In this article I showed that being a boy with a Gran Slam title under your belt doesn’t assure you a great future as tennis professional, so now it’s time to analyze the girls’ situation. I analyzed Girls Slam Champions from 1990 to 2010.
As for boys, every girl that won more than one Slam title had a top 100 career (top 65 to be precise).
Magdalena Maleeva (BUL) – 2 Slams – Best ranking 4
Martina Hingis (SUI) – 3 Slams – Best ranking 1
Amelie Mauresmo (FRA) – 2 Slams – Best ranking 1
Cara Black (USA) – 2 Slams – Best ranking 31
Virginie Razzano (FRA) – 2 Slams – Best ranking 16
Maria Emilia Salerni (ARG) – 2 Slams – Best ranking 65
Angelique Widjaja (POL) – 2 Slams – Best ranking 55
Barbora Strýcová (CZE) – 2 Slams – Best ranking 20
Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) – 2 Slams – Best ranking 13
Victoria Azarenka (BLR) – 2 Slams – Best ranking 1
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)- 3 Slams – Best ranking 13
Agnieszka Radwańska (POL)- 2 Slams – Best ranking 2
On the other hand, we had a significant number of Slam winners that after 5 years from the title were not ranked and others that after reaching a top 100 ranking within 5 years from Slam, showed lack of consistency.
An example is Aniko Kapros, who won Australian Open 2000 edition, reached her best ranking (#44) in 2004, and then dropped outside 200 in 2005 and for the rest of her career.
She will not be remembered for her serve
and funnily she indicated “overhead” as her favourite shot in her WTA profile.
The most “predictive” Slam for girls is Roland Garros (for boys it was the US Open) and again we have evidence that winning a Junior Slam in Australia can delude your expectations.
| Average ranking 5 years after Slam Title | Average best career ranking | |||||||
| Australian Open | 154 | 51 | ||||||
| Roland Garros | 54 | 19 | ||||||
| Wimbledon | 75 | 40 | ||||||
| US Open | 76 | 31 | ||||||
A Girl’s Junior Slam, however, gives you a high chance to reach the top 100 during your career: Only 6 players out of 84 Slam Winners were not able to reach the top 100.
| Top 100 after 5yrs | Top 100 | Top 10 | |
| Australian Open | 10 | 17 | 3 |
| Roland Garros | 15 | 21 | 8 |
| Wimbledon | 13 | 20 | 5 |
| US Open | 11 | 20 | 7 |
Now it’s time to make comparisons between boys and girls: as you can see from the table below, winning a Slam for a Girl is way more important (for the chance of a good pro career) than for a boy.
| Average ranking 5 years after Slam Title Girls | Average ranking 5 years after Slam Title Boys | Average best career ranking Girls |
Average best career ranking Boys |
|||||||||||||
| Australian Open | 154 | 277 | 51 | 113 | ||||||||||||
| Roland Garros | 54 | 124 | 19 | 56 | ||||||||||||
| Wimbledon | 75 | 200 | 40 | 78 | ||||||||||||
| US Open | 76 | 72 | 31 | 34 | ||||||||||||
The odds of reaching the top 100 are “just” 70% (59/84) for Boys and 95% (80/84) for Girls that won a Junior Slam.
| Top 100 Boys | Top 100 Girls | |
| Australian Open | 10 | 17 |
| Roland Garros | 16 | 21 |
| Wimbledon | 14 | 20 |
| US Open | 19 | 20 |
So Girls that won a Slam are generally more prepared for pro tennis and the transition from junior to Pro is quicker for Girls as the ITF Review published last year already showed.
The big question now is: why do we have so many teenage girls in top 100 and such a limited number of boys? The possible answer could be the subject of a new article.
Wimbledon Junior is about to start, some of the players I watched during the Under 18 tournament I attended in Italy a few weeks ago are going to play so check out for my ratings about them!
Enjoy what you see? Check out our full Wimbledon coverage here.
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