Aussie teen tennis star Jones notches breakthrough win
Australia’s much-hyped 16-year-old tennis player Emerson Jones has claimed the biggest win of her career at the Adelaide International.
Emerson Jones is like most teenage girls: headstrong.
And Australia’s hyped tennis teen says it’s a key to her success after taking down a top-50-ranked player for the first time.
The 16-year-old from the Gold Coast swept aside China’s world No.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 No.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’.”
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Jones last year became the first Australian to finish a year as the top-ranked world junior.
On Monday, she produced a dominant display in her victory against world No.37 Xinyu in just 71 minutes.
Jones says she’ll keep the win in perspective: Xinyu has started the year sluggishly, coming through qualifying to play in Adelaide after a first-round loss at the Brisbane International.
The Australian accepted a wildcard to play in Adelaide, evidencing the desire to fast-track the prodigious talent.
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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,” said Jones, coached by Sam Stosur’s former mentor David Taylor.
“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.”
Asked if she was headstrong, Jones replied: “I have come a long way from where I was, but I have still got lots of improvement to do.”
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.”
In Monday’s opening match of the women’s tournament in Adelaide, world No.25 Yulia Putintseva downed Croatia’s world No.19 Donna Vekic 6-2 6-3.
