The young guns set to challenge big four
grif
been said.
His main rivals - Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray - will have to
get back on track quickly after some rest days if they are to live with him.
But behind this now famous big four, the next generation is arriving and
starting to look very interesting, with some players already ready for the
top 20 and even top 10 in the years to come.
Bernard Tomic
Bernard Tomic made waves at Wimbledon by reaching his first Grand Slam
quarter-final. His path to stardom had been slowed by a growth spurt which
had affected his physical development. But since the start of the season he
has made big improvements and he doubtless won't spend much longer ranked 71
in the world.
His serve has been changed for the better and his movement shows huge
improvements - crucial because it was one of his biggest issues impeding his
progress. Tomic is amply gifted and reminds me a bit of Miroslav 'The Cat'
Mecir because of his style, which looks as if he plays the game in slow
motion with his feet plugged to the ground on every shot.
He's playing with a mix of natural strokes and sudden power which is
disguised by his body language, which stays relaxed all the time. Tomic also
possesses a a quite unique inside-out short forehand, which goes very flat
over the net. Like Djokovic, his main weapon is that he always seems one
shot ahead and anticipates the ball well. His anticipation will still have
to improve - and his footwork with it - but once it does, he'll be very
dangerous.
Milos Raonic
Raonic missed out on a clash with Rafael Nadal in the third round of
Wimbledon this year after suffering an injury during his match with Gilles
Muller. Raonic, as opposed to the other starlets, has had a very successful
start of the season and is already in the top 30.
His game is built around an outstanding serve, with power and precision
which allows him to dictate so many points. It also benefits him on return
games because he's more relaxed and the pressure applied by his serve weighs
his opponents down.
For me, he's the model of the player of the future - very tall, and very
powerful.
He's not doing anything extraordinary from the baseline and he's clearly
lacking some speed, but it's still possible to compare him to someone like
Andy Roddick who always relied on two big shots - serve and forehand - for
his success.
Ryan Harrison
Another player to follow is Ryan Harrison, now on the cusp of the top 100.
He's an example of an American player with huge mental strength, a fighting
spirit and a determination never to give up on court. He's versatile enough
to adjust to every surface and that's impressive.
The way he fought against Robin Soderling and David Ferrer at Roland Garros
and Wimbledon proves his temperament, and even while he has little
experience of this level of play, he can shine from the baseline by
counterpunching or even serve and volley when needede.
A note of caution - to me it seems that he has less room for improvement
than some of his rivals. But such mental strength should not be undervalued.
Grigor Dimitrov
Dimitrov is training in my academy and seems the most complete player of
this generation of rising stars. His technical ability is above the level of
his peers, and his huge battle against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Wimbledon put
him firmly in the spotlight.
He won two Grand Slams at Junior level, and is nicknamed by some as 'Little
Federer' because of a similar way about the two on court.
He's been watched a lot in the last couple of years - perhaps too much if
you consider his world ranking.
For the moment he can still be overwhelmed by the wealth of tactical options
he has and a wish to do too much.
His current ranking of 60 suggests he's going the right way, though.
Andrey Kuznetsov
He's a little behind the rest, but I really like what I've seen of the
Junior Wimbledon winner.
His flat shots and ability to play some high quality points mark him out,
but he'll need to make improvements on his shot placement particularly - as
well as his movement.
If he can gain some co-ordination and strength to go with it, Andrey would
quickly climb the rankings because his game is no instinctive and natural,
with a desire to come forward and a top quality backhand.
He could very soon catch up to the rest.
And while we're at it...
Among these five players we have an American, a Bulgarian, a Russian, an
Australian and a Canadian. But if you look closer, four of the five of them
have Eastern European backgrounds and ancestry. Tomic and Raonic are from
the former Yugoslavia. Let's also not forget that before getting injured
another player, Filip Krajinovic, was on his way to being amongst this list.
At a time when Novak Djokovic is the undisputed top player in the world,
it's clear that Serbo-Croatian tennis has never been stronger.
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/tennis/patrick-mouratoglou/article/2295/
Scott
none of these guys are going to challenge the top four in 2012. Tomic
is a talented pusher. while he can get to the QFs in a slam, he's
still not going to knock off a semifinalist who can move well on a
court.
meanwhile, Raonic seems to keep finding new injuries to slow him
down. someone needs to tell him that his near-win against Roddick
doesn't matter. he hasn't "arrived" yet. we're all waiting for his
big win against tennis royalty and so far it hasn't happened.
grif
"Scott" <scot...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:38f6fc29-4163-4e41...@a10g2000vbz.googlegroups.com...
Tomic seems confident he can win a slam within 2 years.
Raonic was close to playing one of the top 4 several times this year, but it
never materialised, so that was disappointing. And now he's been really
unlucky with a hip injury.
Harrison seems versatile, but his temper worries me. It's holding him back
for sure. Right now, he's just not channeling it properly and it's costing
him too many matches.
Dimitrov has been pretty crap this year apart from his match against Tsonga
at Wimbledon.
Dolgo has been disappointing too after his good run at this year's AO.
TT
Article mentions Raonic to challenge top4 (which I very much
doubt)...but doesn't mention Delpo...
Sakari Lund
Huh? This is an article about the next generation, not about
established top players, let alone players who have already won a
slam...
felangey
>doesn't mention Delpo...<
Del Po is a bit older than the guys in that list....but, yeah, I think many
people forget that he is only 22. Also it's hard to consider him someone who
is 'set' to challenge the top4.....he's already been there and done that and
now making his return.
TT
The article was also about challenging big4. There's only couple years
age difference with Raonic and Delpo anyway.
