Many players have made a stellar junior career and won the biggest and greatest accolades at that stage in their career, but it does not always guarantee a very good career on the main tour on the WTA. Russia’s Anna Blinkova will be trying to ensure she does as she makes her way up the rankings at the age of just 20.
Blinkova has been touted as one of the best talents from the younger generation ever since she made her big splash in the Wimbledon Juniors final three years ago, where she ended up losing to good friend and fellow Russian Sofya Zhuk in a straightforward straight sets loss. The progression from the juniors tour to the main tour has felt quite gradual for the talented Russian, but like any player learning the ropes, learning what works well on the juniors tour doesn’t necessarily get you match-wins at tour-level, and Blinkova is still in that phase of her career where she is finding a way to win matches consistently with the tools that she has at her disposal.
After making the Wimbledon Juniors final in 2015, it has always been about easing the individual into the greatest tournaments of the world as she gradually makes her mark on each level one by one. The Russian’s first taste of a WTA event came in the Moscow qualifying that same year as she had the chance to show what she could do at tennis’ grandest stage at such an early period of her development, and it was not until exactly a year afterwards that she claimed a first main draw win, beating Top 40 player at the time, Anastasija Sevastova.
Since then, Blinkova has moved on from playing 10K events and winning them, to taking her rise step by step and slowly but surely finding that success at all levels, but to get to where she wants to be–competing for Majors and being in the higher echelons of this sport–Blinkova will really need to be given the time to further develop into a much more well-rounded player with less frailties in her game.
What does the Russian do well thus far that has allowed her to flourish to the Top 100 of the women’s game? Her biggest strength is her shot-making ability. That is fundamental in any player learning to get to grips with the greater levels of tennis and that is having the ability to create your own luck with the strength and power of your groundstrokes from the baseline, and that is something that the Russian has always had in spades. The natural confidence to go for her shots is something that will serve her well, but there are still some key weaknesses that will need to be ironed out in order for her to rise from someone closing in on a stable Top 100 ranking to being a regular Top 50 player.
The serve is still a huge problem. When she first made a name for herself on the tour, everyone recognized the talent that was there for all to see, but she has to find a way to make her service games less of a struggle and to buy free points with that single weapon. The better players in the world find a way to make sure that their service games are played with confidence and purpose, while that gives them a free hit at gambling on a return game. Blinkova has a tendency to serve double-figure double faults in her matches, which she did in her first qualifying round win in Linz, and it is something she regularly does in a lot of her tour wins, but to become a player with less holes in her game, the starting point has to be making sure the serve breaks down a lot less than it does at present. The top players in the world find a weakness and they go for it ruthlessly.
Timing is everything in our sport, and I think the younger players still need to find the right moments to play the right shots at the right time. For Blinkova, she has the shot-making talent to make things happen, but the next step for the Russian is timing those great moments. Shot tolerance is always key and as she grows to become a better player and gets more experience, we will see a player choosing her moments wisely and improving the selection of her shots on a tennis court. In today’s win over Antonia Lottner in the Linz qualifying first round, it was clear to see that Blinkova has a ground game that can startle very good players, but as she gets older we will see the Russian time her moments far better, which is an exciting prospect for Russian tennis as a whole.
Another factor is getting accustomed to the different life in the spotlight to playing in front of sparse crowds in the juniors events. When Blinkova made the run to the Wimbledon final she openly talked about her inability to deal with the spotlight, and playing in front of packed stadiums, and it was something that affected the quality of her level in that Wimbledon final. Sofya Zhuk simply dealt with the occasion far better. Now Blinkova has had three two strong years of playing in the bigger events and it should give her the necessary confidence to feel like she belongs amongst the best. The frailties to her game are still clear as day, but the key for the next stage for Blinkova is maintaining what she is good at, and not taking that away from her, but steadying the weaknesses fractionally in order to make her that better player. Being just inside the Top-100 in the world at the age of 20 suggests that she is doing something right and is on the right path to greater success.
The 20-year-old Russian now looks forward to a match in the final round of qualifying in Linz, where she will face the wildcard Kristyna Pliskova for a spot in the main draw.
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