The best new generation tennis players
Carlos Alcaraz at the Spain V Romania Davis Cup tie in Marbella
Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic were the top three players in the world in 2010. A decade has passed and nothing much has changed. The big 3 have literally dominated tennis for 20 years!
There’s the big 3 in tennis, end of story – Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Between them, they have more or less completely dominated mens tennis over the past 20 years. What they have achieved is simply astounding, having 3 players this dominant in the ATP Tour has never happened in the history of tennis and isn’t likely to happen again.
Just look at the stats here, the big 3 have dominated tennis for the last 19 years. In these 19 years there have been a total of 76 Grand Slams (Including the 2022 Australian Open and counting that Wimbledon was cancelled in 2020). The big three have won 60 of these Grand Slams! Yes Roger Federer (40), Nadal (35) and Djokovic (34) have won an and an incredible 60 of the 76 majors since the 2003.
This complete domination for such a long time has never happened in an other sport.
Another amazing fact, since the US Open in 2016, only two people (Daniil Medvedev and Dominic Thiem) outside of the big 3 has won a grand slam.. However things are slowly changing as age creeps in, and Federer has been out injured and dropped way down in the ATP rankings.
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ATP Next Generation Finals
The big three have made it very hard for any great players to really shine though but there is hope with some of the new generation ATP players. Let’s start with the Next Generation Finals, this is an annual year-end men’s ATP tennis tournament for the best 21-and-under players of the season. Since its founding, the event has taken place in Milan, Italy. The tournament started in 2017 and is held in Milan, Italy every year.
Daniil Medvedev is the only player who has competed in the Next Gen Finals and went on to win a grand slam – He competed in 2017 and has since won the US Open (2021). And as of April 2022, Medvedev is world number 1.
ATP Next Winners
- 2017 – Chung Hyeon
- 2018 – Stefanos Tsitsipas
- 2019 – Jannk Sinner
- 2020 Cancelled because of the pandemic
- 2021 – Carlos Alcaraz
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Daniil Medvedev
Medvedev is currently the best player in the world excluding Nadal and Djokovic, he has won 13 ATP Tour singles titles, including the 2021 US Open and 2020 ATP Finals. But is the 26 year oldRussian going to become a regular grand slam winner? We think not.
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Dominic Theim
Dominic Thiem at the 2022 Andalusian Open
Dominic Thiem beat Alexander Zverev in the 2020 US Open final to claim his first grand slam. However this win was made a lot easier by the disqualification of Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, while Roger Federer where injured so did not participate. Nevertheless, Theim broke the strangle hold of the big 3 and overtook Federer, earning the third spot in the ATP rankings, but only because the Swiss did not play at all in 2020.
First grand slam slump and injury have kept Thiem off the circuit since 2020 and at the ripe old age of 26 he’s no longer next generation.
Alexander Zverev
The 24 year old German player has won 5 Masters 1000 tournaments and has been in the top 10 since 2017 but his first grand slam still eludes him. The winner of the 2018 and the 2021 ATP Finals and gold at Tokyo 2020, Zverev has a bright future. He was unfortunately injured at the French Open and will be hoping for better success in 2023, however he’s not exactly staking up to be a tennis great.
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Stefanos Tsitsipas
The same could be said of Tsitsipas. He won the 2019 ATP Finals, seven ATP singles titles in total and made the 2021 French Open final where he lost to Djokovic but his first slam still eludes him.
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Carlos Alcaraz
There is one player in the top 20 who is really starting to shine through. The whole tennis world took note when 18 year old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, beat then world number three Stefanos Tsitsipas at the 2021 US Open, and since then he has beaten nearly all the top 10 players in the last year,including Djokovic and Nadal
2022 has been massive for Alcaraz so far, he claimed his first major tournament by winning the Rio Open 500 in February, then went one better, winning the Miami Open Masters in March since then he moved steadily up to ranks to number 4. But on at the 2022 US Open he made history, becoming one of the youngest players to ever win the tournament and also one of the youngest to claim the number 1 spot on the ATP Rankings.
We think the ATP ranked number 1 in the world, Alcaraz has what it takes for tennis greatness. Stay tuned and watch this space.
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Casper Rudd
Casper Rudd and Carlos Alcaraz at the 2022 Miami Open final
Norwegian born Casper Ruud, was born in late-December 1998. He enjoyed a breakthrough season in 2020 winning first-ever ATP title by beating Pedro Sousa in straight sets in the final of the ATP 250 in Buenos Aires.
