Post by DevilishAttitude on Nov 12, 2013 16:26:29 GMT -5
Official Best Newcomer 2013 nominees are Bouchard, Keys and Puig. All deserved and obvious. Massive slap in the face to Svitolina, I know we've just been saying she's overranked but even so winning an actual title and finishing in the top 50 would merit a nomination at least. No one really overlooked, I guess Muguruza could have been in contention had she played the second half of the year. Schmiedlova made good, solid progress but not very eye-catching. Tomljanovic may have finished in the top 100 for the first time but I'd be more inclined to nominate her for Comeback Player.
Anyway, it should be between Bouchard and Keys. I like Puig's game but she's had a lot of bad losses, especially since Wimbledon - although she's the only one to make a Slam second week - and is the oldest of the three.
Bouchard went from 144 to 32, best Slam result was 3R, made a MM F, top 20 wins over Stosur (by ret.), Ivanovic, Stephens, Jankovic.
Keys went from 149 to 37 (exactly the same number of places risen!), best Slam results were 2 x 3R, made one MM SF, wins over Safarova, Li, CSN.
That's almost exactly the same record but the fact that Keys is a year younger should really sway it in her favour (and Li is the best win of either).
Thanks for all that info. I would happily call it a tie between those two. But give it to Bouchard, because we all agree that Keys will probably be better than EB from here on out, right? So let EB have her day in the sun. Plus she's moved into in Slam seed territory, which is impressive.
I think there's one rather simple reason that Svitolina has not been nominated, and that is her nationality. Unlike the other three, she comes from the Eastern bloc and there has been pretty much zero hype about her, despite the fact she has won a WTA title and is only just behind Bouchard and Keys in the ranks. Puig has beaten better opposition and got good results at two of the four slams, but her results have been much more erratic - she's lost matches against the type of opposition that Svitolina has been winning against this year, she's behind her in the ranks and she's nearly a year older, so I think the fact she's based in the US and speaks English well has played a part in her being nominated.
It will be interesting to see if Muguruza can keep up the momentum she had built up before her surgery - she would have likely been at least Top 50 by now and was matching the three nominees in results before her lay-off, Schmiedlova has had even less fanfare than Svitolina, and Tomljanovic lost too many close matches to be nominated.
I personally believe Keys should win, for the same reason you have mentioned yourself - she is the youngest by nearly a year, and her results have been impressive for a 17/18 year old. She's much further ahead of both Bouchard and Puig when they were her age too.
I'm not as prepared to give it to Bouchard so she can have 'her day in the sun' - we will get a real idea of her potential at the start of next year, when she has very few points to defend and will have plenty of opportunities to establish herself as the main teen hope before she turns 20.