| Start Playing ITF Tournaments |
The majority of players start out playing ITF Junior tournaments. This has the benfit of giving the critical development of learning to win at every level. The objective of many of these young players is to some day play at the professional level.
Players should focus on playing the ITF Junior Circuit and try to achieve a top 20 ITF Junior World Ranking. This ranking will ensure direct acceptance into the Group A events (including the four Grand Slam Junior Tournaments). A junior working to achieve this top 20 ranking should also try to play some weeks of professional events per year for experience.
Once the player has achieved a top 20 ranking in juniors, she should then focus on improving her professional ranking by playing mostly ITF Women's Circuit events, along with the prestigious Group A Junior events.
2010 Junior Exempt Project
A Junior Exempt programme is operated by the ITF Women's Circuit for Junior female players who obtain a top 10 end of year Junior ITF ranking. The programme offers the players places in the main draw at ITF Women's Circuit events.
The Junior Exempt position will be allocated according to the following criteria:-
The year-end number 1 ranked girl will be offered direct entry into the Main Draw at one (1) ITF Women's Circuit event up to and including $100,000 prize-money level and direct entry into the Main Draw at two (2) ITF Women's Circuit events up to and including $75,000 prize-money level.
The year-end number 2 ranked girl will be offered direct entry into the Main Draw at two (2) ITF Women's Circuit events up to and including $75,000 prize-money level and direct entry into the Main Draw at one (1) ITF Women's Circuit event up to and including $50,000 prize-money level.
The year-end number 3-5 ranked girl will be offered direct entry into the Main Draw at two (2) ITF Women's Circuit events up to and including $50,000 prize-money level and direct entry into the Main Draw at one (1) ITF Women's Circuit event up to and including $25,000 prize-money level.
The year-end number 6-10 ranked girl will be offered direct entry into the Main Draw at three (3) ITF Women's Circuit events up to and including $25,000 prize-money level.
THE PROVISIONS OF THE AGE ELIGIBILITY RULE WILL BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT
Successful performances on the Women's Circuit allows players to acquire computer ranking points which will help them move up to the next level of the professional competitive ladder. When starting playing ITF Circuits it is advised to enter lower level events first ($10k events) and then gradually move onto higher level $25k, $50k, $75k and $100k. To get an indication of how strong last years tournaments were and to get an idea of which tournaments to enter based on your current ranking please refer to the Drawsheet Statistics document below. This will show what the ranking of the last direct acceptance into the singles events were.
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