To me, there's much less there to me then meets the eye, Ben. Beyond small sample size (needs to be said), you have only two cases that fit your thesis, since Sevastova's results were cut too short to draw any conclusions from. And Kvitova's are too nascent to count for anything. And Serena is her own outlier for loads of reasons. And Kerber and Strycova were likely at/near the natural end of their careers when they came back. Putting Serena back in, we have only 5 cases in the set. Yes, 2 of the "start small" players are in the top 3, but that's a lot of conclusion to draw on so little data. All that said, I don't even disagree with the premise that it makes sense to start small. Bencic's analysis makes a lot of sense! Just not sure you've provided much additional data to back her up.
Nice observation. I think it might apply more broadly. I still remember when Agassi's career looked like it might be over in 1997 and he made comeback with challenger in Vegas and I immediately thought that if he's willing to play a challenger, he's got his head back in the right place and so it turned out.
And I think sometimes young stars leap out of challengers a bit too quickly when playing alot and learning to win has its value. I liked what Learner Tien did last year when he reduced his travel and just played itf and challengers in the u.s. giving lots of matches and time to practice.
To me, there's much less there to me then meets the eye, Ben. Beyond small sample size (needs to be said), you have only two cases that fit your thesis, since Sevastova's results were cut too short to draw any conclusions from. And Kvitova's are too nascent to count for anything. And Serena is her own outlier for loads of reasons. And Kerber and Strycova were likely at/near the natural end of their careers when they came back. Putting Serena back in, we have only 5 cases in the set. Yes, 2 of the "start small" players are in the top 3, but that's a lot of conclusion to draw on so little data. All that said, I don't even disagree with the premise that it makes sense to start small. Bencic's analysis makes a lot of sense! Just not sure you've provided much additional data to back her up.
Nice observation. I think it might apply more broadly. I still remember when Agassi's career looked like it might be over in 1997 and he made comeback with challenger in Vegas and I immediately thought that if he's willing to play a challenger, he's got his head back in the right place and so it turned out.
And I think sometimes young stars leap out of challengers a bit too quickly when playing alot and learning to win has its value. I liked what Learner Tien did last year when he reduced his travel and just played itf and challengers in the u.s. giving lots of matches and time to practice.