14 yo Gemma (born Aug 12, 2001) is looking fairly promising! She started tennis at 5, she's based at the Sutton Academy in London.
I think I really started to pay attention to her when I saw she beat Maja Chwalinska, who is a very promising 2001 girl, in a Belgian G4 last Nov.
She's started this year in a pretty good fashion, making 2 finals back-to-back these past 2 weeks, after a more disappointing couple of tournaments in the UAE in January!
- last week, she made the final of G4 ITF Gjovik Porsche Open in Norway: she was the 5th seed, beat Ida Ferding 3-6 6-3 6-4 in R1, Mathilde Tranberg 3 & 4 in R2, (WC)Sarina Reinertsen 0 & 1 in QF, and Helene Pellicano (who upset top seed Brune Olsen in R2) 6-3 7-6(4) in SF, lost to 2000 born 3rd seed Olga Helmi (#352) in the final, 3-6 6-3 6-7(3)
- this week, she made the final of G4 ITF Kramfors High Coast Junior World Ranking Tournament in Sweden: she was the 2nd seed, beat (Q)Veronika Pepelyaeva 2 & 2 in R1, Basak Akbas 6-1 7-5 in R2, Ida Ferding again in QF, 3 & 2 , and 4th seed Kristina Kislyak 2 & 3 in SF, before losing to 2000 born fellow Brit Nell Miller in the final with another heartbreaking scoreline - 6-1 6-7(2) 1-6
Last year, she won 2 titles in singles: Cat. 3 G14 Nike Junior International Nottingham in April, where she was the top seed, beat unseeded Erin Richardson 7-5 6-1 in the final :yeah: (she only dropped a set in 5 matches, it was in SF against 4th seed Sasha Hill ); her next tournament was G5 Nike Junior International Edinburgh in July, and she won it?.. her first U18 singles trophy! She was in thanks to a MDWC, started off by upsetting 2nd seed Camille Verden Anderson in R1, 2-6 6-3 6-3, then she beat Olivia Elliott 2 & 0 in R2, 5th seed Lenka Stara 4 & 3 in QF, Juliette Colard 1 & 3 in SF, and top seed Megan Davies (1999 born, #408 at that moment) 3 & 1 in the final.
Hopefully Gemma has a great 2016! She's already beating a lot of girls older than her, some who are pretty good, and she's also making it close against tougher and older girls.
I'm pretty excited to see how she develops and how she does as she moves up the rankings and gets to play stronger tournaments. She could manage to get her ranking high enough to play the USO, would be awesome!
She's broken into the Top 400 for the first time this week, reaching a new CHR of 341 (+60).
Looks like next week she'll very probably make her Top 300 debuts (she won the title in dubs with Swedish partner Molly Helgesson this week, so she'll get more points)!
She got her very 1st ranking (of 1042 ) last July the week after her triumph in Edimburgh, she's been climbing up quick! :yeah:
Her Twitter
Her Instagram
I think I really started to pay attention to her when I saw she beat Maja Chwalinska, who is a very promising 2001 girl, in a Belgian G4 last Nov.
She's started this year in a pretty good fashion, making 2 finals back-to-back these past 2 weeks, after a more disappointing couple of tournaments in the UAE in January!
- last week, she made the final of G4 ITF Gjovik Porsche Open in Norway: she was the 5th seed, beat Ida Ferding 3-6 6-3 6-4 in R1, Mathilde Tranberg 3 & 4 in R2, (WC)Sarina Reinertsen 0 & 1 in QF, and Helene Pellicano (who upset top seed Brune Olsen in R2) 6-3 7-6(4) in SF, lost to 2000 born 3rd seed Olga Helmi (#352) in the final, 3-6 6-3 6-7(3)
- this week, she made the final of G4 ITF Kramfors High Coast Junior World Ranking Tournament in Sweden: she was the 2nd seed, beat (Q)Veronika Pepelyaeva 2 & 2 in R1, Basak Akbas 6-1 7-5 in R2, Ida Ferding again in QF, 3 & 2 , and 4th seed Kristina Kislyak 2 & 3 in SF, before losing to 2000 born fellow Brit Nell Miller in the final with another heartbreaking scoreline - 6-1 6-7(2) 1-6
Last year, she won 2 titles in singles: Cat. 3 G14 Nike Junior International Nottingham in April, where she was the top seed, beat unseeded Erin Richardson 7-5 6-1 in the final :yeah: (she only dropped a set in 5 matches, it was in SF against 4th seed Sasha Hill ); her next tournament was G5 Nike Junior International Edinburgh in July, and she won it?.. her first U18 singles trophy! She was in thanks to a MDWC, started off by upsetting 2nd seed Camille Verden Anderson in R1, 2-6 6-3 6-3, then she beat Olivia Elliott 2 & 0 in R2, 5th seed Lenka Stara 4 & 3 in QF, Juliette Colard 1 & 3 in SF, and top seed Megan Davies (1999 born, #408 at that moment) 3 & 1 in the final.
Hopefully Gemma has a great 2016! She's already beating a lot of girls older than her, some who are pretty good, and she's also making it close against tougher and older girls.
I'm pretty excited to see how she develops and how she does as she moves up the rankings and gets to play stronger tournaments. She could manage to get her ranking high enough to play the USO, would be awesome!
She's broken into the Top 400 for the first time this week, reaching a new CHR of 341 (+60).
Looks like next week she'll very probably make her Top 300 debuts (she won the title in dubs with Swedish partner Molly Helgesson this week, so she'll get more points)!
She got her very 1st ranking (of 1042 ) last July the week after her triumph in Edimburgh, she's been climbing up quick! :yeah:
Her Twitter
Her Instagram