LAURA ROBSON and Heather Watson are rapidly emerging in the WTA rankings and both players are considered as two of the biggest talents for the next decade but while some Grand Slam winning juniors make a comfortable transition onto the senior tour, others fail to make the same impact.
Grand Slam winning juniors and successful seniors
Martina Hingis (SUI) – won French Open 1993-94 and Wimbledon 1994
HINGIS became the youngest ever Grand Slam junior champion at the French Open in 1993 and the Swiss is still the youngest winner of the Wimbledon junior title at 13 years and 276 days. Less than a year later, Hingis took her first top-ten scalp when she defeated world No.5 Jana Novotna en route to her first tour final in Hamburg. Persistent injuries forced her to retire from the sport in 2001 and even though she failed to make much of an impression on her brief return to the tour in 2006, Hingis still retires with 43 WTA singles titles and 209 weeks at No.1.
Amelie Mauresmo (FRA) – won French Open and Wimbledon 1996
THE Frenchwoman took some time to establish herself in the highest echelons of the senior ranks and while she certainly isn't regarded as a teen supernova, Mauresmo fulfilled her promise with Australian Open and Wimbledon titles in 2006.
Justine Henin (BEL) – won French Open 1997
THE Belgian is another prime example of a player who has etched out a fruitful trade after success in the junior ranks. Henin won the French Open junior title in 1997 and less than two years later, she claimed her first WTA title on home-soil in Antwerp. Since then, Henin has won seven Grand Slam titles in singles and is regarded as one of the greatest clay-court exponents of all-time.
Jelena Jankovic (SRB) – won Australian Open 2001
JANKOVIC won the Australian Open junior title in 2001 and even though it took the Serb a while to reproduce this form in the senior ranks, she was the outstanding player of 2008. Despite failing to claim a Grand Slam title, she finished the year as world No.1 with titles in Rome, Beijing, Stuttgart and Moscow.
Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) – won Wimbledon 2006
IT took the Dane less than three years to crack the top-ten after claiming the junior title at Wimbledon. Wozniacki became the youngest year-end No.1 since Martina Hingis last year and even though the Dane is still without a Grand Slam title, Wozniacki claimed six WTA titles in 2010.
Victoria Azarenka (BLR) – won Australian Open and US Open 2005
THE Belarussian won the Australian Open and US Open junior titles in 2005 and is renowned as one of the best hard-court players on the tour. Azarenka's biggest title to date came in Miami in 2009, where she defeated Serena Williams in straight sets.
Nadia Petrova (RUS) – won French Open 1998
PETROVA is regularly tagged as an under-performer but the Russian still has a highly distinguished résumé in singles and doubles. Petrova reached the semi-finals of the French Open twice, made a career-high ranking in singles of No.3 and won the Tour Championships doubles title with Meghann Shaughnessy in 2005.
Grand Slam winning juniors and solid seniors
Virginie Razzano (FRA) – won Australian Open 1999 and French Open 2000
THE 27-year-old from Dijon has spent most of her senior career inside the top-100 but despite briefly breaking the top-20 in 2009, Razzano's career has ebbed and flowed and having peaked at a career-high of No.16 in 2009, the Frenchwoman dropped from the top-100 the following year. Despite breaking a chain of nine successive year-end finishes in the top-100, Razzano took a win over Maria Sharapova at Fed Cup level, which shows she might be coming back to the level which took her to finals in Dubai and Eastbourne and fourth-round performances at the French Open and Wimbledon in 2009.
Katarina Srebotnik (SLO) – won Wimbledon 1998
SREBOTNIK won the Wimbledon junior title in 1999 but the Slovenian was unfortunate to sustain a succession of injuries after a stellar 2008 season where she cracked the top-20 in singles. On her return to the tour, Srebotnik has struggled to find any semblance of her best form in singles but the 29-year-old is still active in doubles, where she has maintained a reputation as a world-class exponent in the fore-court.
Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (CZE) – won Australian Open 2002 and 2003
ZAHLAVOVA STRYCOVA defeated Maria Sharapova 6-0 7-5 en route to the Australian Open junior title in 2002 but since then, their respective careers have gone in different directions. However, the Czech seems to be on the up as she made her first tour final in Prague last year which took her to a career-high ranking of No.37 as well as third round appearances at Wimbledon and the Australian Open in the past year.
Vera Dushevina (RUS) – won Wimbledon 2002
AFTER a successful junior career, Dushevina broke the top-50 in singles at the age of 18 but even though the Russian has enjoyed a solid career, she hasn't been able to build on this initial promise.
Grand Slam winning juniors but struggling seniors
Lourdes Dominguez Lino (ESP) – won French Open 1999
AFTER winning the Roland Garros junior title in 1999, it took the Spaniard seven years to make the main-draw of a Grand Slam. Dominguez Lino reached a career-high of 40 in 2006, which was the same year she won her maiden WTA title in Bogota but despite these successes, the 29-year-old has spent most of her career in the lower echelons of the top-100, although she equalled her best ever Grand Slam showing at last year's US Open when she made the third round as a qualifier.
Aniko Kapros (HUN) – won Australian Open 2000
THE Hungarian won singles and doubles at the Australian Open in 2000 but despite initial success at senior level, especially at Grand Slam competition, Kapros failed to build on this early momentum. Kapros, at 18, upset Justine Henin in the first round of the French Open in 2002, which was followed by a third-round showing at Wimbledon the following year before reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open in 2004, where she defeated Nadia Petrova and Samantha Stosur en route to her best-ever Grand Slam performance. However, Kapros dropped out of the top-100 after a first-round exit at Melbourne Park the following year and failed to re-enter into the leading ranks. After a succession of injuries, Kapros announced her retirement last year.
Michaella Krajicek (NED) – won US Open 2004
KRAJICEK made the quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2007 but the Dutchwoman was set back by a succession of wrist and knee injuries the following year and hasn't made the main-draw of a Grand Slam since losing in the first-round at Wimbledon in 2008.
Kirsten Flipkens (BEL) – won Wimbledon and US Open 2003
LIKEWISE, Flipkens is another promising junior who has been beset by injuries during her senior career. The Belgian made back-to-back third round appearances at Wimbledon and the US Open in 2009 but despite reaching a career-high ranking of No.59 last year, the 24-year-old was aggrieved by a recurring wrist injury which required surgery during the off-season.
Kristina Kucova (SVK) – won US Open 2007
THE Slovak has so far failed to crack the top-100 and despite being ranked at No.225, there have been some promising signs as the former US Open junior champion scored her first top-50 win at the GDF Suez Open in Paris, defeating Ekaterina Makarova in the first-round. Kucova clearly favours fast surfaces, further illustrated by a second-round appearance at Wimbledon in 2009, and this remains her only Grand Slam main-draw victory to date.
