A momentous occasion is just around the corner, it seems certain! Laura Robson on the back of reaching the junior Australian Open final has moved up to world rank #2 just 23.75 points behind the Thai girl she beat at Melbourne Park (and, indeed, in the Wimbledon final!). The junior rankings are worked out as an amalgum of singles and doubles. If it were simply on singles Laura would be #1 already!

Excitingly, there are 3 other GB girls in the top 100 as well; Heather Watson at #14 , Hannah James at #81 and Stephanie Cornish at #93.

The cupboard isn't so full on the boys' side, unfortunately, with only 2 lads, both very nearly 18 years old, in the top 100; Alastair Barnes at #80 and James Chaudry at #98.

Thanks Steve for bringing this analysis to the forum. As you say, GB Tennis girls look on the up - hopefully successful times ahead as seniors if we continue to give them our support.

The biggest events on the ITF junior circuit at the moment are in South America which will culminate in the Grade A Copa Gerdau being held in Brazil from 23rd to 29th March.

It looks like 17 year old Brit Girl Steph Cornish may be eyeing up a tilt at earning qualification for junior Roland Garros!

Her clay court tour started last week at the G2 event in Chile where she was singles runner-up and doubles winner boosting her from 92 to 58 in the world rankings!

This week she's second seed at a G2 in Argentina; thereafter if she wants there's a G2 in Uruguay, a G1 in Paraguay and the final warm up before the Copa Gerdau is the G1 Banana Bowl (!) also in Brazil.

If Florida have the Orange Bowl why not?

Steph has inched her way up to #54 in the junior world rankings in today's list thanks to two singles QFs over the past fortnight in Argentina and Uruguay plus winning the doubles in Argentina!

The cut-off for Roland Garros Main Draw was 55 last year so, if that's her goal, she's just about there! A good showing at the G1 in Paraguay this week should seal it.

Looks like she's not doing the Brazilian fortnight, though.

Steph made the QF in Paraguay boosting her ranking up to #45 this week and almost certainly guaranteeing her Direct Acceptance to the junior French Open and junior Wimbledon.

Meanwhile on the other side of the world in Thailand, Hannah James not only made the singles QF in the Grade 1 tournament there but also won the doubles title to take her ranking up to #60.

That's 4 GB girls in the top 60, then, including Laura Robson at #2 and Heather Watson at #14.

Still only two boys in the top 100, though, both of whom have now passed their 18th birthdays. David Thomson is #86 and Alastair Barnes is #97.

Rumour has it that Laura will be world #1 on Monday thanks to points dropping off for the current number 1. We'll see!

Meantime, Hannah James has nipped past Steph Cornish to be junior Brit Girl #3 thanks to reaching another Grade 1 QF last week in Malaysia.

Hannah's world #45 now to Steph's #47. Heather Watson, who has chalked up her first senior tour win this week in Jersey, is junior Brit Girl #2 at world #15

Laura not #1 today; maybe in two weeks' time when the points Lertcheewakarn earned from a win 7-12 April 2008 drop off

Top 100 GB junior girls this week are world #2 Laura; 15 Heather; 43 Hannah; 49 Steph

Top 100 GB junior boys are world #74 Alastair; 87 David

Biggest tournament this week is a Grade 1 in Japan. Hannah and Alastair are there to fly the flag!

Cock-up or conspiracy?!

The ITF were wrong yesterday...trying to bury the news onto a Tuesday perhaps?!

Anyways...
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LAURA ROBSON IS WORLD NUMBER 1 JUNIOR!

GB HAS A WORLD NUMBER 1!

CONGRATULATIONS LAURA!!

Last Monday was obviously a bad day on the ITF reliability front! The adjusted low-down for GB girls in the top 100 since Tuesday has been #1 Laura; #15 Heather; #41 Hannah; #47 Steph. Sadly Hannah went out early in Japan so there'll be no advance for her this week.

GB boys in the top 100 have been Alastair #72 and David #83. Just outside the top 100 at #105 is Ahmed El Menshawy who has made it through to the QFs in Japan and will almost certainly therefore make it 3 GB boys in the top 100 on Monday!

Assuming the ITF are on better form than last Monday!

Ahmed gave the Japanese QF a very good effort but just came up short 7-6(6) 6-4 but is nevertheless rewarded with a jump in his junior ranking from 105 to 78 today!

Alistair Barnes is up to #62 and David Thomson is 3rd GB boy at #85

The GB girls are Laura #1 ; Heather #14 ; Hannah #36 ; and Steph at #45

Another month down the line and the Brit Girls in the world top 100 are:

1 Laura (still worth a !); 14 Heather; 40 Hannah; 48 Steph

Brit Boys in the world top 100 are:

69 Alastair; 80 Ahmed; 90 David

Hannah (seeded 2 ), Ahmed and David are on duty in the G2 in Italy this week; Hannah and Ahmed are joined in next week's Italian G1 by Laura (seeded 1 ) and Heather (seeded 2 ) assuming Laura is over her recent injury problems

It's good to be able to report that Laura is back on the matchcourt after her injury woes. (Laura had withdrawn from last week's G1)

She got 10 sets under her belt at the Grade A tournament in Milan this week (albeit the 10th was a bagel against in the QFs by which time her match rustiness had caught up with her presumably); junior Roland Garros awaits its top seed!

Heather was also on court in Milan but after a good win in R1 fell agonisingly short in R2, 7-4 in the third set tiebreaker, against a very useful American

Both Brit Boys went out in R1 but James Marsalek, currently world junior #162, deserves a mention for winning through qualifying including a nice win 3&3 over the 2nd qseed and world #91

Laura's been knocked off her perch

Don't suppose she's too worried about it, frankly, getting back to full fitness to take up her senior Wimbledon Wild card as last year's junior champion more important at this juncture ; but unfortunately Laura has been overtakien at the top by the new RG champ.

