The ATP Next Gen season showed new becoming stars
They will be famous. Indeed, they already are. At the end of an exciting season, the ATP Next Gen players showed important skills, to show they are ready to take the baton from the older players.
First of all Stefanos Tsitsipas, winner of the ATP Next Gen Finals, the Stockholm tournament, and the finalist of the Rogers Cup and Barcelona. Another happy note of the year was the 19-year-old Australian player Alex De Minaur, finalist in Milan, Sydney and Washington.
Americans Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz are the best hopes among men for their country, but they need to got other important imporvements. Despite this, Fritz has achieved his best results in Grand Slam tournaments this year.
Tiafoe instead played his first two finals in 2018: a win at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, and a lost one at the Millennium Estoril Open. Andrey Rublev did not do as well as everyone expected, especially after his spectacular 2017. He will have time to improve, the skills are excellent and, despite everything, something good was also seen in 2018.
Jaume Munar is the name to follow carefully. Not very flashy in his game, but in the future, the Spaniard could be a problem for many of his peers, especially on surfaces that are congenial to him, like clay. Hubert Hurkacz needs to improve physically, but his service is already a very powerful weapon.
In general, we can say that young players, this year, have been clearly in the spotlight. There will be time to understand if their history within this new era of tennis will be comparable to that of many other champions. There are good conditions, now these guys will have to commit themselves to respect all the expectations that there are on them.
Side note: they are no longer Next Gen players, but a note of honor also goes to Karen Khachanov, Daniil Medvedev and Borna Coric, all under-23, who played a great season.
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from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2SrEOm2
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