My apologies if this topic has been discussed but seeing Gilles Simon's coach in Cincy Thierry Tulasne brought back memories of him as the #1 Junior in the world back in 1980 and all the hype that surrounded him as the next Borg and obviously it never happened, wondering if anyone else can think of promising juniors who never became as succesful at the pro level.
Can't miss... who missed
- Thread starter gmonfils
- Start date
vbranis
Professional
Al Parker, unbelievable junior player, here's a thread on him sometime ago:http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=23399
Moose Malloy
G.O.A.T.
Mirjana Lucic
boredone3456
G.O.A.T.
Zina Garrison- Everyone at the time she came around said she was gonna be the next Althea Gibson and win tons of slams, she was the number 1 ranked junior, multiple junior slam winner, then when her mom died and she began suffering from bulimia....everything just never worked out. Sure she had some good results....like the 1990 Wimbledon Final....but she never lived up to the monicker and pressure placed upon her.
I have several articles on Tulasne back home so I'm only going by memory here. He won the Wimbledon and Italian Juniors back in 1980 and finished the year as the #1 Junior in the World. Had a huge clothing deal and also a racquet deal with Donnay. He appeared in all these ads with Borg and based on hig huge topspin game and a penchant for hard work was tipped as the next big thing. He won over Sandy Mayer and Vitas Gerulaitus in one of the first events he played and Roscoe Tanner came forward after edging out Tulasne at the US Pro Indoors in Phila. (in 1981 I beleive) and said that he had never been passed in so many different ways not by Borg, Connors or McEnroe and stated that Tulasne had huge potential.
Tulasne himself later in his career said that he had been overhyped as a junior by the media that he had a good game for the juniors but it just stopped developing at the pro level. He did reach a high of #10 in the world in 1986 though.
eric draven
Rookie
Monique Viele, she was training at age 13 or 14 at Chris Evert's tennis academy and was supposedly the next big thing for American women's tennis. Unfortunately, she suffered a family tragedy and was never able to even test out her potential on the pro tour.
Richard Gasquet comes to mind as well, although an accomplished player he hasn't nearly lived up to the hype that surrounded him when he was a top junior player in the world.
Scoville Jenkins was another American junior player that was given wild cards to the US Open when he was a junior because of his promise and he has since become a journeyman.
Richard Gasquet comes to mind as well, although an accomplished player he hasn't nearly lived up to the hype that surrounded him when he was a top junior player in the world.
Scoville Jenkins was another American junior player that was given wild cards to the US Open when he was a junior because of his promise and he has since become a journeyman.
CyBorg
Legend
Thanks. That's interesting.
Mariano Zabaleta had an incredible record as a junior and never quite panned out.
Arnaud DiPasquale was very talented but had too many injuries. He actually got to 30 something right after he left the juniors but then got hurt too much.
Vinciguerra was talented too but fell into the injury trap.
Gasquet is not a bust but probably is a case of getting too much attention too soon by the media.
Arnaud DiPasquale was very talented but had too many injuries. He actually got to 30 something right after he left the juniors but then got hurt too much.
Vinciguerra was talented too but fell into the injury trap.
Gasquet is not a bust but probably is a case of getting too much attention too soon by the media.
"We used to talk about Walter Redondo like he was a God."
Walter Redondo, from my generation (late Jurassic era). Announced after one year at UCLA (playing #1 as a freshman) that he was burned out and did not want to play again, then changed his mind and came back almost immediately.
I got the title quote for this post from a cached old story about Vince Van Patten at USTA.
You can Google up some old results of his on the web, but it is tough to get late 1970s / early 1980s results and there is an artist by the same name who gets a lot of hits.
Here is an old quote from a thread on this board, where people were wondering where the PK Redondo racket got its name:
This is the archive of the thread.
Walter Redondo, from my generation (late Jurassic era). Announced after one year at UCLA (playing #1 as a freshman) that he was burned out and did not want to play again, then changed his mind and came back almost immediately.
I got the title quote for this post from a cached old story about Vince Van Patten at USTA.
You can Google up some old results of his on the web, but it is tough to get late 1970s / early 1980s results and there is an artist by the same name who gets a lot of hits.
Here is an old quote from a thread on this board, where people were wondering where the PK Redondo racket got its name:
This is the archive of the thread.
Kirko
Hall of Fame
Butch Buchholz jr. the guy won the junior grand slam and only got to I think no.5 ; my brother and I took tennis lessons from him when we were kids for a few years.
Did he ever win the junior US Open?
In any case, he had a big impact on the game as a mover and shaker at ATP, World Team Tennis, starting the Lipton Key Biscayne tourney (now Miami AMS), etc. Reaching #5 ranking is not really going bust, especially when compared to some of the other names in this thread.
D
Deleted member 25923
Guest
So far Gael Monfils seems to be like that, but he seems to finally be coming around.
kafelnikov
Rookie
Björn Rehnquist
Next in line to be a Swedish superstar.. He's 30 now and has won 4 matches on the tour to date, 2 of them came just a few weeks ago in Båstad.
Next in line to be a Swedish superstar.. He's 30 now and has won 4 matches on the tour to date, 2 of them came just a few weeks ago in Båstad.
CyBorg
Legend
I believe only Edberg won the junior grand slam.
CyBorg
Legend
I believe he only won the mini slam. Three of the four junior majors (French, Wimbledon, US).