Any article that mentions Raonic as a challenger for top 4 is clueless.
Not gonna happen with his game.
Joe Ramirez
> improvements - crucial because it was one of his biggest issues impeding his
> progress. Tomic is amply gifted and reminds me a bit of Miroslav 'The Cat'
> Mecir because of his style, which looks as if he plays the game in slow
> motion with his feet plugged to the ground on every shot.
>
number_six
Indeed. The author also misspelled Mecir's first name, and botched his
nickname, to boot. That looks like three strikes in a single
paragraph.
Mecir may have looked *unhurried* but he certainly didn't play in slow
motion!
Vlado
>
> - Show quoted text -
Delpo is bigger than Murray in more ways than one if that's what you
mean.
But it's hard to see these "newbies" doing any dammage until big 4
retire or at least big 3. They
may be good but not exceptional in ways comparable to Rafa or Nole.
Hell, when
Nole came he had no hype whatsoever and was always dissed by the
talking heads
for whatever they could find.
Manco
TennisGuy
> > > progress. Tomic is amply gifted and reminds me a bit of Miroslav 'The Cat'
> > > Mecir because of his style, which looks as if he plays the game in slow
> > > motion with his feet plugged to the ground on every shot.
>
> > I never saw Mecir as a player "with his feet plugged to the ground."
>
> Indeed. The author also misspelled Mecir's first name, and botched his
> nickname, to boot. That looks like three strikes in a single
> paragraph.
>
> Mecir may have looked *unhurried* but he certainly didn't play in slow
> motion!
Six, he didn't state that Mecir played in slowed motion.
Read again.
He said Mecir LOOKS AS IF he plays the game in slow motion.
That's exactly how I saw Mecir too.
TennisGuy
That was very underhanded of you Grif!
I was all ready to give you a compliment, saying you should stop
giving links 90% of the time and continue to write like this, because
the style was flowing and had good commentary.
Then you provide a link AT THE END OF THE ARTICLE!!!
Very dirty.
TennisGuy
I did.
What he meant was that when Mecir hit the ball (FH or BH) he wasn't
jumping into the air to give extra power. His feet remained on the
ground, using the torque of his body for strength. Mecir also was one
of the few players who faced the net on his FH and BH shots, chest to
the front.
Court_1
> Tomic will be the first to break through to the top 10 I feel.
I think so too. It is usually the ones that manage to break through at
a very young age that turn out to be great. Of course there are
exceptions but think about past greats such as Becker, McEnroe, Borg
ec. All had the goods at a very young age and became great. Federer
had the goods when he was very young and broke through with the 2001
Sampras win but then stalled a little and then hit is super big.
However, everybody was saying how talented Federer was when he was
only around 15 or 16 when he was winning Junior tournaments. If the
players are not showing talent and don't break through in some way by
the time they are 19 or 20 I don't think they will accomplish
superstardom.
Court_1
He needs to make it soon though. His window of opportunity is
decreasing the older he gets. Hopefully he can hit the big time again
and win some more slams.
Vlado
Correct but do you really see these guys becoming top 5 and winning
slams
and masters by the age of 19-20? Certainly not now with the current
top 2 and the other
top 5 . Also
all of them seem to have benefited from wild cards which may hinder
their
desire and perspective in the long term. Compare for example Nole and
Murray where one had
almost no wild cards early on in his career and the other one was
showered with it for a year
or two. Nowadays their focus and desire are much different and maybe a
difference between
a winner and an also ran.
uly...@mscomm.com
still playing challengers. He has to have a wild card to get into the
draws of any tournament and then routinely loses in the first round.
He should have beaten a sub-par Ferrer at Wimbledon. He's overly
emotional on court and immature.
"Huge mental strength" at 19 should be reserved for players like
Becker or Wilander who had two slams by that age... or Pete, who won
the USO at 19.
I like Harrison but he has years to go before he challenges in major,
and I doubt he ever will. Top 20 player? Sure... but the way he talks,
he's going to have to CGS by the time he's 22.
Manco
I don't think anyone was talking about Federer until that Sampras win.
Joe Ramirez
Check out this video of the match:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbGgmePjkRQ
BEFORE the match begins, while everyone is waiting for the players to
arrive, the announcer notes that Sampras will be going for his 100th
win on grass, and that he'll be up against Roger Federer of
Switzerland: "Roger, of course, a big threat to win this title."
bob
w/out even watching the match, sampras really looks out of shape here.
bob
uly...@mscomm.com
California, where a lot of his junior career unfolded. I was hearing
about him when he was 10 or 11 years old as a future comer. And that's
when he had a 2-handed BH and had no serve.
The junior that was most touted, however, was Chang. When he won the
FO at 17, a lot of people here in So. California just basically said,
"I told ya so."
felangey
Without even reading your reply, I knew you were going to say that! :)
Wow....showing up for *Wimbledon* as the champion.....I mean
*Wimbledon*....out of shape. Geez there is marks off for goatdome right
there. Who does that.
Court_1
No you are wrong. JMac was talking him up and other commentators were
too from the time Federer won Wimby as a junior. They all talked about
how this kid had a lot of talent and he was going to be big.
Court_1
Well Tomic seems to have come the furthest along currently so maybe he
has the talent and ability to beat the top guys if not now maybe
coming up soon.
I mean Federer is not going to be so hard to defeat for some of these
young guns especially as he declines more as he ages. Nadal is not
looking so hot lately so he can be defeated. Same with Djokovic even
though he is the hottest of all right now.
My point is that if these young guys really have super talent and
mental strength they should be able to break through before the age of
20. That is how it has always been with real superstar tennis players
and I think that can still be the case now. We'll see I guess.