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By Kent Oswald

(February 8, 2010) Since the age of four, Ester Goldfeld has tended her game. Eight months from now, after the U.S. Open, she should have a pretty clear idea where tennis will take her.

Brooklyn's Goldfeld, born July 4, 1993, began her development on the handball court across the street from her house.Taking her cue from some neighborhood kids, it became the perfect place to hit tennis balls, particularly after her grandmother presented her "a 99 cent racquet."

Having worked through the opportunities provided through the USTA Eastern section, she escaped the cold winters and now studies in Delray Beach, Fla., at the International Tennis Academy. There, she'll often spend five hours a day on court with Mark Gellard. He previously served as hitting partner or coach to  Nadia Petrova,Varvara Lepchenko and Martina Hingis, among others, and has been guiding Goldfeld's tennis development since last summer, after her great run from the qualifying rounds to the final at a $10,000 Pro Circuits event in Brownsville, Texas, and shortly before she captured the (ITF Grade 2) U.S. Junior International Hard Court Championships singles title.

Alternating junior and women's circuit tournaments for the last year, she has seen her WTA ranking rise from nowhere to the mid 500s; and has also secured a place among the ITF's Top 50 juniors. She has begun 2010 with the best Australian Open juniors campaign of any American, reaching the quarterfinals in both singles and doubles. Her singles loss in Melbourne was to eventual runner-up, British junior nova Laura Robson. Her doubles bow-out with Madison Keys, 14, came after the Americans failed to convert two match points in the third set against eventual tournament runners-up, Hungary's Timea Babos and Canada's Gabriela Dabrowski.

She is also a good student, with a love for most of her studies (except, she admits, history). As she explained, "whenever I am not playing tennis I am doing schoolwork. For my parents and I, school is very, very important. A lot of times it comes before tennis. The most important thing for me is to get an education."

And so she finds herself at a crossroads, with this year pivotal. Her tennis results have been very good, but not yet outstanding. She is receiving recruiting overtures from colleges, which she currently fends off but hasn't ruled out.  "[My parents] like the idea of college, but would support me if I decided to go on professional tour," Goldfeld said in the wake of her Australian experience. "I would have to have a good ranking to back that up."

Although she insists that her college days will not include playing for Alma Mater, she hasn't begun cutting down on her parents investment by accepting winnings from the pro tournaments and ending her NCAA eligibility ... just in case she changes her mind about the college path.

Both coach and player agree on her biggest tennis advantage, crediting her court intelligence: "I like to think on court," says Goldfeld. "It makes [the game] a lot more interesting to figure things out on my own."

Similarly, they speak as near one when discussing the challenges for the 5'10" right-hander to ascend and succeed at the next level.

"She's got to get fitter and stronger," says Gellard. "She's not a natural athlete. She's a natural tennis player, but not a natural athlete." His goal for the year is to increase her lateral comfort zone on the baseline and strengthen her confidence and closing ability at the net.

"I definitely need to improve on my fitness and, I guess, be a little bit more aggressive with my whole game in general," acknowledges Goldfeld, who comes from a non-tennis playing family ("My dad tried, but failed miserably", she said).

The remainder of 2010, at least on the tennis court, is pointed toward Flushing Meadows — the courts where Goldfeld trains when she's back in New York. The goal of both player and coach is to get Goldfeld's women's ranking into the 200-250 range by early August, which should be enough to put her into the qualies without having to rely on the USTA for a wild card.

Gellard expects to schedule Goldfeld for a mix of professional and junior tournaments. He believes the ideal at this point in her evolution is play a few tournaments at a time on a variety of court surfaces and against different levels of opposition. Coach and player will retreat with lessons learned to ITA for training before venturing out on the road again. There is a "great opportunity when you play senior tour to see where you're at ...[but] junior tournaments have the pressure [on her to win]," he says. Players progress by playing up (where they have nothing to lose), but also by learning to handle pressure. The plan is, "...maybe two womens' [tournaments] and then two juniors, keep mixing it up, keep testing [her] game. ...It's really a process with these girls. She's 16. There's a long way to go."

And in September, there will be a much better idea which path she'll be following.

Kent Oswald is the producer of the Jock Book Review, the former editor of Tennis Week and a long-time tennis journalist. He lives in New York.