Top 4 junior Brit Girls: 2 Laura; 14 Heather; 38 Hannah; 46 Steph

Top 4 junior Brit Boys: 75 Alistair; 81 David; 82 Ahmed; 110 Oliver Golding who's only 15 and was runner-up in a G2 in Hungary at the week-end

It's cruel sport sometimes!

Quite a lot of the time in fact with injuries being the biggest curse of them all; especially if they prevent you from defending properly a great result form 12 months earlier. The rankings computer kicks you while you're down!

Laura's unlucky trot with injuries over the last 7 months continued with a back twinge in R3 of the Wimbledon juniors 12 months after lifting the title itself. After 3 months as world number one, she's not even GBR number one any more!

But one person's misfortune can be another's boost and Heather has had a fantastic 7 months or so starting with lifting th G1 title at Yucatan. So, congratulations to Heather the new GB #1

And we've still got 4 girls in the top 50; had hoped for top 25 but top 50 is still excellent. Heather and Steph have both made the MD of the Felixstowe 10k on the senior circuit this week so are cutting their teeth away from the junior circuit now too

Top 4 Brit Girl juniors this week:

12 Heather Watson; 25 Laura Robson; 40 Hannah James; 49 Steph Cornish

Top 4 Brit Boy juniors this week:

76 Alistair Barnes; 84 Ahmed El Menshawy; 85 David Thomson; 112 Oliver Golding

New Brit Boy in the top 100

Jack Carpenter picked up a Grade 2 title in Egypt last week to catapult him into the top 100 for the first time. Top 4 Brit Boys this week: 85 Ahmed; 88 David; 93 Jack; 95 Alistair

Top 4 Girls: 14 Heather; 25 Laura; 48 Hannah; 55 Steph

Heather Watson, US Open junior champion!!

Heather's brilliant year, starting with her lifting the G1 in Yucatan at the end of 2008, just went stratospheric with her walloping her opponents from QF onwards for the total loss of only 11 games; the QF for sure gave Heather the belief to go all the way by beating world #2 junior Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand 6-2 6-1.

Heather herself is now world #3 junior, having started the US Open at #12

Laura Robson made the semis of the US Open juniors and is back up to #20 in the junior list, although she picked up a nice bunch of senior ranking points as a Wild Card into the qualies for the senior US Open, failing by a whisker to earn herself a place in the Main Draw.

With Heather and Laura, GB's future looks very good indeed

Meanwhile, there's big news in the Boys list too; largely on the back of being runner-up in the G2 US Junior Hard Court Championships, Oliver Golding who is still 15 for another couple of weeks has taken over as GB #1 boy at world #77

Top 5 Brit Girls this week: 3 Heather; 20 Laura; 47 Hannah; 50 Steph; 118 Natalie Beazant

Top 5 Brit Boys this week: 77 Oliver; 80 Ahmed; 84 David; 88 Jack; 111 Alastair

Tom Allen joins the top 100

Things have been a bit quiet since Heather lifted the US Open junior title but it's nice to report a new British name in the top 100 lists when it happens. Nice runs to the semis in two events in the Balkans last month have helped Tom to his career high #99 last week.

Top 5 Brit Boys this week: 80 Oliver Golding; 81 Ahmed El Menshawy; 84 Jack Carpenter; 90 David Thomson; 100 Tom Allen

Top 5 Brit Girls this week: 3 Heather Watson; 23 Laura Robson; 65 Hannah James; 81 Steph Cornish; 137 Natalie Beazant

It's that time of year again!

This time (last week anyway!) last year saw Heather Watson really taking off when she won the G1 at Yucatan; this year saw Jessica Ren, aged only 15 and a bit, have an excellent run there all the way to the semis where she lost to the eventual title winner; thereby catapulting Jess up the junior rankings to world #110 and GB #5 leapfrogging Lucy Brown and Natalie Beazant.

Top 5 Brit Girl juniors: 4 Heather Watson; 23 Laura Robson; 81 Stephanie Cornish; 100 Hannah James; 110 Jessica Ren.

Top 5 Brit Boy juniors: 83 Oliver Golding; 84 Ahmed El Menshawy; 85 Jack Carpenter; 91 David Thomson; 100 Tom Allen.

With the calendar year about to click over and the 1991 born become history, as it were, and some good British displays at the December tourney fest that is Yucatan, Eddie Herr and the Orange Bowl time to list the top 10 Brit boys and girls perhaps (with birth year in brackets):-

The girls: 4 Heather Watson (92); 25 Laura Robson (94); 83 Steph Cornish (91); 96 Hannah James (91); 101 Jess Ren (94); 134 Lucy Brown (93); 136 Natalie Beazant (93); 146 Elisha Gabb (93); 173 Daneika Borthwick (93); 195 Jen Ren (93)

The boys: 62 Jack Carpenter (92); 63 Oliver Golding (93); 84 Ahmed El Menshawy (91); 91 David Thomson (91); 100 Tom Allen (92); 119 George Morgan (93); 120 James Marsalek (92); 154 Tom Farquharson (92); 155 Alasair Barnes (91); 167 Richard Gabb (92); 169 Christopher Simpson (92)

Good luck everybody, in either juniors or seniors or both, in 2010

With the 1991-ers now having passed out of the junior ranks (and may the British among them go on to successful senior careers! ), the world top 100s have 4 Brit Girls and 5 Brit Boys in today's first rankings list of 2010:-

Girls: 3 Heather; 23 Laura; 82 Jess; 97 Lucy

Boys: 33 Oliver; 41 Jack; 65 Tom; 81 George; 94 James

Good luck everyone in 2010