Can Fed compete with the next batch?

First topic message reminder :

In interviews he is rightly dismissive of the endless questions about retirement, so presumably he feels he can take them on.

However Dimitrov (the next big thing) is 10 years younger than him! Kyrgios is a whole 14 years younger.

Given his age is it realistic of Roger to believe he can compete with another emerging cohort of young players?

Anyway on the topic on hand. Federer can compete with the next batch of youngsters as long as he maintains a decent level of fitness and high consistency. If he can do that then I can see him handling the likes of Raonic and Dimitrov for the forseeable future (say the next year or perhaps two).

Speaking of "next batch" the 17 year old I mentioned last week, Alexander Zverev, who won a challenger entered Stuttgart Open as wildcard. He very narrowly to Lukas Rosol in R1...7-6(9-7) 7-6(11-9)...on clay, Rosol's fave surface. Zverev had set points in both 1st and 2nd set tb's. He got frustrated with the wet conditions in the second tb and kind of lost it mentally...so needs to still mature. However, a very tight match and he'll only improve...keep your eyes peeled for him.

Kyle Edmund is through to a challenger SF too...moves him up 12 places to #249
Not bad for a British 19 year old!

Kyle loses very narrowly to Gilles Muller in 3 sets, Gilles is ranked over 200 places above him. Kyle rises 40 ATP places and is the 2nd largest mover for the week on ATP ranking list. Let's hope he can follow it up so we have someone to cheer in the top 100 after Murray...

I'm sure people on here follow tennis avidly outside the ad-nauseum discussions of the top 4 players...that tennis is a pro circuit of >1,500 players not just a small elite club of multimillionaires. After all, every sporting pyramid needs its strong base right? Except who cares about the base of the pyramid when there's just the pinnacle to discuss...

In which case, and in addition to the interest of the other pro-result posts above, I'm sure everyone will know that David Goffin just won a Dutch challenger on red clay, not dropping a set all week and moving his ranking up 21 places. I still believe this guy is massively talented...just needs the muscle and self-belief. Today may be a step in that direction...

Money-wise, well he won 90 ATP points...which is 4.5% of the points Djokovic won at Wimbledon. Does that mean he got 4.5% of the £1.5m that Djokovic picked up? i.e. £67,500? Er no...he won £3,600.

Pathetic. Not that these lower players matter much I guess...

PS....re: ATP finals...it's Hewitt vs Karlovic in Newport final, Rosol vs Bautista Agut in Stuttgart final and Cuevas vs Berlocq in Bastad (Sweden) final. Hewitt demolished Sock in yesterday's semi but a good week for the rapidly rising 21 yo...nearly top 70 now.

Anyway, sorry for the non top 4 diversion...as you were guys.

lydian wrote:Kyle loses very narrowly to Gilles Muller in 3 sets, Gilles is ranked over 200 places above him. Kyle rises 40 ATP places and is the 2nd largest mover for the week on ATP ranking list. Let's hope he can follow it up so we have someone to cheer in the top 100 after Murray...

He looks a solid top 100 prospect. Shame he couldn't get the win over Muller but he has the game to keep steadily rising. There are 5 young Brits making decent progress in the lower ranks - Golding, Broady, Bambridge and Norrie being the others. Golding, of course, is a former junior slam champ so it's a bit disappointing he is still outside the top 300 aged 20 but he does seem to have had a lot of injury problems. Hopefully they can push each other upwards towards the top 200.

Agree there BS, I'm surprised Golding in particular hasn't had better success given the weight of his game. Kyle seems our leading prospect right now and really needs to join a big academy outside UK, eg Good to Great in Stockholm.

Oh and stop the press, Tomic won his 1st round match at 250 Bogota. He's had to get a WC entry because his ranking is only good enough for Challengers these days at #124. That first round win pushes him up 11 places.

Great win for Hewitt over Karlovic on Sunday...match had 3 sets and 2 TBs of course! I wonder how many TBs Ivo has played compared to the rest...he must almost be a TB specialist!

Cox and Smethurst at US challengers this week. Smethurst out already...

Goffin trying his winning hand at clay again, at Poland challenger. Edmund has gone to Italian HC challenger...