10 junior slam winners who failed at the senior level

Modified Oct 03, 2014 11:16 GMT

Success at the junior level is often seen as a hope for a brighter future on the professional circuit, but not everyone goes on to achieve success at the highest level. The competition gets tougher as you move from the challenger level to the Grand Slams. Most players struggle to make the transition and end up just about making it to the majors and many do not go past the first couple of rounds as well.Here are 10 such talented players who did not have successful careers post their initial junior triumphs.

#10 Yuki Bhambri

Yuki Bhambri showed tremendous promise and Indian tennis was positive about him being the next hope as far as singles in concerned. However, after winning the 2009 Australian Open Junior title, he has struggled on the tour.

He has not qualified to a single Grand Slam so far and is currently ranked 185 in the world. He was ranked No. 1 in singles in February 2009.

#9 Duan Lojda

He won the 2006 US Open junior title. He broke into the top 300 in May 2007, but did not stay there longer. His highest ranking was 161 he achieved in July 2010. His best result at a Grand Slam has been a first round appearance at the 2010 US Open.

#8 Roman Valent

Valent won the Wimbledon Boys’ singles title in 2001. The Swiss just played one match on the ATP tour, which he lost to Marc Giquel in 2009. His highest ranking was 300 in February 2003.

#7 Florin Mergea

Mergea won the 2003 Wimbledon boys title and was a runner-up at the Australian junior Open the same year. The Romanian achieved his career high ranking of 243 in singles in May 2005. He was No. 2 in the world in juniors in July 2003.

#6 Alexandre Sidorenko

Frenchman Sidorenko won the 2006 Australian Open junior title. He has only played in three major singles tournaments at professional level and has lost all of those. His best result at a major has been at the French Open where he reached the first round in 2007 and 2009.

#5 Brydan Klein

Klein won the 2007 Australian Open junior title. The 24-year old is yet to become an active competitor on the tour. His best result at a Grand Slam was at the 2009 Australian Open where he lost in the second round to Stanislas Wawrinka.

#4 Yang Tsung-hua

Yang won the 2008 French Open junior title. He also won the Australian Open and Wimbledon junior doubles titles with Hsieh Cheng- peng. He was named the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Junior World Champion for the 2008 season.

The Taiwanese player reached his best ranking of 164 in May 2012.

#3 Todd Reid

Reid won the 2002 Wimbledon junior title. He reached No. 2 ranking as a junior, but could not produce the same consistency on the tour. His best result at a major was reaching the third round at the 2004 Australian Open. His highest ranking on the tour was 105 in September 2004.

#2 Carlos Cuadrado

Cuadrado won the 2001 French Open junior title. He did not qualify for any Grand Slam tournament and his highest ranking was 222 in April 2006.

#1 Wesley Whitehouse

Whitehouse won the 1997 Wimbledon junior title. He was also a finalist in both the Australian Open and US Open juniors in the same year. He did not qualify for any major and his highest ranking was 214 in August 2004.