Being better ranked doesn't mean they are better. Spain's best u10 player is barely in the top 20 of her age.
By the way i'm surprised tha Hurricane (who defeated Gabby in one tournament) is not playing this, specially because after a couple of bad tournaments, she won her last one
Because she has a lot more to lose than to win playing this.
Right now Shishkina is doing well on juniors, the same with Tornado or Fridman. Sometimes is better to not look back, because the truth is, that even being the favourite there's a bunch of players who could defeat her.
I miss Paula Arias playing here, without Claire Liu on the draw, i think she will be the favourite (or at least one of the favourites) on U12
And at 10 one victory doesn't mean anything. In fact there's a lot of player who had very good results at that age for their style, that's moonballer kingdom, and sometimes there's a big difference in height. We'll see what happens with these young girls
(1)Dalma Galfi (HUN) d. (Q)Raveena Kingsley (USA) 62 61
(17)Jaeda Daniel (USA) d. Petra Granic (CRO) 75 60
(17)Gabriella Taylor (GBR) d. (7)Siqi Cao (CHN) 76(1) 62
(17)Claire Liu (USA) d. (9)Usue M. Arconada (USA) 06 63 63
(4)Emma C. Higuchi (USA) d. (17)Caroline Dolehide (USA) 46 61 62
(9)Catherine C. Bellis (USA) d. (17)Angela Kulikov (USA) 62 61
(5)Fanni Stollar (HUN) d. Hada Chang (USA) 64 63
(9)Katarina Kopcalic (CAN) d. (17)Dominique Schaefer (USA) 64 76(6)
(9)Alexis Nelson (USA) d. (Q)Nandini Das (IND) 26 62 61
(6)Sofia Kenin (USA) d. (Q)Julia Soica (FRA) 61 63
(17/wc)Jada M. Hart (USA) d. (9)Tereza Mihalikova (SVK) 62 76(6)
(17)Theo Gravouil (FRA) d. (3)Jazzi Plews (GBR) 60 63
(9/wc)Zhanlan Wei (CHN) d. (17)Camila Vargas Gomez (PER) 60 61
(8)Maia Lumsden (GBR) d. (17)Rafaella Baquerizo (ECU) 76(4) 62
Nikolina Jovic (SRB) d. (9/wc)Nicole Frenkel (USA) 63 64
Anzhelika Shapovalova (RUS) d. Lina Hohnhold (GER) 61 64
The father of Gabriela Ruffels, Ray Ruffels, was a top-20 player in the 1960s. He was a 3-time Aussie Open semifinalist, reached a QF of Wimbledon, and has an AO doubles title.
He's 66 too, I kind of feel sorry for kids that have parents that are so old.
Anyway Gabriela is doing well here, I'd rate her as our second best 12 year old behind Aiava, of course. But Aiava is leaps and bounds better than Ruffels at this stage.