Here are the top 22. Top 22 because Corbalan is ranked 22nd the first week of the season:p The age is self explanatory, the Aging factor is what each players factor is. Roughtly speaking it is a measure of how much of his potential a player is playing at due to his age (so young and old players have low percentages, in the prime of your career it is higher. Different players reach their peaks at different ages. Anyway it means that for most attributes if you have 100 skill say and 90% aging you will play like you are a 90 skill player. The score is what I have used to track progress of how good a player is. Basically your attributes combined into a single number saying who is better/worse


1. Alan Gallimore (17years, 35 weeks old, Aging 88%, score: 5.2)
Honestly I feel like this is ill deserved. 5.2 is not good enough for me. He physical attributes are unimpressive. He is talented but certainly not too fit or mentally strong. I reckon once these players start going to the major amateur competitions he will be overtaken.

2. Linus Burmann ( 17 years, 36 weeks, Aging 89%, score 5.6)
Won a JG1 recently, is the second fastest player and pretty strong to boot. Talented, decently fit. His main weaknesses are that he is not mentally the strongest which will hurt him on the important break points and that he is very specialised for clay. We will see what he can do in the hard court Australian open.

3. Se-Jin Ma (17 years, 37 weeks, 95%, 5.56)
Helped enourmasly by how quickly he is aging. Physically strong. Bit of a weak serve holds him back from the top but he brings out his best in the tough moments. I reckon he will fall by the wayside a bit once other kids catch up physically.

4. Stepan Melikov ( 17years 38weeks, 95%, 6.05)
Easily the best player and should take number 1 easily. A hard court specialist so may struggle off it but has one of the best baseline games in the juniors without compromising on his serve too much. He is fast, talented, mentally tough and one of the fittest juniors going. My pick for the Australian Open.

5. Helmut Wirth ( 17years 49weeks 96%, 5.53)
Low score for such a high aging factor but he is a doubles partner for Se-Jin Ma (Same owner) so it is unlikely too many doubles pairings will be able to stand against them in the big competitions.The fittest player in the juniors right now and needs to make that count and get as many skill points as possible. He is also talented which will help with that. Right now he has decent skills, won't climb the summit to number 1 for a while though I reckon.

6. Girardo Amati (17 years 13 weeks, 90%, 5.33)
One of the younger players in the list. Having an end of year bithday is not a good thing in the juniors. Has done well inspite of it though. Relies on his massive physical strength to pound oppenents and good speed into submission. His is a clay specialist and so will be in the conversation in the French but aside from that I don't see him winning the big competitions. Is the least fit player out fo the top 22 and so even with his undoubted talent he will struggle to improve as he will need a lot of rest. I can see him dropping out of the top 10 pretty quickly.

7. Crisovao Aldana (17years 42 weeks, 89%, 5.37)
Again has done well from picking his competitions as opposed to ability. His strength and speed are not weaknesses but not strengths either. A decent all round player that will end up in the later rounds of a fair few competitions without threatening to win them. He has the best serve in the juniors and as such will always be tough to break and therefore beat.

8. Matt Reese ( 17 years 48 weeks, 96%, 5.26)
Incredibly talented and fit, really should have a higher rating than this. Tends to stick mostly to hard courst. He has one of the top baseline games amonst the juniors as well as the best all round physical player. Struggles a bit on the big points and so on close games but should be able to win most matches without them being close. His major issue is a complete lack of a serve. I reckon the overt focus on his baseline game has hurt his ranking and so when he improves hsi serve his ranking will shoot up.

9. Cetko Kropic. (17years, 35 weeks, 85%, 5.45)
Not overly developed and so has a lot of improvement left. Mostly going off good all round skills and mental toughness. I can see a quick rise through the ranks as he starts to get closer to physical maturity.

10. Helmut Erhardt (17 years, 33 weeks, 95%, 5.24)
NCan't see him lasting much longer here. A weak serve but a big physical player. Not ridiculously talented or fit. Not a million miles off his peak but is not that great right now.

11. Gilbert Belgy (17 years 45 weeks 91%, 5.19)
Simply put the best baseline player in the juniors. Bar none. Above average speed and strength but is massively let down by being mentally flaky and having the worst serve in the top 22 here. And probably well below it. Quite fixable as it is a trainable skill and will be cheap but will hurt him massively for the moment. Like Reese his rating will improve quickly once that starts to get improved.

