Super Emerson Jones flies the flag for Aussie juniors

[Pelican Press 0]

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Super Emerson Jones flies the flag for Aussie juniors

Daria Kasatkina’s exit may have marked the end of the seniors’ challenge at Roland Garros but 16-year-old Emerson Jones has ensured the *********** singles quest surges on at the junior event in Paris.

Gold Coast’s exceptional Jones, who’s already reached two junior grand slam finals, both last year in Melbourne and Wimbledon, got past her first hurdle as the world’s No.2 junior and top seed here, defeating Capucine Jauffret, an American with a French tennis background, 6-1 1-6 6-2.

The Aussie youngster, who also got knocked out in the semi-finals of the *********** Open in January, overcame a second-set blip on Monday to get back on course in the most difficult tournament for any Aussie junior to win.

Lesley Hunt was the last *********** junior winner at Roland Garros in 1968 and no *********** girl has won in any of the slams since Ash Barty in 2011 at Wimbledon.

But Jones is a rare talent and has already earmarked the prospect of the sort of dramatic rise in the junior game that another Queensland-based teenager, Maya Joint, has been making.

“It’s great. I mean, Maya pretty much went from not having a ranking to pretty much the top 50 really quick, which shows obviously that anything’s possible,” said Jones.

“She’s really inspiring and she is a great person, so it is really great for her.”

Jones’ mum is Loretta Harrop, an Olympic silver medallist triathlete, while her dad Brad Jones is a former *********** Rules footballer who won the 1999 Grogan Medal in the Queensland State League, so her sporting genes run deep.

Jones, who’s currently at a career-high No.206, is already enjoying her first professional outings, explaining: “When I play WTA, I guess there’s no pressure on me.

“I’m only young and I’m not really too high yet. It’s obviously an experience every women’s WTA match I play, because you can also learn a lot from your opponent.”

She quickly adapted on Monday against Jauffret, whose French grandfather Francois was twice a French Open semi-finalist, losing in 1966 to *********** great Tony Roche.

“She lifted her level, definitely, in the second set and I probably dropped mine a bit and realised I needed to probably up my level in the third set and play the same way as I did in the first,” reflected Jones.

She’s the last Aussie singles competitor left in the junior draws, after Ty Host went down 6-3 7-6 (8-6) to American sixth seed Benjamin Willwerth in the first round of the boys’ competition.

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