'I may need a bigger cabinet': Jones receives ITF World Champion award
Just a few hours after being announced as an 2024 ITF World Champion presented by UNIQLO, Australia’s Emerson Jones was standing on the broadcast media terrace at Melbourne Park.
There to present her with her ITF World Champion
trophy was fellow Australian, 12-time Grand Slam men’s doubles champion and ITF Athlete Board member Mark Woodforde.
Jones, who is still only 16 years old, was thrilled. She had not previously met Woodforde, who watched her play world No. 10 Daria Kasatkina in front of a full house at the WTA’s Adelaide International earlier this month.
Jones lost that match 7-5 6-3 but showed her undoubted quality. The teenager won the 10 points in a row during a mesmerising opening. Kasatkina could only watch as the Queenslander hit powerfully and accurately from baseline to baseline.
Despite defeat, Jones made her mark in Adelaide, recording her maiden victory - in her first match - against a Top 50 opponent as she defeated world No. 37 Wang Xinyu. Woodforde was impressed.
“She came out on court after Thanasi Kokkinakis and was so full of energy,” said Woodforde. “She was hitting a ball of real quality, really taking it to Kasatkina. It’s nice to see and always good to be aware of the next generation coming through.”
Asked if they’d ever hit together, Woodforde simply laughed: “She’d be way too good,” he admitted.
Jones was named an ITF World Champion following a stellar 2024 season that culminated in her finishing as the year-end No. 1 girl in the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Rankings.
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This followed a campaign in which she reached the final at both the Australian Open and Junior Championships, Wimbledon before lifting silverware at the ITF World Tennis Tour Junior Finals in Chengdu.
She then continued her journey along the ITF player pathway by claiming her first professional title at W75 Sydney in December having already reached a final and two semis on the ITF World Tennis Tour in 2024.
The problem now could be where to keep the trophy.
“It will probably go on my cabinet at home, I don’t really have any other place, although I am kind of running out of space,” she said.
Such practicalities aside, she is thrilled.
"This award is really special for me,” she added. “I called my mum before. We were talking and then I said, ‘I have to go and do something’.” Jones duly and gleefully proceeded to the media terrace to collect her much-deserved award.
Jones’s mother, Loretta – an Olympic triathlete who won silver at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens – is not in Melbourne this week.
“She is back on the Gold Coast, she is looking after our dog,” said Jones. “He’s a pug, he’s really old though so she has to stay home with him.”
Jones smiled when told she had been seen on the giant TV screen at the entrance to Melbourne Park earlier today.
“The head of our academy, Nicole, sent a picture of me up on the screen,” she added. “It didn’t look like there were too many people there, thank God. I do get people coming up to me and asking me for autographs and pictures. It’s always fun to do that stuff.”
Despite the recognition, this week is all about tennis, singles and doubles. In doubles, Jones has teamed up with Great Britain’s Hannah Klugman, another full-of-life individual.
Another being awarded her ITF World Champion trophy, Jones teamed up with Klugman as the pair reached the third round of the girls’ doubles. They defeated Belgium’s Jeline Vandromme and Mia Pohankova of Slovakia 6-2 4-6 10-8.
Maybe a bigger cabinet may be required sooner rather than later.