Watch Out For Those Youngsters!

So the Williams sisters may both now be out of the tournament, but there's no doubt their presence in Eastbourne has helped the event enormously, and probably given them both extremely useful work-outs ahead of Wimbledon, considering the lengthy lay-offs they've both endured.
In some ways, it's a similar situation to when they last played Eastbourne, in 1998, when they were both contenders for the title, but their defeats in the quarter-finals weren't devastating setbacks. Except that then they were hotly-tipped newcomers, with their futures as global superstars, and all-time greats of the game, by no means certain.
I still like telling anyone who'll listen about Venus's first tournament in Britain - Eastbourne 1997 - when she'd been sporadically playing tournaments for nearly three years, had been tipped as a future Wimbledon champion for even longer, and came through qualifying (having declined a wildcard in order to get more grass court practise) to reach the second round. Many of my friends hadn't heard of Venus Williams, or Anna Kournikova, who was playing Eastbourne's under-21 event that year.
These were the days of the Williams sisters' distinctive hair beads, and watching Venus play was their mother Oracene, and little sis Serena, fifteen years old, yet to make her debut on the Tour, but some predicting she'd be an even better player than her sibling.
One of the great features of an event like Eastbourne is that spectators have a chance to see players near the beginning of their careers. Over the years, numerous little-known youngsters have graced Devonshire Park and gone on to become tennis superstars.
Not all predictions are accurate, of course. But keep your eyes on up-and-coming Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. Just turned 20, and tipped as the new Federer by, among others, Roger's former coach Peter Lundgren, Dimitrov's helped maintain interest in a men's draw badly depleted of big - or even medium-sized - names, since the exits of Tsonga, Hewitt, Dolgopolov and Garcia-Lopez. He nearly lost to British wildcard Daniel Evans in the first round, but went on to reach the quarter-finals, where he lost to Janko Tipsarevic. But there's still a chance to see him play tomorrow, weather permitting, when he's due to play the men's doubles final, third on court one, not before 2pm. Dimitrov is partnering singles semi-finalist Andreas Seppi, and they take on Israeli duo Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram.
If you're reading this, Jan and Lesley, two ladies I was talking to on Thursday (by the way, thank you for the strawberries, ladies!), I must apologise for telling you that the Dimitrov versus Tipsarevic match would follow the Stosur - Zvonareva epic on Centre Court. I later discovered it had been moved to court 4, following the rain-induced delayed start to the day, and the marathon opening matches on Centre.
It looks like Grigor Dimitrov won't get to play on Eastbourne's Centre Court this year, even if he wins the doubles title. But maybe - just maybe - those who saw him play will be able to tell future generations of the all-time great they watched at the beginning of his career.