[alfajeffster]

Australia is one of the greatest tennis nations in the history of the sport. The men AND women dominated the tennis world from 1950-1975. Pat Cash broke through in the 80s to win Wimbledon and reach a few Aussie Open finals, and Pat Rafter and Mark Philippousis (among a few other good men) have done very well in the 90s and early part of this decade. So where are all the great Australian Women prospects? The last really great Aussie female was Evonne Goolagong!

 

[PatM04]

Alicia has potential but I don't see her being an "All Time Great". Pratt is well past her prime, and from what I saw at Wimbledon there may be small hope for Stosur. I have seen wheeler play in person and she has game. She volleys very well and when her serve is on it's very consistent. Other than that I don't really know of other Aussies except Rachel who is almost 30 and rankes in the 200's.

 

[Mateo Mathieu]

I don't really know of other Aussies except Rachel who is almost 30 and rankes in the 200's.

Get a fact before you post Rachel's highest ranked was 28

 

[narcissus boy]

She's in the 200s right now, retard.

 

[Mateo Mathieu]

She's in the 200s right now, retard.

Yes, I know

 

[narcissus boy]

Then shut up.

 

[Mateo Mathieu]

Then shut up.

Go fuck yourself, Jordan

 

[narcissus boy]

*-)

 

[Mateo Mathieu]

*-)

Ohhh, I didn't know we're on MSN

 

[Gowza]

sam stosur imo has all the shots and the power to be a top 10 player but she needs to get consistent, get more mentally tough and maybe do some physical conditioning. her groundies could use some work but they'll get better over time. she has the basics that could someday get her to or near the top of the game but she has a lot of work ahead of her and australian's don't always pull things off these days in the tennis world. imo she is our best prospect alicia is good but not really all that good.

 

[wtn_amanda]

Alicia - is our aussie number 1 and will keep rising

Nicole - Is Slipping and slipping shes 30 and her time is neally up

Dominikovic - shes really lost her ways the last couple of months

Stosur - she has Alot of potential shes young and still needs to learn consistency

Wheeler - Well im not sure about christina she made it to the 3rd round of quallies in the us open but before that i kept seeing her name in 50k draws losing in the 1st rounds and rarly 2nd rounds

McQuillan - shes 31 and in quallifying challengers what can i say...

Adamczak - Shes doigng very well in 10k Challengers her past 3 10 k's shes been to the Q/F or better and in 25 k's shes quallified for 1 or more main draws and shes quite young to just 20

 

[louloubelle]

Australia is one of the greatest tennis nations in the history of the sport. The men AND women dominated the tennis world from 1950-1975. Pat Cash broke through in the 80s to win Wimbledon and reach a few Aussie Open finals, and Pat Rafter and Mark Philippousis (among a few other good men) have done very well in the 90s and early part of this decade. So where are all the great Australian Women prospects? The last really great Aussie female was Evonne Goolagong!

Hope your thread hasn't been ruined Alf!!!

Sorry can't do your question justice as it would take toooooo long, many of us in the Aussie forums could write a thesis on it.

Numerous factors exist:
* Lack of competition in Oz for our juniors and travelling overseas for competition costs money.
* Emphasis on squad coaching, not individualised. Marg Court keeps mentioning this in her interviews and feels that she wouldn't have been as good as she was in the current system.
* Too much money invested in juniors that are no. 1 in their country but don't have the talent, work ethic or strength to make it good on the tour. Therefore many of our juniors have been spoilt. Therefore after so much non-success, the money is likely to be channelled elsewhere.
* It's debateable whether sufficient talent has ever come through the ranks. The Courts and Goolies might only occur once in a while.
* The likes of Bradtke etc... made tennis a career but it wasn't life or death for them. For many European players, tennis is the be all and end all, the family is channelling everything through their tennis. Therefore they are more desperate and committed to making it good.

We could go on for ever!! The Moliks, Stosurs and some others maybe good tour players (now or eventually), but to reach the heights of what we had in the 60-80's isn't likely.

 

[TS]

She's in the 200s right now, retard.

Well I was going to rely to this thread, but then I read this post...and kind of lost interest Thanks for re-inforcing why I don't visit this section of the board much these days...

 

[alfajeffster]

Hope your thread hasn't been ruined Alf!!!

Sorry can't do your question justice as it would take toooooo long, many of us in the Aussie forums could write a thesis on it.

Numerous factors exist:
* Lack of competition in Oz for our juniors and travelling overseas for competition costs money.
* Emphasis on squad coaching, not individualised. Marg Court keeps mentioning this in her interviews and feels that she wouldn't have been as good as she was in the current system.
* Too much money invested in juniors that are no. 1 in their country but don't have the talent, work ethic or strength to make it good on the tour. Therefore many of our juniors have been spoilt. Therefore after so much non-success, the money is likely to be channelled elsewhere.
* It's debateable whether sufficient talent has ever come through the ranks. The Courts and Goolies might only occur once in a while.
* The likes of Bradtke etc... made tennis a career but it wasn't life or death for them. For many European players, tennis is the be all and end all, the family is channelling everything through their tennis. Therefore they are more desperate and committed to making it good.

We could go on for ever!! The Moliks, Stosurs and some others maybe good tour players (now or eventually), but to reach the heights of what we had in the 60-80's isn't likely.

Thank you louloubelle! I agree with Madge on the squad training- in some respects it was that squad mentality at Bollettieri that produced the Sampras/Agassi/Courier/Chang group of achievers, along with a string of American (many imported) women who did well.

How is it, then, that Pat Rafter and Mark Philippousis came through to the top echelon? Not knowing the Australian Tennis Federation the way I do the USTA, I'm really at a loss. Beyond Margaret Court and Evonne Goolagong, the Aussie women like Lesley Turner, Kerry Melville, Judy Dalton, Karen Krantze, Diane Fromholtz, Helen Gourlay, Wendy Turnbull- there are really no Aussie women on that second echelon level either. It's like the sport of tennis for women in Australia has largely disappeared.

 

[alfajeffster]

Well I was going to rely to this thread, but then I read this post...and kind of lost interest Thanks for re-inforcing why I don't visit this section of the board much these days...

Hey- exercise your mental toughness and pretend the schlock portions of threads here doesn't exist. I'm here! Louloubelle is here! We need to hear from more people who care!

 

[tennisjam]

Evonne...I saw some of her matches...she was great

I am also a little surprised there has been for some time no "big names" from Australia among WTA players...

they are supposed to have very good training conditions...

 

[alfajeffster]

All Eyes on Australia!

bump!

your thoughts?

 

[Wendy Turnball]

Ya forgot me mate!!!!!!!!!

 

[tennisvideos]

LOL at the Weight Watchers! But you had better learn to spell your surname Wendy!

Alfa - what Louloubelle was intimating about Marg's comments was that Marg believes more in individual coaching rather than squad training. She doesn't think she would have made it if she came through a group program.

I hope a couple of our younger girls can shine through. I guess we were lucky to have had Court & Goolagong and the great supporting cast of the 60s and 70s.

 

[jimbo mack]

the best australians in the last 15 years are 2 players

dokic (obviously when she represented the aussies)
and...
nicole bradtke-provis (what was her highest rank?)