Youngsters to look for - New Series

1]Christian Harrison -
Just watched his match with Jamie Baker in challanger Binghampton, lost a close 3set match, but should have closed it out in st.sets really when he was serving 5-4 for the 1st set.

Good attacking tennis player, need to improve on his temper, if he does work on this aspect then yes he could be a future top 25 for sure.

2]Jack Sock [USA] - Aged 19 got some big serves to back with heavy forehand. Got a very strong mentality showed no signs of nerves on Tiebreakers.
Lost to Favio Cipiolla after a great run in last two challenger tournaments.

3]Gianluigi Quinzi - Added after review by JM, Lemme add him to my watch list.

4]Richard Berankis -So close to beating Kei Nishikori last week and going down 7-5 in the 3rd set QF, now he is on his first semifinal beating Nicolas Mahut in st.set 6-4 6-4 in Los Angels.

Really a kid with so much weapons.

Added info on Jack Sock.

I'd heard good things about Jack Sock before (crazy name) but don't know much about his style of play.

Gianluigi Quinzi from Italy needs to be added, only 16 and already beating guys much more experienced than him.

Christian Harrison I have heard about for some time, I remember Leif Shirus saying that in America he is considered the bigger hope more than his brother Ryan

reckoner wrote:I'd heard good things about Jack Sock before (crazy name) but don't know much about his style of play.

His style of play is awesome, he is a very good attacking player and not a grinder, got a big serve and a big forehand and an ok backhand.

@ CAS - C Harrison got a great style of play too, but the problem lies in his mentality he loses his temper so quick and ends up losing close matches which he could have won otherwise.

@ JM , player added to watch list.

Really interesting thread. I googled Gianluigi Quinzi and see he is widely thought of as one of the most talented juniors at the moment.

It's interesting that younger Harrison has temperament problems because wasn't that also the case for Ryan? Though I do like the the latter's competitiveness - hopefully for both it is just about learning to harness that temperament.

time please wrote:Really interesting thread. I googled Gianluigi Quinzi and see he is widely thought of as one of the most talented juniors at the moment.

It's interesting that younger Harrison has temperament problems because wasn't that also the case for Ryan? Though I do like the the latter's competitiveness - hopefully for both it is just about learning to harness that temperament.

The coolest player on tour was once a temperamental monster in Fed, so yes lets hope the two Harrisons learn to control and use it wisely for better tennis results.

JM do Quinzi play any challangers? coz I do watch lot of challangers and strange I haven't come across him much.

.

invisiblecoolers wrote:

reckoner wrote:I'd heard good things about Jack Sock before (crazy name) but don't know much about his style of play.

His style of play is awesome, he is a very good attacking player and not a grinder, got a big serve and a big forehand and an ok backhand.

Good to know - thanks ic!

lydian wrote:Actually it a really worrying time for the junior part of the game.

A few facts:
- There are only 7 players under 21 in the Top 100 overall ATP rankings
- Spain has only 5 players in the top 100 "juniors" under 21...wow (the top 100 juniors, i.e. 21 and under, goes down to 560 in the full ATP rankings)
- France only has 5 players under 21 in the top 100 "juniors"
- USA has only 9 players under 21 in the top 100 juniors
- Britain has 3 players under 21 in top 100 juniors
- Argentina has 10(!) players under 21 in top 100 juniors

In contrast...if we look to what recent "greats" of the game achieved at an early age...
By 18y 7m Djokovic was at #78
By 18y 6m Nadal was at #51
By 18y 4m Federer was at #65
By 18y 7m Murray was at #65

This shows the great plays get up to around 50-75ish ranking by mid 18th year.
So contrast that with the ranked current 18 year old - Dominic Thiem from Austria at #442!!!

The game is in trouble....

Wow lydian that is indeed a somewhat worrying stat. It's in line with how much more physical tennis has become though and perhaps reflects what you see in the upper echelons with players seem to be breaking through a bit later in their twenties.

Absolutely reckoner...I just moved this to be a main topic of discussion on a new thread...appears calamitous to me.

Thats a nice stats Lyd, but I haven't given up, we might not have great players coming up but there are some interesting youngsters coming up, and i will keep that updated here.

Really - who are they? I only see alot of identikit players coming through who can hit the ball really hard but cant cut it against the older, wily players who employ more variety than them as they had to learn tennis a different way.

Exceptions are Goffin and Dimitrov. Harrison a little but he's halfway between "individual and identikit" for me.

The younger Harrison got as good a game as the older Harrison if not better. Jack Sock got a very good game and not just a plain basher.

