Last May i got to know L.B.O. who, few months later, has by chance won Wimbledon junior; this was a victory which does not worth a lot of attention, as it is perfectly normal for L.B.O. to win Wimbledons.
What i did not instead expect is that the attention that I tributed to L.B.O. during Bonfiglio has triggered the reaction of N.B.O., who in last May (i.e. when I discovered L.B.O.) was ranked outside the top 300 players in the world and now ranks in the 144th spot. During the last 3 months Elli Mandlik – N.B.O. has reached the final of a 100k, qualified to the main draw and reached the 2nd round of the San Hosè WTA tournament (in which she was beaten by 6-2, 5-7 6-7 by n. 4 Badosa), she was a semi-finalist in a 60k and won a 25k. Ellie has reached the peak (up to now) of her career yesterday, having won her first match in the main draw of the U.S. open in three set, against a taugh opponent as Tamara Zidansek. Through this result Elli will enter, at 21 year old, the top 120 in the WTA ranking.
I have seen the first set and the last few games of the match between Mandlik and Zidansek and it was not a nice one; not even close to be. During the first set both players missed a lot; in the last games, Mandlik has collected many double faults, as of course she suffered from heavy pressure; eventually though, also thanks to Zidansek being particularly generous in adding an unforced to another, the American managed to win. Elli impressed me in particular for the effectiveness of her second serve; nonetheless, i must say that watching her from TV, I could not recognise the fluidity and elegance in her swings and the pureness in striking that impressed me so much when I saw her live. I want to check her again against Jabeur, the perfect opponent to understand if the quality of Mandlik’s tennis also emerges watching her from the sofa, or if – as it also applies, in my opinion, to Bouzarnescu, Elli is a player that needs to be watched live, in order to fully appreciate her tennis.
But it’s not this match in itself that was important to me; the reason i am writing this post is to express my satisfaction to see that eventually Mandlik, defined a late bloomer also by her mother, is eventually achieving results more in line with the expectations I had on her. At the end of 2021 Ellie was still ranking outside the first 500, and it was quite a mystery to me how a girl who is able to strike the ball so neatly could not win a single tennis match, not even at fairly low levels. I hope that this favourable period for her will continue and that within the next two years she will settle in the top 50. Elli is indeed a lovely player to watch, even if her very small frame will most possibly – at least in my opinion – prevent her from becoming a top-top notch player.
I want to end this post with two further considerations, both on other players I have written about in the last Bonfiglio edition. The first is on Learner Tien: the 16 year old American boy has been granted with a wild card for the main draw and he managed to win the first set against Kecmanovic, eventually losing by 6-3, 1-6 3-6, 3-6. The second consideration is about L.B.O.: she has been granted with a wild card for the qualification rounds, but she lost by 2-6 1-6 against Chinese Qiang Wang.
Nobody should ever make N.B.O. jealous.
