Emerson Jones has seen her bid to become the first Australian to win the Wimbledon girls' title since Ash Barty scuppered by the same opponent who dashed her home Open dream in Melbourne.
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The 16-year-old Gold Coast player, rated one of the best Australian prospects since former Wimbledon senior champ Barty herself won the junior crown in 2011, went down to top seed Renata Jamrichova 6-3 6-4 on Sunday.
While Carlos Alcaraz was outplaying Novak Djokovic on Centre Court, Jones was given her big chance in Wimbledon's neighbouring, second biggest arena, the No.1 Court, as she savoured becoming the first Australian girl to play in a final since Barty herself beat Russian Irina Kromacheva in 2011.
Yet the result proved no different against the world's top junior Jamrichova as it had done in the Rod Laver Arena in January when the tall, imposing Slovakian left-hander defeated her 6-4 6-1 in the Australian Open girls' showdown.
"That's the second Slam final I've lost to her but obviously but I played well but she was a bit too good, so can't really complain," said Jones, who turned 16 at the start of the Championships.
"I made the final of junior Wimbledon, so that's pretty exciting," added the teen, after still being able to raise a big smile on court alongside her conqueror following her 66-minute defeat.
"Her serve was tough to handle, but in the second set, I felt like I got myself into it a bit more and was trying to figure out her serves, and felt I was getting closer to breaking her."
Indeed, Jones, the daughter of 2004 Olympic silver medal-winning triathlete Loretta Harrop and Grogan Medal-winning footballer Brad Jones, actually did get an early lead in a competitive second set, going ahead 3-1 until Jamrichova began to assert herself again.
"It was a pretty great experience playing on Court One, big crowd and everything. The court was a bit worn down, some dodgy bounces, but I was training on some dodgy courts back at home. This is a great court and the crowd was pretty good.
"What I'm most proud of this week was just probably my efforts to keep myself calm. This whole week, I've been mentally pretty good. Just the way I've been playing, I've been pretty proud and happy about that.
"Now I'll go home and prepare for the US Open," added Jones.
Earlier, Jones's hero Barty was herself in action in a final, her comeback in the hit-and-giggle 'legends' invitation doubles event alongside her best mate Casey Dallacqua ending in a 6-3 6-2 defeat to Martina Hingis and Kim Clijsters.
Lleyton Hewitt, and his partner Kevin Anderson, got a 6-1 6-4 hiding from the brilliant Bryan brothers, Bob and Mike, in the equivalent men's final.
There was, though, an Australian winner at the last gasp when Mark Woodforde, half of the old all-conquering 'Woodies' team, teamed up with Dominika Cibulkova to beat Barbara Schett and Nenad Zimonjic 6-3 6-2 in the mixed invitational event.
Australian Associated Press
