The number of teenage players in the WTA's top 100 has dramatically declined, with only one teenager, 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva, remaining. Experts suggest factors like the increased power and speed of the game, and the rise of older, more experienced players, contribute to this trend.
There is only one woman under the age of 20 in the top echelon of the gameRecord-keeping from the early years of the women’s tour is not great, but one thing for sure is that the number of teenage stars involved in the WTA is on gradual decline.
“It’s getting tougher and tougher for everyone to stay in there, stay in the point. For younger ladies, it’s also a bit tough to deal with the speed of the ball.”Someone like Coco Gauff, who at 15 beat Venus Williams at Wimbledon, had a bit of a shortcut on that front, she admits.“I was faster than a lot of girls. Maybe not stronger, but speed can take you some way.
And that is, at least in part, down to it being far easier for women to go away and start a family – before returning to the tour. In days gone by, a career was considered over in women’s tennis once you had given birth to your first child. Now it’s considered normal, and the sport’s governing bodies go out of their way to make it possible: creches at tournaments, protected ranking during pregnancy, special entry to tournaments on return.
The retention of older players, as it is also in the men’s game, also comes down to the advances in fitness and physicality, prolonging careers across the board. “But I feel like girls that are not the best players when they’re young, but maybe come good a bit later, those players, there’s even more of them going to college now than than they used to.
WOMEN's TENNIS TEENAGERS WTA TOP 100 AGE POWER SPEED
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