French Junior Open Acceptances Posted
The ITF published the acceptance list today, and it confirms what I've been hearing--that the French is the toughest junior slam to get in to.
The U.S. has only three girls assured of a main draw spot: Julia Cohen, who will be seeded, Alexa Glatch, who has barely played since breaking her elbow last November, and Lauren Albanese. Chelsey Gullickson and Lindsay Burdette would have qualified for the main draw but did not enter. Nor did Anna Tatishvili. There are five U.S. girls in the qualifying.
The girls field seems exceptionally strong; 17 of the 46 girls named to the main draw are ranked inside the WTA Top 500, as are six of the 26 girls in the qualifying.
The boys field does not contain defending champion and world number one Marin Cilic, but the next 46 boys in the ITF junior rankings have entered, with Donald Young likely to be seeded second. Four other U.S. boys--Kellen Damico, Jamie Hunt, Clint Bowles and Dennis Lajola are in the main draw; Nate Schnugg, Johnny Hamui and Chris Racz are qualifying.
No boy entered at Roland Garros is in the ATP top 500. That's either a comment on the depth of the men's tour or the longer tennis maturation of boys. Take your pick.
4 comments:
Are they seriously going to seed Young #2? Because I thought they took ATP rankings and other factors into consideration. I know they have done that for the US Open Juniors. The same goes for Alexa Glatch, I think she has the 2nd or 3rd highest WTA ranking of all the girls entered but her junior rankings isnt as high because of a lack of play, will they take that into account?
I did a very quick search of the ATP rankings and was able to find at least 4 players ranked among the top 500 eligible to enter Roland Garros Jr. and chose not to. Could it be good young players are no longer interested in playing the junior slams?
I know they do consider ATP and WTA rankings for both entry and seeding, but I've asked the ITF for more information on their seeding criteria. I'll post it when they respond.
This is the response I received from the ITF:
"Professional ranking has always been considered in the junior game when it comes to both acceptances and seeding. According to our existing seeding rule it is the responsibility of each tournament committee to take into consideration a player's ranking in both the ITF Junior World Ranking and the professional game. Up to now the ITF has not approved any official comparison chart between the two rankings and therefore I am not able to anticipate the decision of the tournament committee in Paris."
By the way, Glatch has withdrawn.
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