Missing one teen star player? Well here's another...
Three days into the 2025 Adelaide International and Emerson Jones has landed the prime Wednesday night TV slot. It is merited.
Beaming as only a true winner can. Pic: Tennis Australia
How on earth do you schedule your matches when the top attraction - plus a raft of other serious names - drops out at the very last moment?
Such was the day one challenge faced by the organisers of the Adelaide International at its WTA 500 and ATP 250 tennis tournaments this week.
The late withdrawal of star teenager Mirra Andreeva - understandably done in after a week where she reached the last four in the Brisbane International singles on Saturday and won the doubles there a day later - would have created a headache for anyone.
Step forward the Gold Coast’s Emerson Jones, world ranked 371 but with much more in her locker.
First up on show court one on Monday was a bold call by the organisers and while it was not unexpected for Jones to rise to the occasion, what almost no-one had expected was that she might beat an opponent ranked (at 37), 334 places higher than her.
And which she did emphatically, a 6-4, 6-0 dismantling of China’s Xinyu Wang in 71 minutes before an arena that was packed long before the end, disguising her ease and simplicity of passage.
Nothing beats that winning feeling.
Post match, the 16-year-old Jones talked about being in the zone mentally and having no expectations coming into such tournaments. This WTA 500 is, by far, her biggest competition to-date.
For context, Jones was a finalist at the 2024 AO and Wimbledon Junior Girls singles tournaments and ended the year by winning the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals in China. She is also the world ranked number one junior.
Monday was her first ever senior tour win and there will be many more. Everything is changing.
Any media around Jones, said Tennis Australia (TA) pre match, will be press conferences only. Let's keep comparisons with recent champ Ash Barty to a minimum was the thrust.
It is a fair call but, already, the cat is out of the bag.
It’s too late after Monday to stop the hype around Emerson.
At just after midday on Monday 6 January, Jones skipped from her chair to the baseline in Adelaide. She was a set and 5-0 up against Wang and knew she was about to claim her first ever senior tour win. She couldn’t wait.
“As the match went on, I was kind of like, I've got this. If I really play well and focus, I've got a chance,” said Jones. “Even at 5-0 I was still, ‘I just have to keep focusing on every point’. She's a top 50 player so she's very mentally good and could come back at any time.”
The Aussie wildcard was being kind, the straight sets victory was nothing less than a rout.
It can never be easy losing to a 16-year-old when you’re ranked 37 in the world but Xinyu Wang remained outwardly polite.
The scoring in the final game, on Wang’s serve, went double-fault, long, long and then the decider before Jones clasped both hands to her face and strode forward to shake hands. She didn’t quite know what to do, whether to jump up and down, shout to the skies or wave regally to all sides of a by now packed, show court one.
She was saved from her indecision when her best pal rushed to the front row and gave her a good old hug. The pal’s mum followed up and hug number two ensued. Autographs and selfies then flowed with seemingly half the front row before Jones crossed the court to the exit where another mum pushed her young daughters across for a pic.
An hour later in the interview room Jones beamed as brightly as she played. Every answer was accompanied by a foot long smile yet she spoke sensibly and with a precision still alien to many people her age.
What’s between the ears matters as much as anything she said. It is sound advice.
“I think just playing more matches and trying to tell myself before every single match that I need to be mentally good 'cause that's probably what mostly tennis is about,” she said.
“I just try to hold myself high and just be mentally good every match.”
How tough is she mentally she was asked?
“I've come a long way to what I was. But I've still got lots of improving to do.”
Monday’s win takes her just inside the world top 300 in what promises to be the most exacting of months. Once Adelaide is done, she will make her debut at the senior AO as a wildcard and, unless she challenges deep into that tournament, will then turn out in the AO junior singles.
Whatever the event right now, Jones will enter it brimming with confidence.
The first two games, both lost easily to Wang, were to test the water only it transpired. Once she realised that her baseline pounding - she is an aggressive player who hits low and long to each flank - came with a greater weight than anything Wang could throw up, she simply blew her opponent away, physically and mentally.
Although not yet a net lover, she uses variety and thought in tandem with pace. It is a winning mix.
When she received serve from the 180cm tall Wang, the much smaller Jones stood with her toes touchline the baseline every time. Wang, by contrast, was a near body length further back before each Jones barrage. It said everything, Jones composed and calm throughout.
Back at the press conference, the questions turned predictably to Barty.
“It's exciting to know she's done all of this. Even with juniors, I find it exciting that people say she did this, and that I'm following in her footsteps,” said the new kid on the block.
I just think we're all on our different journeys. I just want to see how I go and just focus on myself. Obviously Ash Barty was amazing, it would be very hard to keep up with that. I just want to see how I go.”
Next up is the third seed Daria Kasatkina, world ranked nine, and Jones’ time on show court one is done.
World ranked number 9 Daria Kasatkina is next in line for Emerson Jones
Kasatkina is 11 years older than Jones and has twice been a finalist at the Adelaide International. They will play the evening’s final match on Centre Court (expect a 9pm, or later, start) which houses about 5000 spectators. Kasatkina has enjoyed warm support in the past here yet the cheering will be one way only today.
It is almost inconceivable that she will win but The Drive in Adelaide has history here with one of its own.
Twenty-seven years ago now, in January 1998, the ATP Adelaide tournament was won by a newcomer named Lleyton Hewitt whose victims en route to his first tour title included Mark Woodforde and, staggeringly still, Andre Agassi.
Hewitt too, was just 16-years-old.
ENDS