12. Jonathan Stagg (17 years 51 weeks, 87%, 5.63)
Perfect birthday for juniors, he is the oldest of this years graduating class of juniors. Like so many top end juniors his success is built on natural physical ability and talent. He is the strongest and the fastest of the juniors. Fitness is not great and his skills could sue a bit more work but not a draw anyone will relish. Especially on hard courts which are his favourite.

13. Stepan Whitaker (17years 49weeks, 96%, 5.32)
Has gotten this far out of growing up quickly. Another strong baseline game/weak server. His physical skills and mental game are a bit underwhelming though as well as not being the most talented plaeyr out there).

14. Damion Amor (17 years 29weeks, 92%, 5.7)
Highest ranked out of the Spainish players. Decent all round skills but really, really lacks for pace on the court which hurts while receiving. A clay specialist (like all the spainish really). Still I can see him rising slightly in the rankings through his impressive skill/serve.

15. Sergi Calibo (17year 41 weeks, 88%, 4.89)
Another Spainish clay specialist. Not a great serve, physically average but overall I can't see him going far except in the clay season. Even then there are better clay court players.

16. Milos Sirak (17 years 26weeks, 95%, 4.9)
Will dorp like a rock. Slightly better skills than Calibo but not much. Slow on the court and not particularly strong either so will struggle to maintain this position. At 95% already does not have a massive amoun of room for improvement either.

17. Martin Bittner (17years 25 weeks, 93%, 4.48)
Swiss no. 2 but Burmann the number 1 won't see his position under much threat. Skill set is under whelming. Not physically weak, unfit, not overly talented. Honestly I am more impressed he got to this position in the first place as opposed to anything else.

18. Ray Caravia (17 years 21 weeks, 91%, 5.36)
Should raise a bit but even amongst specialists he is incredibly weak off his preferred surface of clay. Can't see him turning up to much else. It is a pity as he his talented and exceptionally mentally tough. Will suddenly appear in the picture in the clay season and might pull with some potential to pull of an upset off of it but I would not hold my breath.

19. Phillipe Gantois (17 years 28 weeks, 87%, 4.86)
Not the best but still some room for improvement. Slightly on the slow side and could be fitter but with plenty of talent and a bit of growing up left to do he could rise in the rankings a bit towards the latter half of the year.

20. Artuer Kulikovsky (17years 25 weeks, 81%, 4.48)
Plenty of room for improvement as he ages but it is needed badly. No great serve and slow. Without the most talent or the best fitness he might struggle to improve as he would hope. Certainly won't be a big player at the start of the year.

21. Bruno Ballou (16 years 51 weeks, 91%, 4.81)
Youngest player in the list and the only one that will be able to play juniors in a years time. Second week of the year birthday and growing up quickly make for a perfect junior player. Physically not the best and has to work on his serve a bit. May well sit out a lot of the big events this year given he can play them next year instead.

22. Bruno Corbalan (17 years 21 weeks, 81%, 4.71)
One of the younger players and tied for the lowest aging factor gives plenty of room for improvement. Not sure it will all happen this year. His physical strength in particular is far too low. His speed his hardly record breaking either. About average in talent but with strong endurance will help him get experience. Strong mental game will help with close matches. Should be able to catch a few ahead of him but is unlikely to trouble the top juniors this year.

And

181st Natalio Arvizu (15 years 33 weeks, 73%, 3.35)
Improving steadily and will get some international action this season. About average physically but decent talent and strong endurance should let him get the skills to do the talking.

Corbalan:

Bruno needed two competitions to bridge the gap between to the Italian and French Open. First up was a hard court JG1 in Manila, timed for the Junior WC rounds so most of Bruno's rivals would be away at that. It worked well giving him top seed. Quarter finals in the doubles was a bit disapointing. Bruno cruised through to the semi finals where he ended up against American John McCarthy who is a very athletic baseline player running up the rankings. He did not stop here and showed his prowess on hard courts brushing by Corbalan. Semi final is acceptable but I am not overly happy with how he got beaten so easily once he got there. He seems to just roll over for anyone with an edge against him.

Worrying about being too over played going into two big JGA competitions he let his second competition be singles only on a clay JG1 in France. And promptly fell apart. He got a bye to round 2 where he Barrachina of Argentina. He won the first in decent style and after wards he just could not win points. Barrachina dished out 18 double faults but still won the next two sets.

