“She’s playing very well at such a young age and I think if I had the chance to say something to her, it wouldn’t be to focus on what other people are saying,” Andreeva said.
“You have to focus on being who you are and you’re going to have your own career. She’s Emerson Jones, she’s not going to be the next Ash Barty … she’s going to have her own career and I think she should focus on making her own way in tennis.”
“I can say that I felt the pressure from a lot of people, especially when I was winning tournaments. I felt the pressure that people expected me to win basically every tournament I played, and it wasn’t easy.”
“But last year I learned a lot about how to deal with pressure, how to not pay attention to what people say and how to talk about it.
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While Jones was ultimately overwhelmed in the second round of Brisbane – going down 6-4, 6-1 to world No. 17 Liudmila Samson – when she took an early 3-0 lead, there were signs that her powerful backcourt game will be a weapon to be reckoned with after the Australian Open.
In just her second clash with a top-20 opponent, the dynamic wildcat was happy with the trajectory she took despite the expectations placed on her.
“It doesn’t really put any pressure on me. Everyone compares me to Ash and all that, but you know, Ash has had her own path and I think she’s done it absolutely amazing and it would be amazing to achieve what she’s done,” Jones said.
“But I’m just focusing on myself and I think it’s definitely working for me. I’m super happy with how I played and how I performed.
“She [Samsonova] he knows this level much higher than me so I think I did really well to put myself in a good position to have a good chance in the first set. It will give you more confidence than anything else.”
Liudmila Samson proved that Emerson Jones has overcome too much.Credit: Getty Images
While Andreeva made an immediate impression, Samson found time on her feet during her teenage years. She made her professional debut as a 15-year-old on the ITF tour in 2013, but was six years away from making her first Grand Slam appearance.
The 27-year-old, whose experience was on display against Jones to convert six of eight break point chances, has been waiting to win her first WTA title until 2021 and won another four when she reached last year’s Wimbledon quarter-finals.
The turning point for Samson came when she found a team she trusted to bring into her corner.
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“I traveled around Europe alone, I didn’t have the money to go to America or Australia. I was so motivated, I wanted so much to become a professional, but I believed in myself,” Samson told this masthead.
“Before I entered the top 100 for the first time, I built my first team, and that was the beginning of something – people who worked only for me and we worked well. I started working differently and the results came after six months.”
“I was lucky because at some point some people arrived, good ones, but I also made some decisions that were hard to say no to – people who came to you and said ‘I’ll give you €100,000 but you pay me back’.
“It’s hard for a young girl to say no, but I was lucky.
Samson urged Jones to lean heavily on her trusted and honest support networks, believing that if she could have afforded the team sooner, she would have reached her current height sooner.
“Having good people by your side who can show you the way and see the project through is really important to me,” she said.
“When you’re young, I think it’s hard to manage everything – everything is more emotional, so it’s hard. If you don’t have people around you to help you see things the right way, it’s hard.”
“You don’t need to stop working, you don’t need to think that you are already like God, you need to keep working to put motivation and believe in your dreams.
“Stay humble and keep working because at a time like this you can just give up.”
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