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It was nearly three years ago. And now Diana Shnaider, Mirra Andreeva and Brenda Fruhvirtova are all in the top 100 – with the first two surging to the top.

But back in Nov. 2021, at the Eddie Herr junior tournament at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., they were little more than promising up-and-comers.

If you’re good, it just doesn’t take you long.

And now two of them are in the top 25.

Here’s a look back.

Diana Shnaider

Schnaider, who lost her fourth-round match on Arthur Ashe Stadium on Labour Day Monday against Jessica Pegula, is 20 now and came into the tournament as the No. 18 seed.

She should be at a career-high No. 16 even with the loss.

Shnaider has already won three tournaments this season – on three different surfaces.

At the Eddie Herr three years ago, she was 17 1/2 and still playing in the juniors. She made it to a career-best No. 1 junior ranking a couple of months after this tournament, where as the No. 2 seed she beat Canadians Victoria Mboko (7-5 in the third) and Mia Kupres before No. 5 seed Fruhvirtova beat her in a third-set tiebreak in the semis. Shnaider made the finals of the Orange Bowl the following week, losing to Petra Marcinko of Croatia.

In 2022, playing juniors QUITE late by prodigy standards, she made the semifinals in the US Open juniors, losing to Lucie Havlickova. Two years later, she’s in the big show.

Shnaider never did “bag her junior Slam”. It worked out for her, though.

Mirra Andreeva

Andreeva was just 14 1/2 at the Eddie Herr in 2021, and she finished the 2021 junior season ranked No. 14 after coming out of basically nowhere at a very young age.

Two years ago, she was also in the junior event in New York, losing in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Alexandra Eala – two years older and an experienced hand on the junior tour, as well as her doubles partner that week. (She had played it the year before, too – in the qualifying at age 13).

In Bradenton, Andreeva lost in the third round to Croatia’s Lucija Ciric Bagaric of Croatia, and made the doubles quarterfinals too.

Since then – a rapid rise and a career high of No. 21 just before this year’s US Open, where she lost in somewhat of a surprise to American Ashlyn Krueger in the second round.

Andreeva, also, didn’t “bag her Slam”. She memorably lost in the 2023 Australian Open junior final to Alina Korneeva but a few months later, made a huge splash on the WTA Tour.

Brenda Fruhvirtova

Also just 14 at the time of the Eddie Herr (a few weeks older than Andreeva), Fruhvirtova reached a peak of No. 87 a month ago.

She came up behind her big sister Linda, also precocious, who also rose into the top 100 quickly. And then she surpassed her.

Brenda Fruhvirtova reached the final of that edition of the Eddie Herr, retiring down 0-2 in the first set of the final to her sister Linda.

The load was … HEAVY for a 14-year-old; after the junior US Open that year (2021), she played 38 singles and 30 doubles matches from September on – 68 matches in barely over two months. It was borderline cruel – especially as even then, she had little to prove and little to gain by playing so much junior tennis.

Fruhvirtova reached a junior career high of No. 3 just a few months later, still just 14.

Her rise in the pros was rapid after that, but was peppered with medical timeouts and injuries. Given a wild card into the Miami Open main draw, she retired in her second round against Katie Boulter. She retired down 0-5 in the first set in the quarterfinal of a WTA 125 in Croatia in June, as well. And she retired down 1-6, 0-2 in the first round of a $60K ITF in Germany at the end of July.

(Her match against Andreeva in the first round of Wimbledon – two 17-year-olds facing off – was a tough watch between Andreeva’s angst – and having her serve broken seven straight times – and Fruhvirtova’s issues that involved tears, difficulty breathing and an already veteran-like use of the medical timeout).

A month after that retirement in Germany she found herself in the first round of the US Open. Having not played since but having earned her way in through her own ranking, she retired after just … three games against 38-year-old qualifier Varvara Lepchenko, collected her $100K US cheque and got out.

Her case bears watching. Because she was SO overloaded with tennis, at such a young age, and with a trainer who had mostly been around the ATP Tour pushing both she and her sister extremely hard physically, you hope they take better care to look at the long-term picture. The players who overloaded in the juniors only to constantly be injured when they ascended to the WTA level are legion.

But you never know what the thinking is.

After last year’s US Open, Fruhvirtova went on a tear at the ITF level. She went 23-1 with four titles to end the season and now must defend 285 of her 673 ranking points.

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