A group of young American players are ready to dominate the highest level of the women’s tour, according to former world No.1 Lindsay Davenport.
At this year’s Australian Open five women from America progressed to the fourth round of the tournament. A milestone that was last achieved at the tournament back in 2003. With the exception of Serena Williams, all of those players are aged under 25. In the current top 100, 12 American women feature. The youngest being 17-year-old Amanda Anisimova at 87th and the oldest being 38-year-old Venus Williams at 36th.
“I am not surprised. It’s been a long time coming. We had so much success in the 80s and 90s, and then a little bit of a lull.” Davenport told Ubitennis about the rise of her teenage compatriots.
List of American women in the top 100
| Rank | Player | age | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Sloane Stephens | 25 | ||||
| 16 | Serena Williams | 37 | ||||
| 17 | Madison Keys | 23 | ||||
| 35 | Danielle Collins | 25 | ||||
| 36 | Venus Williams | 38 | ||||
| 37 | Sofia Kenin | 20 | ||||
| 56 | Alison Riske | 28 | ||||
| 68 | Bernarda Pera | 24 | ||||
| 87 | Amanda Anisimova | 17 | ||||
| 88 | Madison Brengle | 28 | ||||
| 93 | Taylor Townsend | 22 | ||||
| 100 | Coco Vandeweghe | 27 | ||||
One player that had made a name for herself in Melbourne is Danielle Collins. A two-time NCAA champion that had never won a grand slam main draw match prior to this year. Collins, who is playing in just her third season as a professional, stunned three seeds on route to a semi-final meeting with Petra Kvitova on Thursday. Her victims included Julia Goerges, Caroline Garcia and two-time grand slam champion Angelique Kerber.
“She’s had a tough draw. She earned her way here. She works so hard, so it is all about her success.” Davenport said in praise of Collins. “Sometimes with this generation, they want to play and they don’t, but this means the world to her.”
Davenport retired from tennis in 2010 after accumulating $22,166,338 in career prize money. The 13th highest sum of all time on the WTA Tour (as of 14/1/2019). She is a three-time grand slam champion in both singles and doubles. Winning a total of 93 WTA titles with 55 of those occurring in singles competition.
Looking ahead to the future, Davenport is confident that the rising stars from her home country can make a big impact on the WTA Tour. Believing that Collins’ run to the Australian Open semi-finals could trigger a snowball effect among her Fed Cup team mates.
“We have a great group of players from about 15-23 coming up and once a few of them start doing well, like Danielle (Collins), I think there is going to be a lot of success coming.” She concluded.
In the Open Era, 86 grand slam titles have been won by an American woman. The second highest by a country is Germany with 25.
The full interview can be listened to below :-
Note: Interview conducted by Ubaldo Scanagatta
