. What she's lacking, and Pavlyuchenkova is not, is competition, play. Despite the pro's assessment, Pavlyuchenkova has already won a small Futures event and two junior Grand Slams. That matters. That proves something. She can win. And that, after all, is what tennis is about. Not holding your own, or having talent, or being an athlete, but winning.
Vandeweghe could prove to be, as is alluded to here, another Serena Williams, who didn't play junior tennis or much of anything before she arrived on the pro circuit. And she would be just in time to take the place of another Southern California six-footer, Lindsay Davenport. But she'll need to win at some point, and Pavlyuchenkova is already in the habit of doing that.
I'm much more in the camp of the volunteer assistant at San Diego State, when he is asked his opinion of Pavlyuchenkova's game. But in five or six years, let's hope that we'll see both girls, having taken different paths, succeed in getting what they want from the game.
15 comments:
Coco lost in the R16 in the G16 Hardcourts this summer and the girl this author was comparing her to won the US Open Jr. event?!? That should tell you something about the credibility of the author.
I was at G16 Hard Courts this summer where "Coco" played, just having come off of her WTA experience. This girl is about as cocky as they come with attitude that makes your stomach turn. She travels with an entourage that cheers like this kid IS on the pro tour. It wouldn't suprise me if her "famous" parents helped write that article.
Anyway, Coco isn't that special - there are a LOT of 14-15 year olds in the US with more game than her. Is her serve big - yeah....she is 6'1" and very big/strong......but she is weak mentally on the court and can be VERY inconsistent. She has a lot of development required to become an elite junior, much less one of the few that can jump to the pros.
Comparison to Serena.....I can't stop laughing.....
Living in San Diego, and reading the Union Tribune daily, I can tell you that the writer of this article (Jerry Magee) decided to compare Coco to the recent US Open Girls Junior Champion. Biweekly, Magee writes articles on the inside cover of the sports section about tennis, and he has featured Coco almost every time for the past few months. She is getting a lot of publicity in San Diego because of her family (her uncle was the GM of the Denver Nuggets) and because her coach Guy Fritz is a wealthy and prominent figure in San Diego junior tennis. Personally I don't see why there is so much hype surrounding Coco, as I have never even seen her win a designated Southern California tournament in the Girls 16 and Unders let alone a Supernational Title or a Junior Grand Slam. Also, let's take a look at her results in the Acura Classic. Originally, before she was giving a wild card into the main draw, Coco attempted multiple times to qualify for just the qualifying draw of the Acura Classic by playing pre-qualifying tournaments, and she failed each time. This girl has potential, but she is nowhere near professional level. She is losing to girls that play tennis casually at the Southern Californian level. Until she puts up some better results, she should not be compared to girls that are winning Challengers and Junior Grand Slams.
Most of what Jerry Magee writes has to be taken with a grain of salt. His "expert" sources are generally not at all objective and often not very well informed about the modern game. Anyone who refers (as Magee does) to tennis pros as "tourists" and says that they "fail" when they lose a match, appears to have a very odd view of tennis.
As for Coco, I have seen her play and I agree that she is very over-rated. She is bigger than most of the girls her age, but this is her only advantage. She is slow and has an attitude problem. Check out her record...she has more "injury" defaults for losses than just about any other junior. I agree with John's comments about her cockiness, the parents and the entourage. There are many Southern California juniors who are far more deserving of some recognition in the local papers, i.e. Sam Querrey who was completely ignored all throughout his junior career. Articles such as this one by Jerry Magee do not report accurate tennis news. It's too bad for the sport.
I think that it is rediculus how much press she is getting. She is not that amazing and she did not win the local high school championships yet is being wildcarded into pro events and compared to a US open player. She is good, yes, but would not win a round even at the open and the winner would beat her left handed.
