DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - No Room at top for elite youngsters (yet)

**BamSaitinypap** · 05-08-2009, 03:48 PM

While I agree that the restrictions might keep us from seeing someone attain a Hingisesque level of success at a young age, I think there will always be room for a teenage phenom to take the WTA by storm. But I don't know that there are any on the horizon. Who's the last young lady that you heard mentioned as a future multiple-Slam winner? It seems like the most anyone says these days is future top-10er.

Does anyone know of some young lady lingering outside the spotlight that is being talked of as the next huge thing? I don't. For all the love MLDB gets, she's now 16, has yet to crack the Top 75 (and is now back in the 100s), and has made 1 Quarterfinal - at Tashkent.

Yes, it is more a question of young talent for some reason it is not there for the moment. The new age restrictions would have only delay Hingis by one year.

I'm also thinking that it may just be an odd talent gap for the time being, but every now and then I wonder if we never seem to see the big results from youngsters anymore because where a fearless teen could once take everyone by surprise and smash their way to the top in months, they now spend so much time being discussed as "the next big thing" while getting hardly any tour-level, day-to-day experience. I wonder how much that messes with their minds and produces the longer "growing periods" we've been waiting through the last couple of years. After all, it's a very short road from the fearless teen to the twenty-year-old head case (see Kuznetsova, S.

).

Again though, I want to stress that for all the reasons that have been discussed ad nauseum, I am 100% in favor of the age restrictions. I'm just curious to see if they are beginning to change the look of the WTA forever, or if we just happen to be in a period with a talent gap.

05-08-2009, 03:48 PM	#9
BamSaitinypap Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 502 Senior Member	While I agree that the restrictions might keep us from seeing someone attain a Hingisesque level of success at a young age, I think there will always be room for a teenage phenom to take the WTA by storm. But I don't know that there are any on the horizon. Who's the last young lady that you heard mentioned as a future multiple-Slam winner? It seems like the most anyone says these days is future top-10er. Does anyone know of some young lady lingering outside the spotlight that is being talked of as the next huge thing? I don't. For all the love MLDB gets, she's now 16, has yet to crack the Top 75 (and is now back in the 100s), and has made 1 Quarterfinal - at Tashkent. Yes, it is more a question of young talent for some reason it is not there for the moment. The new age restrictions would have only delay Hingis by one year. I'm also thinking that it may just be an odd talent gap for the time being, but every now and then I wonder if we never seem to see the big results from youngsters anymore because where a fearless teen could once take everyone by surprise and smash their way to the top in months, they now spend so much time being discussed as "the next big thing" while getting hardly any tour-level, day-to-day experience. I wonder how much that messes with their minds and produces the longer "growing periods" we've been waiting through the last couple of years. After all, it's a very short road from the fearless teen to the twenty-year-old head case (see Kuznetsova, S. ). Again though, I want to stress that for all the reasons that have been discussed ad nauseum, I am 100% in favor of the age restrictions. I'm just curious to see if they are beginning to change the look of the WTA forever, or if we just happen to be in a period with a talent gap.
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