Australian teen Emerson Jones has secured the biggest win of her young career, taking down a top-50-ranked player for the first time.
The 16-year-old from the Gold Coast swept aside China’s world number 37 Xinyu Wang 6-4 6-0 at the Adelaide International on Monday.
“At the start of the match, because I have never played a top-50 player before, I was like a bit wary of how good she was, so I wasn’t quite sure,” said Jones, ranked number 373 in the world.
“But as the match went on I was like, ‘I have got this — if I really play well, I have got a chance.'”
Jones became the first Australian to finish a year as the top-ranked world junior last year.
On Monday, she produced a dominant display in her victory against Xinyu in just 71 minutes.
The Australian accepted a wildcard to play in Adelaide, evidencing the desire to fast-track the prodigious talent.
A daughter of Olympic triathlon silver medallist Loretta Harrop, Jones also has another wildcard for the looming Australian Open.
In 2024 she was a first-round loser in Melbourne — and a beaten finalist in the girls’ tournament — but now boasts additional weapons compared with a year ago.
“Mentally I have improved a lot from last year,” Jones said.
“I have got no expectations playing in these high-level tournaments, so I just play every game as hard as I can.
“I just have to prepare well … playing more matches and trying to tell myself before every single match that I need to be mentally good.
“Because that is probably mostly what tennis is about: whoever is the most headstrong will probably be the greatest.”
Jones, who turns 17 in July, is brushing off comparisons to the great Ash Barty and their respective junior achievements.
“It’s really exciting to know that she has done all of this … I find it really exciting that people say ‘she did this and that’, and I am following in her footsteps,” Jones said.
“But I just think we’re all on our different journeys and I just want to see how I go. Obviously Ash Barty was amazing, so it would be very hard to keep up with that.”
Jones will face Russia’s world number nine Daria Kasatkina in the second round.
AAP
