Talk About Tennis 2.0

Let me see if I got this straight. Pegula's mother is NOT her current mother, as she is adopted?
So she was adopted by a billionaire?
Kind of making a crusade to find her natural mother and tell her "THANK YOUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!".
(Again, if I understood well)

I thought Jessica's mother is ethnically Korean but was adopted by an American family from what I read.

Terry and Kim Pegula are Jessica Pegula's parents. They are billionaires (and awful) - they pretend their money is comes from owning sports teams but they actually made their billions in fracking.

Kim Pegula is Korean American. She was born in Korea and adopted as a young child by an American couple and raised in the US.


FYI, unlike many tennis parents, if you just Google her parents, your will easily find answers on them including pictures that will tell you quite obviously that Jessie's mom is Asian American.

Sorry for not making it all crystal clear in the first place.

Since I was looking at RG junior draws I decided also to have a look at the junior rankings. Here they are with some comments. In brackets birth year and ATP/WTA ranking if any.

Boys

1. Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune, DEN (2003, 291)
2. Shintaro Mochizuki, JPN (2003, 497)
3. Juncheng Shang, CHN (2005, -)
4. Martin Damm, USA (2003, 694)
5. Bruno Kuzuhara, USA (2004, -)
6. Pedro Boscardin Dias, BRA (2003, -)
7. Jack Pinnington Jones, GBR (2003, -)
8. Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, FRA (2003, -)
9. Jerome Kym, SUI (2003, -)
10. Dali Blanch, USA (2003, -)

From these Holger Rune is areal deal, moving up the pro rankings very rapidly now. I think we'll see him in the Slams next year, or maybe even at USO later this year. From the others I'm intrigued by the Chinese guy. He's much younger than the others and the top seed at RG juniors. The rest are unclear. I think those born in 2003 who still don't have any ATP rankings are most likely well behind the elite.

Girls

1. Elsa Jacquemot, FRA (2003, 492)
2. Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva, AND (2005, 708)
3. Alexandra Eala, PHI (2005, 624)
4. Polina Kudermetova, RUS (2003, 608)
5. Diana Shnaider, RUS (2004, -)
6. Robin Montgomery, USA (2004, 350)
7. Oceane Babel, FRA (2004, -)
8. Kristina Dmitruk, BLR (2003, -)
9. Natalia Szabanin, HUN (2003, -)
10. Oksana Selekhmeteva, RUS (2003, 541)

I'm afraid I can't comment at all about the #1 player. Instead I would like to highlight three others - Jimenez Kasintseva, Eala and Montgomery. The first two are having impressive junior success at very young age and that usually is a good indicator. Montgomery is only slightly older and has the highest WTA ranking of them all.

Suliso wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 7:54 pm Since I was looking at RG junior draws I decided also to have a look at the junior rankings. Here they are with some comments. In brackets birth year and ATP/WTA ranking if any.

Girls

1. Elsa Jacquemot, FRA (2003, 492)
2. Victoria Jimenez Kasintseva, AND (2005, 708)
3. Alexandra Eala, PHI (2005, 624)
4. Polina Kudermetova, RUS (2003, 608)
5. Diana Shnaider, RUS (2004, -)
6. Robin Montgomery, USA (2004, 350)
7. Oceane Babel, FRA (2004, -)
8. Kristina Dmitruk, BLR (2003, -)
9. Natalia Szabanin, HUN (2003, -)
10. Oksana Selekhmeteva, RUS (2003, 541)

I'm afraid I can't comment at all about the #1 player. Instead I would like to highlight three others - Jimenez Kasintseva, Eala and Montgomery. The first two are having impressive junior success at very young age and that usually is a good indicator. Montgomery is only slightly older and has the highest WTA ranking of them all.

Jacquemot is a decent player, but I'd be very surprised if she spends any significant time within the top 20 on the pro circuit. I've seen her play live a couple of times in Juniors, and I didn't like her attitude - very 'stand-offish' and rather entitled. She was also rather vehemently accused of cheating in a non-officiated Junior doubles match in 2019 - I was near the court, and was drawn to it by the yelling and commotion coming from her opponents (several officials were also drawn to the court). I didn't see the alleged cheating - but the manner in which the objection was made by her opponents makes it hard to believe they were fabricating it. A roving umpire stayed on the court for the remainder of the match.

I preferred Carole Monnet (also from France). I felt she had a more solid, consistent game. And she had a healthy, respectful attitude, as well.
Monnet has 'aged out' of Juniors now, though.

Barbora Krejcikova goes back to #1 in doubles with her teammate Siniakova at #2. In singles she's at career high #15.

Now half the season (2 Slams) is officially in the books therefore I decided to do a bit of rankings analysis. I'm concentrating on race rankings because of the general messed up state of a year long list.