This is where Corbalan was handed a piece of luck as compatriot Calibo had a big semi final from a JG1 turn 52 weeks old so it could no longer count for the rankings. Losing that competition stuck Corbalan just ahead for the WC semi final vs South Africa. Overall Spain are better players but it was on Hard court which favoured the South Africans. The first two matches went 1-1 before Spain managed to edge out the doubles. Disapointing from Corbalan as the opposing pairing did not have high seeds. That left the highly favoured Reese to take on Caravia on a hard court. He showed he had the advantage but somehow just didn't win. Over 5 sets he scored 20 more points than Caravia but lost 3-2! This left Corbalan with the chance to win it for Spain against 60th ranked Durward. On hard courts he could provide a challenge and indeed he went a break up in each of the first 3 sets. Corbalan stormed back in the first two but could not break serve in the 3. Thankfully he stormed through the 4th set to take the match and send Spain to the final.

In the Italian Open plenty more came in for this competition and left Corbalan clinging on to the final seed. The doubles, always a bit of a lottery with partners, went terribly losing in round 1. In the singles he breezed through the first two matches before being drawn against Amati. Probably second favourite for the competition. I didn't expect the win but not taking a single game was just embarressing. Caravia surprisingly knocked out Burmann, the favourite leaving the door open for Amati. He went against Aldana in the finals, himself a solid clay courter and simply did not seem himself leaving Aldana to take the 3rd major of the year.

In the French open he again took the 16th seed and had a similar time out, losing in round 1 in the doubles. Beating off all non seeded opponents in the first two rounds of the singles before coming against the number 1 seeded Melikov who had won the Australian. He only managed 3 games here before bowing out. Interestingly Aldana and Amati met in the Quarters this time out with Amati taking this one before being knocked out by Burmann. I reckon that is the Italian's last chance. He is a clay specialist and for all his physical dominance I reckon he won't have the fitness for the senior game. The final came down to Burmann vs Se-jin Ma. Burmann lost the first set and then only allowed Ma 2 games as he picks up his second major and the top spot in the rankings.

Bruno, not having acheived much recently drops to 40th in the rankings. I am second guessing sending him into Wimbledon as I doubt he will be seeded.

Natalio Arvizu
Natalio has had an easy time of it recently. A big win in a JG3 in Alicante doubles (taking runner up after losing to the top 100 ranked Heath Pichford in 3 sets) helped him onto the national team at last. He lost both of his games as Argentina went down 3-2 to Spain but still good experience. Aside from that he met with stiffer competition at a second JG3 which had multiple top 100 opponents and got knocked out in the quarter finals.

Us Open:
Corbalan entered this in spite of the risk of being unseeded. It did not pay off and he fell quickly to the top 15 hard court specialist Stagg. Doubles was another disapointment. Unfortunately no one really wants to team up outside of their own stock of players. Pity. In the end Melikov went against Wirth who knocked out Burmann in the final. Wirth was never going to match the hard court ability of Melikov and fell easily.

Osaka Mayor's Cup:
Here it was Reese who knocked out the Burmann in the semi finals to make his second major final. For the second time it was Melikov who faced off against him. The first set was competitive, Reese driving him to 5-5 before going down 7-5,6-1. With his third major of the season Melikov moves back into the number 1 spot in the rankings. Indeed he has only lost one match one hard courts all season (to Reese near the start of the year in a JG2, so Reese can feel disapointed he has yet to convert a chance in one of the majors).

Orange Bowl:
Finally a bit of luck came Corbalan's way here. He got a qualifier in round 1 and was paired up with Kropic, a top 10 player. The bad news was that he had to play Kropic in round 2. Not the best top 16 player to go against but not much Corbalan can do without a seed. In the doubles things went much better including beating the pairing of Shuster and Caravia who already have a doubles major under their belt. In the end they came up just short against Melikov and Ares. In the singles Wirth was on a mission. He beat both Reese and Melikov to get to the final where he beat Stagg (who had knocked out Corbalan from the US Open). A bit of a surprise pairing in the finals. Burmann has seemingly decided to move on from juniors and played in an Amateur competition instead which he won.

