Keeping up with the Joneses: Siblings reach AO quarter-finals

Minutes after the end of her match on show court 3 at the Australian Open Junior Championships on Wednesday afternoon, a few fans lent down from the front rows and handed over a couple of giant tennis balls and pieces of paper for local youngster Emerson Jones to sign.

Jones, the 15-year-old No. 6 seed from Australia’s Gold Coast, was only too happy to oblige.

“I’m enjoying it all, it’s a pretty cool experience because I don’t really get it that much, only at these slams,” she said after a 7-5 6-3 win over American Tyra Caterina Grant.

“My autograph changes a bit because I don’t know what I want to do (with it).”

Grant, another precocious 15-year-old and No. 9 seed in the junior singles in Melbourne, was shown little mercy by her good friend Jones who took the pragmatic outlook post match.

“I know Ty is a great player and I play a lot of my friends all the time and it is just how it is,” she said.

Court 3 is fast becoming the Aussie court at these championships, particularly for the Jones family.

“I haven’t played a match off of court 3 since I played qualies. I played qualies on court 3 and two days ago I played court 3 and again today," said Emerson.

And onto court 3 immediately after she won came elder brother Hayden Jones, seeded 16 but who won a cracking contest in three sets over third seed Tomasz Berkieta (he of the 233kmh serve on Monday) in the boys singles. Both Jones siblings will doubtless be looking for similar scheduling in Thursday’s quarter-final matches.

Before then, and for Emerson at least, comes a somewhat dreaded ritual.

“I am going to eat, shower and have an ice bath and then go home,” she said.

Ice bath?

“I don’t like it but I get in trouble if I don’t have them. Mum will get mad at me…”

The bath will last an obligatory 10 minutes, she said.

“It feels so good when you come out but they are awful when you are in them. Like the first three minutes it’s so bad, then it gets better and you start going numb and then you get out and it’s so good.”

And ice baths can be replicated at home on the Gold Coast apparently.

“I have gone to the beach and dipped my legs in when the water is cold. It works.”

There is, for anyone untested in this practice, the question of quite how you take your mind off the ice enveloping you. Reading maybe?

"Read? No, I look at my timer and see how long I have got left."

Jones faces second seed Sara Saito in the last eight on Thursday and who beat her doubles partner Mika Stojsavleic in the singles earlier on Wednesday.

“I’m not looking ahead, it’s one match at a time, I never look too far into the future, I just play who’s in front of me, just play the ball.”

It is a philosophy that will take her far.

Elsewhere the shock of the day came when fourth seed Hannah Klugman fell to Vlada Mincheva in two sets while top seed Renata Jamrichova looked imperious as she progressed to the quarter-finals after seeing off Australia’s Maya Joint on 1573 Arena.