Rudd had another very big year in 2021, reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open, then reaching the semi finals in both the Monte Carlo and Madrid Masters. In 2022 he reached a new milestone making the Miami Open Masters final where he lost to Carlos Alcaraz. The clay specialist is no doubt a fantastic prospect and we expect lots more titles coming his way over the next few years.
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The Norwegian has ran through the 2022 French Open, beating another promising new generation player – Holger Rune in the quarter finals then beat Marin Cilic in the semis. He played king Rafa at the Roland Garros 2022 final but lost badly. He also prevailed to the US Open where he lost to 19 year old Carlos Alcaraz, Ruud is currently ranked second in the world.
Denis Shapovalov
The 22 year old Canadian is a current top 20 player and it is only a matter of time when we will see him cruising into the Top 10. His breakthrough year was 2019 when Super-Shapo won his inaugural ATP title the Stockholm Open 250.
He’s had a few Masters semi finals and his best grand slam result was making the 2021 Wimbledon semifinals. Add to this a US Open quarter final and you can appreciate that there’s lot’s more to come from Shapovalov.
Felix Auger-Aliassime
This currently ranked world number 8 ranked Canadian 21 year old, is an even more exciting prospect than Shapovalov.
He reached three ATP finals in 2019, another three in 2020, and two finals in 2021 as well as the semifinals at the 2021 US Open. In February 2022, he beat Tsitsipas at the Rotterdamn Open 500 to win his first major title. Since then he’s picked up 3 titles in a row! The Florence Open, European Open and the Swiss Indoors, these win also helped him qualify for the ATP Finals.
Jannik Sinner
The 20 year old Italian is a current top 20 player but has been ranked as high as number 9. Like all newbies, he has had to fight his way up by playing Futures and Challengers until a breakthrough came in October 2019, when Sinner stunned Gael Monfils and Frances Tiafoe to reach the European Open, semi-final.
He ended the year winning the Next Gen Finals. Sinner followed this up by winning the 2020 Sofia Open, then becoming the youngest ATP 500 champion by winning the 2021 Citi Open. (Alcaraz has since taken this record)
The Roland Garros quarterfinalist in 2020 and Miami Open Finalist in 2021 is indeed one of the best and most exciting next generation prospects.
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The others
Holger Rune has had a marvellous year winning 2 titles – the Stockholm and Munich Open. He reached the g=finals in Sofia and Basel bring his ranking up to 18 in the world. The 19 years old may not have the mentality and maturity of Carlos Alcaraz but there’s no doubting his skill. Lorenzo Musetti is another youngster on the radar, the Italian 20 year old has also won 2 titles this year – at Naples and at the Hamburg 500 where he beat Alcaraz.
Women’s tennis
Iga Swiatek
Iga Swiatek only started playing on the WTA in 2019 and with no title wins she finished the year at No. 61 in the world. In 2020 the emerging star blasted on to the tennis world. But unfortunately for the this tennis world and everyones world 2020 would be a hugely disruptive year due to the pandemic. The French Open was postponed in until September and Świątek entered the tournament ranked No. 54 in the world. But she managed to create history, winning her first ever WTA title and became the first player representing Poland to win a major singles title.
In 2021 Swiatek only managed to win two titles at Adelaide and the Italian Open, becoming the fourth teenager to win a WTA 1000 event and entering the top 10.
In the 2022, the 21-year-old started the year ranked 9 had a massive 37-match win streak – the longest in the twenty-first century. She racked up 7 title wins including the French and US Open to become world number 1.
We already know Iga Swiatek is a multi grand slam winner and we think the best is still to come!
Coco Gauff
The American teenager burst onto the scene at 15 in 2019, becoming an overnight sensation at Wimbledon. It seemed inevitable that year that Gauff would one day become a major champion. She came nail bitting close in 2022, reaching the final at Roland Garros and the quarterfinals at the US Open.
Guaff is still only 18 years old and now a top 10 WTA player for the first time in her career, and with her game continuing to improve we believe her first grand slam win will be at the Australian Open or where it all started for her, at Wimbledon.
2023
Will Alcaraz experience that much talked about first slam lull or will he add to his record? I guess we’ll see how he’s handling everything at the ATP finals and then the 2023 Australian Open. Djokovic will be unlikely be allowed to play the Aus Open give one for the above youngsters a chance of a major title.
We expect Iga Swiatek to dominate the WTA again in 2023 but Coco Gauff, Ons Jabeur and Simona Halep could cause some problems for her.
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