Federer came from no where, Nadal came from no where and some kid will come from no where again, you just need to cultivate patience, yes its a dry period but its not the end.

You say they came from nowhere but thats not true - if you read my other thread the current top 4 were all knocking on top 50 by just over 18.
To add to that Sampras was up around #50 by mid-18yo, Agassi was ranked #3 (!) by 18y 8m, McEnroe was #21 by 18y 10m, Edberg was #13 by 18y 11m. There is a pattern here across the multi-slammers...they got to a good ranking by their 19th birthday.

As discussed, we have current up and comers nowhere near this...just Tomic at#49 and he's 20 in 3 months time. Sock is ranked #263 and he's nearly 20 too. Ok, he may get to top 30 eventually but none of these new guys are in the trajectory of past greats.

Now we've discussed its harder for current guys to get up there perhaps but even still, talent is talent and they would surely find a way of getting into the top 100 come what may if they were in the class of Edberg, Agassi, Samp, Nadal, Djoko, Fed, etc...but these guys are nowhere near these achievements by 19th birthday.

So yes some nice players coming through I'm sure but I just dont see them as future greats of the game in terms of where they'll stand in history. I dont mean to be pessimistic, its just what the picture is saying.

Fair points Lyd, we have discussed about how physical the game has gone and its gonna take some time for these kids to come anywhere close to the legends level let alone get there.

I see 24 as no bad a year to start winning slams.

Djoko even though won a slam at 2008, took a long time to win another one, thats how physical this era is .

Or it spoke to how good Federer and Nadal were, and that Djokovic needed to get more consistent. None the less he was up there at 18yo so we could almost predict he was going to do well in the game - and he has.

I dont disagree its hard to win with the current top guys around but we have to realise, per my other thread, that todays new players dont have the varied game of many older than them. I think talent can need time to shine but you still tend to see it early on...I've still not seen anyone below 23 that I think "yeah, he could be the one". Goffin came close though...lets see.

Richard Berankis another youngster to look for, he was so close to beating Kei Nishikori last week and going down 7-5 in the 3rd set QF, now he is on his first semifinal beating Nicolas Mahut in st.set 6-4 6-4 in Los Angels.

Really a kid with so much weapons.

Jack Sock reminds me a lot of Raonic. Raonic is better version, IMVHO.

I had a lot of hope for Daniel Berta and Jiri Vaseley. Where are Carlos Boluda and Thiego Monteiro?

BTW, Kohlschreiber will crack Top 20 at age 28.

German Philipp Kohlschreiber will break into the Top 20 for the first time Monday after reaching the final in Kitzbuhel.

@LF

shall i add cKohls then to upcoming youngsters list.

laverfan wrote:Jack Sock reminds me a lot of Raonic. Raonic is better version, IMVHO.

I had a lot of hope for Daniel Berta and Jiri Vaseley. Where are Carlos Boluda and Thiego Monteiro?

BTW, Kohlschreiber will crack Top 20 at age 28.

German Philipp Kohlschreiber will break into the Top 20 for the first time Monday after reaching the final in Kitzbuhel.

Yea jack Sock has a similar style of Raonic but he moves way better than Raonic does and got a good all round game too.

Never heard of Carlos Boluda and Thiego Monteiro, are they currently playing any challangers?

Harrison has made the SF in the Lexington Challenger where he plays Denis Kudla in a battle of the teenagers.

Boluda was meant to be the new Nadal but hasn't done anything to justify that and is currently outside the top 1000. Monteiro does have some promise though.

Born Slippy wrote:Harrison has made the SF in the Lexington Challenger where he plays Denis Kudla in a battle of the teenagers.

Boluda was meant to be the new Nadal but hasn't done anything to justify that and is currently outside the top 1000. Monteiro does have some promise though.

Tats interesting to know about Boulda, having heard enough of baby Fed its good to know there is a baby Nadal too, so there could be a similar rivalry in the future as well.

I'd add Luke Saville and Yuki Bhambri to this list.

I would add Kyle Edmund. He has great company in Rusedski in his corner at such a young age. He has had some good junior results too. Let's hope he can kick on.

I do wonder where Broady is going as at 17 he was in the top 600 and now has dropped down.

Born Slippy wrote:Harrison has made the SF in the Lexington Challenger where he plays Denis Kudla in a battle of the teenagers.

Boluda was meant to be the new Nadal but hasn't done anything to justify that and is currently outside the top 1000. Monteiro does have some promise though.

Kudla is another youngster we have been hearing about for some time that is an interesting matchup. Harrison is going to be a good pro for a very long time. But his court positioning right now is terrible that is his biggest problem. He plays deeper than Nadal for much of the match.