ATP race top 20 with the current ranking and a career high ranking in parenthesis

1. Novak Djokovic SRB, 5170 (1, 1)
2. Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE, 4560 (4, 4)
3. Alexander Zverev GER, 2970 (6, 3)
4. Rafael Nadal ESP, 2940 (3, 1)
5. Andrey Rublev RUS, 2770 (7, 7)
6. Daniil Medvedev RUS, 2590 (2, 2)
7. Matteo Berrettini ITA, 1805 (9, 8)
8. Aslan Karatsev RUS, 1730 (24, 24)
----
9. Jannik Sinner ITA, 1510 (23, 17)
10. Hubert Hurkacz POL, 1470 (17, 16)
11. Casper Ruud NOR, 1465 (15, 15)
12. Roberto Bautista Agut ESP, 1080 (10, 9)
13. Diego Schwartzman ARG, 1030 (11, 8)
14. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina ESP, 950 (35, 35)
15. Cameron Norrie GBR, 950 (41, 41)
16. Pablo Carreno Busta ESP, 895 (12, 10)
17. Lorenzo Sonego ITA, 890 (26, 26)
18. Federico Delbonis ARG, 865 (48, 33)
19. Alexander Bublik KAZ, 860 (39, 37)
20. Felix Auger-Aliassime CAN, 825 (21, 17)

Some notables further down: Musetti #21, Thiem #27, Shapovalov #28, Goffin #32, Dimitrov #33, Cilic #35, Nishikori #37, Alcaraz #47, Isner #52, Raonic #62, Federer #100.

The average age of top 20 is 26.2 years. The oldest on this list is Rafael Nadal and the youngest Jannik Sinner.

Of course we'd expect clay favoring players to slowly slide down the list and those favoring fast courts rising up.

Now the same for WTA.

WTA race top 20, in parenthesis current ranking and career high ranking.

1. Ashleigh Barty AUS, 3381 (1, 1)
2. Barbora Krejcikova CZE, 3258 (15, 15)
3. Aryna Sabalenka BLR, 2658 (4, 4)
4. Naomi Osaka JPN, 2536 (2, 1)
5. Iga Swiatek POL, 2385 (9, 9)
6. Garbine Muguruza ESP, 2096 (13, 1)
7. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova RUS, 1898 (19, 13)
8. Maria Sakkari GRE, 1886 (18, 18)
----
9. Jennifer Brady USA, 1808 (14, 13)
10. Cori Gauff USA, 1710 (23, 23)
11. Elise Mertens BEL, 1708 (17, 12)
12. Veronika Kudermetova RUS, 1593 (32, 28)
13. Paula Badosa Gibert ESP, 1496 (33, 33)
14. Jessica Pegula USA, 1448 (26, 26)
15. Elina Svitolina UKR, 1447 (6, 3)
16. Karolina Pliskova CZE, 1306 (10, 1)
17. Karolina Muchova CZE, 1257 (22, 19)
18. Ons Jabeur TUN, 1246 (24, 24)
19. Serena Williams USA, 1236 (8, 1)
20. Tamara Zidansek SLO, 1231 (47, 47)

Notables further down: Kvitova #21, Bencic #25, Vondrousova #27, Halep #28, Andreescu #29, Azarenka #32, Stephens #41, Kerber #56, Kuznetsova #69, Key #78, Anisimova #83, Vekic #86.

For WTA the average age is 25.7 years (only 0.5 years less than ATP). The oldest on the list is Serena and the youngest Coco Gauff.

There are currently six teenage players in WTA top 100 (Iga turned 20 two weeks ago)

#23 Coco Gauff USA (17.2)
#65 Marta Kostyuk UKR (18.9)
#66 Leylah Fernandez CAN (18.7)
#78 Amanda Anisimova USA (19.7)
#92 Clara Tauson DEN (18.4)
#93 Maria Camila Osorio Serrano COL (19.4)

In ATP top 100 there are only three

#23 Jannik Sinner ITA (19.8)
#57 Lorenzo Musetti ITA (19.2)
#75 Carlos Alcaraz ESP (18.1)

Suliso wrote: ↑Tue Jun 15, 2021 7:54 pm There are currently six teenage players in WTA top 100 (Iga turned 20 two weeks ago)

#23 Coco Gauff USA (17.2)
#65 Marta Kostyuk UKR (18.9)
#66 Leylah Fernandez CAN (18.7)
#78 Amanda Anisimova USA (19.7)
#92 Clara Tauson DEN (18.4)
#93 Maria Camila Osorio Serrano COL (19.4)

In ATP top 100 there are only three

#23 Jannik Sinner ITA (19.8)
#57 Lorenzo Musetti ITA (19.2)
#75 Carlos Alcaraz ESP (18.1)

That 2 to 1 ratio is pretty much the way it's been for most of the past 40 years, I believe - at least in terms of top 20 or 30 or so... so I wouldn't figure it would be much different across the top 100.

You have an Arias, Agassi, or Chang come up every now and then, but not as often as an Austin, Bassett, Rinaldi, Seles, Graf, Capriati, etc.

The three longest streaks in the WTA top 10 currently:

Simona Halep - 366 weeks
Karolina Pliskova - 229 (could end today)
Elina Svitolina - 193

Here is the all time top 10 (according to WTA site)

Martina Navratilova - 1000
Chris Evert - 746
Steffi Graf - 625
Gabriela Sabatini - 508
Pam Shriver - 458
Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario - 429
Hana Mandlikova - 421
Simona Halep - 366
Lindsay Davenport - 333
Conchita Martinez - 319

I am not surprised one bit that Martina I is the leader and by that much, but I am surprised that Martina II is not even in the list.
Steffi: 625 weeks. And of those, 377 were as #1. I bet if you add weeks at # 2 it is easily over 500.

Go Martina Sr! Epic