It’s only 11 years since a teenager last won the ladies' singles at Wimbledon, Maria Sharapova carrying off the Venus Rosewater dish at the tender age of 17, yet it seems unthinkable that a teenager could win now.
The WTA’s current promotional campaign to highlight the ‘rising stars’ of the future targets players of 23 and under, perhaps a sign that most women don’t get to challenge seriously for the major titles until they’re in their mid-20s, with the exception of people like Simona Halep and Eugenie Bouchard, who get there a shade sooner.
But among the rising stars who could feature at this year’s Wimbledon, one of the brightest is indeed still a teenager. At 18, Belinda Bencic is the youngest of the seeds, and comes to Wimbledon in good form.
She had a glorious week in s'Hertogenbosch, starting with being glued to the TV watching her fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka win the French Open and ending with her reaching the final, and her good run in Eastbourne is still in progress.
I loved grass from the beginning
Bencic was just 16 weeks old when Hingis won Wimbledon, and six years old when Roger Federer won the men’s title. She remembers the latter – "I had all the posters on my wall" – and by then was playing tennis at the centre run by Hingis’ mother, Melanie Molitor.
Molitor learned a lot about managing teenage prodigies from her own daughter, and has clearly prepared Bencic for her impressive rise to the top 30 at the age of just 18.
Bencic first played on grass at 14 at a junior event in Halle.
"I loved it from the beginning," she tells Wimbledon.com. "So afterwards in Wimbledon I felt very nice on grass. I like the low bounces, and you can play smart on grass. The bad bounces aren’t a big problem for me because I play a lot of half-volleys."
Like Hingis, Bencic was a Wimbledon champion at 16, winning the girls' singles two years ago (Hingis won the girls' singles at 12 and the women’s doubles at 16).
Two other teenagers in the Wimbledon draw to look out for are Croatia’s Ana Konjuh and Donna Vekic. But if you widen the age range to the WTA’s 'Rising Stars’ pool, one name to look out for is Karolina Pliskova.
Until about 18 months ago, the name ‘K Pliskova’ would have meant one of two players - Karolina or her twin sister Kristina. Then Karolina won her first title in Kuala Lumpur, and the ranking gap between the twins, which until then had been paper-thin, suddenly widened. Now there are about 120 places between them, with Karolina knocking on the door of the top 10 and seeded No.11 for The Championships.
She is now 23, though reluctant to admit it.
"They say about twins that they’re two years behind normal people," the Czech says. "And I feel like I’m 19 or 18. Even my coach says I’m a bit slower with some things."
That is actually consistent with many of the great names of Czech tennis, most of whom reached their peak in their late 20s or early 30s (with the exception of the reigning Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, who won her first title at 21).
"It doesn’t matter what age you are," Pliskova says. "I don’t care if I win Wimbledon now or at 30!"
The Czech admits to a mild allergy to grass, but she appears to have discovered her ability on tennis’s oldest surface. She survived a long three-setter against Johanna Konta in the first round at Birmingham two weeks ago and then reached the final.
"I’ve had the feeling that grass should be good for me," she says. "But I didn’t have any good results on grass until last week."
She has also been unlucky with draws, landing Sabine Lisicki in the second round at Wimbledon last year.
Pliskova is one of the quieter players on the women’s tour, perhaps because she comes from the rural town of Louny. Her hobby outside tennis is fishing, something she has neglected in recent months, but she’s promised herself a return to her rod, after she’s reeled in a few big fish at Wimbledon.
"You have peace with fishing which you sometimes need," she says. "My sister and I like going with our father – we don’t see him that often, so we go fishing, just the three of us, there’s no people, so we just sit and watch and talk."
Of the other rising names, Elina Svitolina (age 20, seeded 17th) and Garbine Muguruza (age 21, seeded 20th) distinguished themselves with runs to the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.
Madison Keys (age 20, seeded 21st) has a grasscourt title under her belt from Eastbourne last year and is coached by a former Wimbledon champion in Lindsay Davenport, and Caroline Garcia (age 21, seeded 32) is part of a revival in fortunes for French women’s tennis.
Outside the seeds, look out for two 21-year-olds: Zarina Diyas, one of the only current professional players to be born in Kazakhstan (many play under the Kazakh flag but most were born elsewhere in the old Soviet Union, whereas Diyas was born and grew up in Kazakhstan), and one of the several eastern European players seeking Australian citizenship, Daria Gavrilova (known as ‘Dasha’).
And let’s not overlook two 22-year-olds: Kristina Mladenovic, who has claimed several significant scalps in the majors, and the former Australian Open semi-finalist Sloane Stephens.
The chances are it’ll be an older player who raises the Venus Rosewater dish this year, but watch out for the rising stars.
