I t is just as well that Oliver Golding, Britain's newly crowned US Open junior champion, is not the kind of player who feels too much pressure.
Not only is he following in some very famous footsteps by winning the boys’ title in New York, but already the bookmakers have him at just 10-1 to win Wimbledon at some point in the next decade.
Golding turns 18 later this month and will join the senior ranks full-time before the year is out. His victory over the junior world No.1, Jiri Vesely, on Sunday, made him the third Briton to win a junior grand slam in the last three years, after wins for Laura Robson at Wimbledon in 2008 and Heather Watson at the US Open a year later.
However, the Londoner is the first British boy to win a title since Andy Murray won the same competition in 2004 and already the inevitable comparisons are being made between the two. Golding has a big serve and a big forehand but he would be happy if he even enjoyed half as good a career.
The fact that Golding was unable to eat anything solid for two weeks in the run-up to the US Open because his mouth was wired up -- he is in the middle of a 12-week course of dental treatment -- is just a further indication of his resolve, an inner strength that should serve him well.
Golding said he takes inspiration from what world No.4 Murray has achieved. “So far he’s had an amazing career,” the 17-year-old said. “He’s definitely good enough to win a grand slam and I’m sure at some point he will. If I could have his career, I’d definitely take it a hundred times over.”
As well as Murray, the list of US Open junior champions includes grand slam winners in Stefan Edberg, Pat Cash and Andy Roddick, as well as others who went on to make it big, including Marcelo Rios and David Nalbandian.
There are some who didn’t quite make it -- the 2006 champion Dusan Lojda has yet to break the world’s top 150 -- but most junior grand slam winners, and especially those who end the year ranked No.1, tend to have a good career.
Three British boys reached the semi-finals in New York -- Golding, George Morgan and Kyle Edmund -- and Liam Broady was the runner-up at Wimbledon this summer. Being a group should spur them on to greater heights and as Murray pointed out, the conversion rate of junior grand slam winners to the main tour is surprisingly high.
“With the guys that have won junior slams and the ones who make the top 10 of the junior rankings, if you then look at the number of guys that get through into the top 100 in the seniors, it is a pretty large number,” said the Scot. “If they can keep pushing their ranking up, that’s always good.”
His victory is likely to assure Golding of a wildcard into the main draw for Wimbledon next year and the country’s long wait for a champion there will doubtless bring its own added pressure.
Having been a child actor, including parts in Madame Butterfly and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, he is at least used to the big stage and should be better equipped than most to handle the inevitable hype that will come his way.
His new coach, Horacio Ruarte, believes he is on the right track. “He has a great serve and a great forehand and his backhand is good as well,” Ruarte said. “His game is still to develop. He has proved here that he has the nerve to do it. We have a good player to come.”
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