Ask most tennis players and the All England Club for them is a place of reverence, with its traditions and egalitarian laws.
Yet the same lawns have a history of putting irreverent teens into the spotlight. Remember the 17-year-old Boris Becker and his triumph in 1985 or the 17-year-old Martina Hingis beating Jana Novotna in the 1997 final to become the youngest singles champion at the All England club since Lottie Dod 110 years earlier? In the semis, the Swiss Miss had defeated another 16-year-old, Anna Kournikova.
There have been many others, especially on the ladies side of the competition. In 1979, Tracy Austin reached the semis at age 16 in 1979 before losing to Martina Navratilova. Andrea Jaeger was 17 when she reached the 1983 final after thrashing Billie Jean King 6-1, 6-1, but then fell short against Navratilova, who lost just once in 87 matches that year.
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Jennifer Capriati was a Wimbledon semi-finalist at the age of 15 (1991), while Monica Seles was 18 when she made it to the final in 1992; of course, she was already a five-time grand slam champion by then, with three French Open crowns, two Australians and a US Open.
In 1999, a 17-year-old Mirjana Lucic, now Lucic-Baroni, made it to the last four before losing to Graf, while a year later, the 17-year-old Jelena Dokic was in the semis. And, then of course, Maria Sharapova was also 17 when she stunned Serena Williams to win the title in 2004.
What are the odds, then, of another teen prodigy making it deep into the women’s draw this year?
There are three teenagers in the WTA’s top 100 — Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic at No 31, Croat Ana Konjuh at No 55 and No 67 Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic — and all three have a tough draw.
Bencic, seeded No 30, is in the same quarter as world No 1 Serena Williams, and could meet former No1 Ana Ivanovic in the third round, while Siniakova could meet Caroline Wozniacki in the second round.
Konjuh, who became the youngest WTA player to win a title since Tamira Paszek in 2006, following her triumph in Nottingham earlier this month, faces No 25 seed Alize Cornet in the opening round, and if she manages to get past the Frenchwoman, the teenager could meet No 8 seed Ekaterina Makarova in the third.
The odds, then, are certainly stacked against them, but playing on the hallowed turf of the All England Club could give a boost to their insurgent spirit, as it has done for the others in the past.
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