Jessica Yang will be the territory's lone representative at this year's Junior Championships at Wimbledon where she will compete in both girls' singles and doubles. Only four of the world's Top-16 ranked players are absent from the girls' draw according to the AELTC's latest acceptance list.

Just last week, Jessica Yang teamed up with Indonesia's Beatrice Gumulya to win the doubles title at the Grade 2 Gerry Weber Junior Open in Halle, Germany, another warm-up event on grass prior to SW19.

However, Jessica (ITF 22) is sitting at 17th on the current DA List for Wimbledon, which, barring any late withdrawals, would see her just miss out on a seeding.

The most glaring omissions are defending champion Ursula Radwanska (ITF 4), and current world number one Simona Halep, the reigning Roland Garros Junior Champion.

Radwanska was recently honoured as the 2007 ITF World Champion (Girls) alongside fellow junior Ricardas Berankis (Boys), as well as Roger Federer (Men) and Justine Henin (Women) at the annual ITF World Champions Dinner in Paris during the French Open fortnight.

The last player from Hong Kong to garner a seeding in the girls' singles at Wimbledon was none other than Paulette Moreno, who was seeded No. 16 in 1987.

That year, the former Hong Kong Fed Cupper also collaborated with Korea's Kim Il-Soon to reach the girls' doubles final before they were upended by No. 4 seeds Natalia Medvedeva and Natalie Zvereva of USSR in the final.

Whilst only a small number of high-ranking players ever get to compete in The Junior Championships at Wimbledon on one or two occassions, Paulette Moreno contested five straight Wimbledons from 1983-87.

So too did Patricia Hy, who played five straight from 1979-83.

It was in 1983 that Patricia Hy finished runner-up to Pascale Paradis in the girls' singles final at Junior Wimbledon.

For good measure, she also teamed up with American Patty Fendick that week to beat Swedish pair Carin Anderholm and Helena Olsson to win the girls' doubles title at SW19.

In 2006, both Zhang Ling and Venise Chan were maindraw acceptances in the girls' events at Wimbledon, where both exited in the round of 64 at the hands of Uzbekistan's Dilyara Saidkhodjaeva and world No. 13 Corinna Dentoni respectively.

Venise was to gain her revenge over Dentoni when she beat the Italian less than two months later in the opening round of the US Open Jr Championships.

Dentoni is currently ranked at a career-best No. 172 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Singles Rankings List.

The last player from Hong Kong to contest the boys' singles at Wimbledon was Martin Sayer, who was stopped short of a round two berth by 16th-seeded southpaw, David Navarrete, of Venezuela in 2005.

Meanwhile…

At the Grade 1 Roehampton, the final tune-up event on grass before The Junior Championships begins at Wimbledon, seeded players were falling by the wayside fast and furious.

After having defeated British wildcard Victoria Brook, 6-4, 6-1, in the first round, No. 10 seed Jessica Yang was ambushed by American, Coco Vandeweghe, in round two, 6-1, 6-7(6), 6-2.

However, a lot of positives were to emrge from Roehampton, as Travelling Coach, Hee-June Choi reports from London: "Jessica is comfortable with her game style and I can see "pieces of puzzle" coming together. From my past experience when I coached the No.1 and No. 4-ranked juniors (boys), the European junior tour is a good yardstick to measure a player’s ability to survive at the professional level."

"The most important lesson from this week is that Jessica can fight, if she wants to."

Vandeweghe, a 16-year-old wildcard entry and a cousin of former NBA star Kiki Vandeweghe, had held a career-best ITF Combined Junior World Ranking of No. 142 earlier this January.

However, she has played sparingly on the junior circuit, having competed in only half a dozen ITF events prior to Roehampton. Last year, she was a quarterfinalist at the G1 USTA International Spring Championships, Orange Bowl, and the US Open Jr Championships.

Currently holding a Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Singles Ranking of No. 506, she has reached the semifinals of the C25 Mexico City as a qualifier before losing to former French Open semifinalist, Clarissa Fernandez, 7-6(3), 1-6, 4-6.

In addition, Coco Vandeweghe was in Moscow this past April as a hitting partner to the US Fed Cup team where Team USA played Russia in the World Group semifinals.

Other seeded players who failed to advance beyond the second round at Roehampton include No. 2 seed and reigning Aussie Open Junior Champion Arantxa Rus, Thailand's No. 3 seed Noppawan Lertcheewakarn, No. 5 Bojana Jovanovski, No. 9 Aki Yamasoto of Japan, No. 11 Mallory Burdette of USA, No. 12 Jade Curtis of Britain, No. 13 Anastasia Grymalska, No. 15 Reka Luca Jani, and No. 16 Timea Babos of Hungary.

In the doubles, Jessica Yang and Jade Hopper of Australia went out in the opening round to Americans Nicole Bartnik and Alexa Guarachi in a third set super-tiebreak, 7-6(4), 4-6, [10-4].

Former Hong Kong resident Tara Moore took the opening set against No. 4 seed Elena Bogdan but eventually fell, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, in the first round of the girls' singles. In the doubles, she has teamed up with fellow Brit Heather Watson to reach the quarterfinals where they will next face No. 1 seeds Elena Bogdan and Elena Chernyakova for a place in the final four.

Results
ITF Juniors – Roehampton (G1)
London, Great Britain
22-27 June 2008

GIRLS' SINGLES

First Round
(10)Jessica Yang (HKG) d. (WC)Victoria Brook (GBR) 6-4 6-1

Second Round
(WC)Coco Vandeweghe (USA) d. (10)Jessica Yang (HKG) 6-1 6-7(6) 6-2

GIRLS' DOUBLES

First Round
Nicole Bartnik/Alexa Guarachi (USA) d. Jessica Yang/Jade Hopper (HKG/AUS) 7-6(4) 4-6 [10-4]