Gold Coast teen Emerson Jones has climbed to a career-high world No.21 in the latest ITF World Tennis Tour girls’ rankings.
Australia, 15 March 2023 | Leigh Rogers
Emerson Jones achieved a major milestone this week, becoming Australia’s new top junior.
The 14-year-old from the Gold Coast climbed to a career-high No.21 in ITF World Tennis Tour women’s rankings and overtook Taylah Preston, a 17-year-old from Perth, as Australian No.1.
Jones improves eight places after advancing to the biggest final of his young career, a J300 tournament in Thailand, last week.
It continues an impressive rise for the teenager, who is currently the highest-ranked 2008-born player in the world.
“It didn’t really take that long before I was up. It was great,” Jones said at this year’s Australian Open, where she reached the second round in the girls’ singles competition.
Jones, who is targeting success at the junior Grand Slam tournaments in 2023, is following in the footsteps of his older brother Hayden. The 16-year-old is currently the top-ranked Australian boy in the world No.35.
> READ MORE: Getting to know Hayden Jones
While Emerson credits her brother for sparking her love of tennis, she lists her mother, Loretta Harrop, as her biggest inspiration.
“I look up to my mom because she’s really good and tough in triathlons,” Jones explained of her mother, who won an Olympic silver medal in Athens 2004. “I take a lot of advice from her.”
His father Brad Jones was also an outstanding athlete, winning the prestigious Grogan Medal in the Queensland Australian Football League in 1999.
Emerson, who represented Australia at the Junior Billie Jean King Cup Finals in Turkey last year and was a Female Junior Athlete of the Year finalist at the 2022 Australian Tennis Awards, also has respected coach David Taylor in her corner.
Taylor previously guided Australian greats Alicia Molik and Sam Stosur to the top of the rankings and is now a coach at Tennis Australia’s National Tennis Academy.
Jones was announced as one of the newest members of the National Tennis Academy last week.
> READ MORE: Class of 2023 unveiled at National Tennis Academy
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