She is #11 in the ENTIRE USA when it comes to females, and #66 in the ENTIRE world (females), what about that is a side show at a circus?
Gotta love it when a 79 y/o man passes judgment on a 16 y/o girl. I wonder if you would have the same opinion if he was a male. And I wonder if you would say this to her father's face. I doubt it.
Unfortunately, yours is an absolute assessment, not a relative assessment. If another young American teen reaches #66 in the world, we will all be impressed ... but Savannah is different.
She has been hyped to the point of absurdity, earning both a Billiards Digest cover and the coveted Brunswick sponsorship long before showing anything close to elite skills at the table.
Even relative to other American phenoms of the past, she has achieved next to nothing. Both Jean Balukas and Loree Jon Jones were already world champions by Savannah's age. Other non-American female teen phenoms like Siming Chen, Han Yu, Jasmin Ouschan, Ewa Mataya Laurance and Ga Young Kim were all world beaters in their teens.
Hence, even for her age, Savannah offers little to get really excited about. As was noted in my original post, I do see some development, and I've tried hard to take a positive view of it, but most others in this thread have taken a lesser view.
Perhaps she'll take that next step, but, while she is still fairly young, we can no longer pretend that she is inexperienced. Despite a pretty heavy dose of elite competition, there are parts of her game that are not developing much, and, in my assessment, her knowledge is not where it could have been and should have been by now.
The "give Savannah time" argument is all well and good, but such thinking didn't work for the last two major American teen phenoms that were very strong players in their teens, namely April Larson (Fargo 666) and Briana Miller (Fargo 679). Both are solid players, but neither ever reached the ranks of the elite and neither is ever in the discussion when it comes to the biggest titles.
We live in a world where we measure things relative to our expectations. The Billiard Press, Brunswick and many others have set the expectations very high for Savannah, and she has yet to meet them. I wish her well but will not subscribe to the notion that for her age and level of experience, she is far enough along.
I'll be happy to eat my words if Savannah emerges as super-elite. Let us be lenient and call that top 20 based on Fargo in the women's game. Wishing her well in her pursuit of excellence.