Casablanca Cup:
Melikov decided to skip this, coming so soon after the Orange bowl. This left the way clear for Reese and Burmann to meet in the final. At the third time of asking Reese still felt just short giving Burmann his 4th major of the year. Corbalan got knocked out by Caravia in the second round and did not get any heroics in the doubles either.

Bruno Corbalan:
Corbalan had a bad drawer in the US Open and so decided to copy Arvizu's strategy and entered into a JG2 at the same time as the Osaka Mayor's Cup. It largely worked with his main rival being Ambrosio who is a fellow Spainard. Predictably both made their way to the final, where in spite of Ambrosio's superior clay court skills and physical strength, I felt confident in Corbalan's chances. It was a close match as Corbalan dropped the first set before racing into an early lead in the second. He fought off a come back attempt there to force the decider where he was just off the pace a bit. Close match but one Corbalan should have won. This was highlighted in a practise competition the following week with Corbalan beating Ambrosio. In the end he gained little in the ranking as a runner appearance at another JG2 a year ago expired the week before.

Natalio Arvizu
Took a risk and went for a JG2 on clay. JG2 is probably out of his level for the moment but with the US Open on at the same time I figured most of the usuals would be missing from this level. Turned out I was right and the two top 100 players in the competition were overplayed. Quickly he found himself in the semi final and then the final before taking the trophy! Corbalan has never taken a JG2 trophy before so this is a great achievement for a player so much younger. Now some grounding is needed here, both top 100 players were better than Natalio but were overplayed. Corbalan has never had such an easy run but still a great achievement. Brings him up to the top 100 with over two years left in his junior career! With less JG1/2/3s towards the end of the season this is unlikely to change until the 18 year olds (including Corbalan) get flushed at the start of the year. That should bring him well into the top 50.

He did take a JG4 which was nice but was more ensuring he does not lose the points from a JG4 he won near the start of last year.


1. Stepan Melikov (6.96, +0.91, 101%, +6%)
Yup you can go slightly over 100% in terms of your ability. In physical terms he won't get much better than this though his skills will keep him improving. He keeps the top spot in spite of less majors than Burmann, mostly due to more consistent performances. Good speed and endurance as a balanced game kept him in top spot.

2. Linus Burmann (6.61, +1, 97%, +8%)
The most majors including two off off of his favourite surface resulted in a succesful junior career. Definitely one of the more atletic players as well as competing with Aldana for the best serve of any junior. He also did have the number one spot for about half the season.

3. Helmut Wirth (6.5, +0.98, 101%, +5%)
At his physical peak. Not the most athletic but definitely talented hard court player. The major was probably a surprise but he was always capable of the upset. The fittest of the players on the junior circuit as it stands so I forsee a decent senior career as well.

Se-Jin Ma (6.67, +1.11, 101%, +6%)
Wirth's partner and top player to not get a major. Statistically the second best player but never quite hit the top of the majors. One of hte strongest players on the junior circuit.

Cristovao Aldana (6.27, +0.9, 96% +7%)
Took one major in the clay season which was impressive given the opposition. One of the weakeest physically but a powerhouse serve has helped him to be a constant member of the top 10.

Matt Reese (6.7, +1.44, 101%, +5%)
Biggest improvement that is mostly due to his bad build at the start of the year. As the serve has come up so has his ability. Definitely the bridesmaid of the group with 3 finals and no wins. Definitely still the weakest serve from the top 10 but the best baseline player.

Alan Gallimore (5.96, +0.76, 96%, +8%)
Statistically the weakest of the top 10 but managed to somewhat relevant in each of the majors. Having good seedings helped but impressive none the less. Physcially the weakeest and slowest of the top 10.

Jonathan Stagg (6.64, +1.01, 95%, +8%)
A hard court specialist who came up through the ranks throughout the year. By some distance the strongest player and up there with the fastest. A top serve but could use some work on the baseline game to keep up with the top players.

Cetko Kropic (6.24, +0.8, 93%, +8%)
Physically the least developed and so has plenty to improve on and already a greate player. Still has some catching up to do but that will come in time.

Girardo Amati (6.41, +1.08, 99%, +9%)
A greate clay court player, physically imposing and talented. Lacks the endurance for a decent senior career though I reckon.

Bruno Corbalan (5.64, +0.93, 89%, +8%)
Improving along the same pace as the top group but coming from behind. Still should be around longer than the ones above him.

So had a bit of a gap while I was away. Here is a quick recap on the progress of Bruno and Natalio.