I agree with all of the above comments. The writer of this article clearly is biased and has a tainted view of junior tennis. After looking up Coco on usta.com rankings, I see that she is ranked #34 girls 18 and under in Southern California and in the #500's nationally. She has produced no results in her career, and its sad that we are even wasting time talking about this. She should focus on her game and win some satellite tournaments like the North Country Tennis Patrons and then worry about professional tennis.
And USTA rankings mean everything as far as future success for a junior player. The Williams sisters were just plain lucky, and they had each other to play against. If you cannot achieve a top USTA ranking, you are nothing as a future tennis player.
To the last anon. poster, your sarcasm comes through loudly but you are missing the point. Obviously USTA rankings aren't the best predictors of future performance.....but the reality of this whole discussion is that Coco is not an elite junior player, much less worthy of comparison to the best junior in the world right now.....will she make it as a pro - very possible if she gets tougher mentally, develops better movement to the ball vs average speed, and improves her consistency.....other than those minor details, she is ready for the tour.....
Not minor details (I guess "Sarcasm" is contagious!:) Not that one match means anything, but she definitely held her own at the Acura against a WTA player who was no slouch. (Huge serve doesnt hurt matters!)Dont know the girl, or family..but its unfortunate if indeed they are cocky about things..anyway, just because she is big and slow..look at Lindsey Davenport, or Dinara Safina...maybe this girl will come around?
Steve - how can you possibly say she held her own in the WTA match she played??
John..she lost 4 and 2 to a former #1 ITF..#94 in the WTA singles (#68 doubles)..with over $200,000 career prize money. It doesnt mean she will be a great PRO, or even a PRO at all..but that result is impressive.
Steve s, what do you mean held her own against a good pro? the "good pro" is Keteryan Bondarenko and she is 113 in the world currently. This year she only has one other WTA tour win besides CoCo.
http://scoreboards.aol.com/tennis/player/114190/player.aspx
and to say she held her own, 4 and 2? thats not holding their own. obviously there are low standards of holding their own because if donald young did this people would be saying he should go back to the juniors.
yeah seriously, she got murdered in the match. i was there and it wasnt even close. this girl is nowhere near professional level, go back to the juniors coco
As I said, I dont even know this girl!..but cannot believe the bashers on this board toward her? No offense to her family, but they MUST have stepped on quite a few toes to garner this response? Bondarenko did indeed reach a career high of #94..whatever her ranking is now, this is no "pattycake" of an opponent. What are you talking about, "murdered" in that match? I was there too, and though I agree with you that she is a LONG way from the PRO tour, and she SHOULD stick to juniors, she did display a serve that makes many in the top 10 look pretty dismal..(Hingis comes to mind)..of course the serve is not everything, but its a great weapon for someone to have, especially a woman. Again, 4 and 2 to a top 100 WTA player? I dont care if this family is as arrogant as Mr T in his heyday...that is considered a GREAT result. Even a double bagel, if she had held her own in some of the games, would not IMO be considered a bad effort against #94!..but she WON 6 games! And the most exciting thing about her chances for future success: Her uncle Kiki once was asked in his early basketball days, "How can you be so pale when you live in Southern California?"...his answer: "because the sun dont shine in the gym"..well, if Coco has even a smidgen of this practice dedication...then by golly, she's going to the top 20 at least!:)
Steven Sampson: President of the Coco Vandeweghe fan club (Southern Cal section:)
There sure seems to be a heck of a lot of people (suddenly)who were at this match- just like when the Babe "called his shot".
I tried to write and call this J. Magee, the orignal author (San Diego tribune) to suggest a good doctor, but his message machine was full and his Tribune website was blank. Maybe he dropped the pretense, and took a job with the Vandeweghe's full time.
Like the poster above, I also dropped an email to Jerry Magee last Monday, the day that I read his article. Not surprisingly, I have not recieved a reply. I also gave him the link on zootennis to the comments by others. Hopefully he has read them, and sees that he cannot continue making galaxial statements just because he can't come up with anything legit to write about.
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