Just in case you missed it first time around, here is my Tennis season preview! Of the other established young players on tour the diminutive David Goffin is definitely one to watch after winning his first ATP Titles in 2014 at Metz indoors and Kitzbuhel on clay. His rise up the rankings has been quite remarkable considering he was qualifying for ATP events and playing Challengers in the first half of the season. However, after Wimbledon he put together an impressive run of winning three Challenger tournaments on clay back-to-back without dropping a set and then went straight to Kitzbuhel where he won his first ATP Title. At the end of the season indoors he achieved a similar feat winning Metz beating Tsonga on route, the Mons Challenger and then made the final at Basel beating Raonic on route losing to Federer in the final. Now he has established himself and improved his ranking to 22 he will definitely be challenging for ATP Tournaments again in 2015 and while he probably won’t be winning the big events quite yet, don’t be surprised to see him doing well at them and challenging the top players on a more regular basis. Other young players like Klizan, Janowicz and Pospisil had breakthrough seasons in recent years, but failed to live up to the hype in 2013 and 2014. This is a common occurrence; mainly due to the extra physical demands placed on them and of course having to play the well established more experienced and top players more regularly. However, this is part of the transition that is required when becoming a top professional player and if they build on this experience, improve physically and mentally don’t be surprised to see one or all of them climbing back up the rankings again and challenging for, if not winning tournaments in 2015. Young Guns This season witnessed the emergence and breakthrough of a number of Young Guns and potential stars of tomorrow on the ATP Tour; most notably Austrian Dominic Thiem, Australian Nick Kyrgios and American Jack Sock. Austrian Dominic Thiem aged 21 ended the 2014 season ranked 39 and defeated numerous higher ranked players, took sets of top-10 payers, qualified for a number of Masters 1000 series events and reached his first ATP final on home soil at Kitzbuhel, losing to Goffin. At 20 he also beat his first top-10 player, number three Wawrinka at the Madrid Masters 1000 event, becoming only the third youngest player in history to defeat a number three ranked player, alongside Del Potro who beat Nadal and Federer at the 2009 US Open aged 20. He is definitely a potential star of the future and will follow in the footsteps of the likes of compatriots Muster and Melzer, who both made names great careers for themselves on the ATP Tour. However, don’t expect it to happen overnight as the 2015 season will probably be the hardest of his career so far, as he will be mixing it with the big boys on a more regular basis. Like all young players who get to this stage of their career it either makes or breaks them in terms of eventually becoming an established top-100 professional player, which he definitely has the talent to do. American Jack Sock aged 21 ended the 2014 season ranked 42 and is a former Junior US Open winner. He began to show his real potential back in 2013 when he beat Raonic at the ATP Memphis event and made the third round of the US Open for the second year as a Wild Card. He ended 2013 in the top-100 and also won his first ATP main tour Doubles title at Delray Beach, which was a sign of things to come in this field in 2014. In July 2014 at the age of 21 along with his partner Pospisil aged 24 achieved the unthinkable winning the Wimbledon Men’s Doubles title as debutants, defeating legends the Bryan brothers in a thrilling five set final. This success spurred him on in both fields in 2014 and he reached his second ATP singles semi-finals at Newport and Atlanta where he also won the doubles with his new partner Pospisil. They also went on to reach the Doubles final at the Cincinnati Masters 1000 losing to the Bryan Brothers. He also made singles Quarter Finals at Auckland, Memphis, Houston, Tokyo and Stockholm. He recorded his first win against a top-10 player defeating ATP number six Nishikori to reach the third round of the Shanghai Masters, beat numerous other higher ranked players and lost some very close matches at Masters 1000 events against Raonic at Miami, Washington, Toronto and Paris. The experience Sock has gained so far on the main ATP singles and doubles Tours will prove to be invaluable over the next few years of his career. He definitely has the potential to follow in the footsteps of American greats like Roddick and Isner and with the experience and physical conditioning he has gained playing both formats of the game it would not be a surprise if he established himself in the top-50 in 2015. According to new Coach Troy Hahn Sock has the potential to compete at the highest level and make the top-10. Australian young gun Kick Kyrgios aged 19 has experienced an illustrious junior career winning two junior doubles titles in 2012 at Wimbledon and Roland Garros, and in 2013 won the Australian Open junior title (without dropping a set) and won the Wimbledon junior doubles title again. He reached a career high ATP ranking of 52 in 2014 on the back of Challenger title wins before making a real name for himself at Wimbledon; where he made the Quarter Finals defeating Gasquet in a thrilling five setter 10-8 in the final set and Nadal in four sets, before falling to Raonic in another close four set match. He also went on to reach the third round of the US Open losing to the experienced top-20 player Robredo. Kyrgios still has a long way to go before he can be classed as top player and the 2015 season will be a real test of his ability, character and physical stamina. The similarities with compatriot Bernard Tomic, who looked to have the game at his feet after he made his breakthrough on the ATP Tour not long ago, are quite close. If Kyrgios wants to see how not to develop and manage your career then he has a perfect blueprint to follow. It will be interesting to follow how his career develops and he seems to have everything in place to make a real name for himself in years to come, but for now he will do well just to improve his ranking and establish himself in the top-50 instead of reaching for the stars to soon. Finally on a lighter note some things I would like to see happen on the ATP Tour in 2015, but in reality they are unlikely! 1. Federer to win one more Grand Slam! 2. Gael Monfils to stop clowning around as much, seriously if he did this guy has the potential to win a Grand Slam. 3. Andy Murray to reappoint Ivan Lendl as his coach and stop doing TV appearances, it’s just too painful to watch! 4. David Ferrer to win a Grand Slam, if any player deserved it more this guy definitely does! 5. Ernest Gulbis to win Wimbledon, just to hear his winner’s speech it would no doubt be a YouTube sensation!
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 05:45:06 +0000
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