Corbalan:

Has been edging up the senior ranks slowly. Amateur competitions provide plenty of matches, meaning he can take plenty of practise weeks in between competitions. They also give very few ranking points but large chunks of ranking points can wait for a few years. After 6 competitions and 3 wins he finally broke the top 1000. He also had a 3rd round finish and two semi finals. He then had to go into the ranks of the futures. His first future exposure was less than succesful going out in the second round to Lamon from the UK. He was a tough match up and the match lasted in 3. At 24 years of age he had plenty more time to increase his skill values to where Corbalan simply could not handle it even if he had the superior serve. Disappointing as I felt it winnable but anyway onwards and upwards. With so few matches played he will need the next competition soon to keep his form up.

Most of his contemporaries have gone with a heavier competition schedule to get up the ranks quicker, the top 18 results count and if you don't have 18 results they don't count. Still I feel like working on Corbalan's technical abilities first will help more. Burmann is currently leading this age group at 148th. Melikov is 289th but has taken a lighter tournament schedule.

Corbalan is coming into his physical prime at the moment and I want to take advantage of his high endurance to get as much experience as possible. It will be tough if he does not make enough deep tournament runs but he needs it given that skill increases cost more the higher they get.

Arvizu:
Has continued to get some solid results in the JG2 level. Thanks to a stroke of luck he also got 3 weeks with the U18 national squad as one of the top Argentian's slipped heavily in the rankings. He also managed to get seeded for the Italian Open reaching the 3rd round as his seeding dictated was likely, losing to Coya. Thus far Colanovic is leading the Junior rankings with 4 majors so far. Coya has taken the other 3 (all 3 clay ones) and lies in second. His ranking has slipped a bit as he has not managed to repeat the results in JG1s so far but is on track to be a top 5 player once the new year happens.

Bruno Corbalan:

To start the year he has going to FT3s on a slightly more regular basis. I noticed that practise matches were not always the best, he would frequently destroy players around his ranking so I decided to try and improve it. The first FT3 ended in frustration, only picking up 2 points from a quarter final finish after generating a mass of break points and simply not converting them. He lost more ranking points than he gained as his Amateur results from a year ago started to go out of date. The next one went better, especially a big win over Ambrosio in the quarters, a tough match that avoided another disapointment. He ended up being runner up to another Spainard, Calibo. He even made it to the semi finals in doubles, a rare good result there. It moves him into the top 500. He drops out again as an Amateur win is no longer counted (over a year old). He quickly jumps back into the top 450 as he wins another FT3, pretty much at a stroll. With that ranking he may give an FT2 a go in a few weeks.


Natalio Arvizu:
Talk about so close and yet so far. He was seeded 7th by the time the Australian Open came around giving him a decent run to the quarter finals where he met fellow country man Adelfo Olega. Olega was a much physically stronger player and has a preferance for hard courts however Arvizu has a slight advantage in most other areas as well as Olega being overplayed coming in to the match slightly. It was a tight encounter which Arvizu ended up scoring more points (91-90) and generated more break points but ended up losing in 3. As the quarter final exit was worth less than the JG2 win he had a year ago he drops to 9th in the rankings. Duane Ayer utilises his number one seed to take the win. Arvizu had a decent run in doubles making it to the semi finals.

In a bid to get his top 8 seeding back he entered into a clay JG1 in Paraguay. With most players resting at this point he breezed to his first JG1 title. He got back his 7th place in the rankings. The following week he helped Argentina to an emphatic win over Croatia. This left in serious danger of being overplayed so I only entered him into the singles in the Copa Gerdau. As a clay specialist I have high hopes for him here. As expected none of the lower seeds to take him on his favoured surface. In the quarters he faced number two seed Krystof Kouldeka. In a close match that swung this way and that Arvizu outscored him 126-116 and broke him 8 times, only getting broken 6 times in return. Still somehow he enginered a loss, losing the first and third sets on tie breakers. The title would be won by Arunas Vilkas. Arvizu drops to 8th in the rankings. The next round of international tennis has him helping Argentina to a win over the USA so they top the group. The match was essentially win all the rubbers that no. 1 Ayer was not involved in.

He is matching the ability that Corbalan was when he graduated from the Juniors and still has most of the year in juniors so he should be able to take the lower end senior competitions with a running start when it becomes time.