Whatever has happened to the 1989 and 1990 guys ?

indiana · Tennis legend

Whatever has happened to the 1989 and 1990 guys ?

James · Satellite level

Don't forget about Kei Nishikori, he would likely be up there if it were not for an elbow injury. Not that it would skew your stats to any real degree.

There does seem to be an endless number of players who have fallen by the wayside having shown early promise:- Ignatik, Berankis, Eysseric, Gojowczyk, Del Bonis (to some extent, I still think that he'll break through eventually) to name but a few

And the reason? Could it be dismissed as an increase in the depth of men's tennis? Although Tomic, Harrison, Wang et al are showing some initial promise they might also stumble at the 200- hurdle. Even if Tomic continues his rise it is still strange that he would appear to be an anomaly.

-- Edited by James on Monday 1st of February 2010 07:48:46 PM

philwrig · Hall of fame

There are no exceptional juniors in the girls ranks either. This certainly helps Andy going forward.
Is it down to luck that this current crop of juniors aren't that good or is it a trend we are seeing because I don't see any junior over the age of 14 either boy or girl bar possibly Tomic that are going to be exceptional.

DavidC · Tennis legend

The top players sometimes do emerge as a small group around the same time, with relatively fallow years in between (so for instance Sampras, Agassi, Ivanisevic and Courier are all 70/71) - perhaps the internal rivalry within these groups develops early and they push each other, whilst those in subsequent years are daunted in their wake.

I disagree about the current generation of junior boys. Tomic, Bhambri, Krajinovic and Harrison are 4 1992s who are all ranked higher than Andy at the same stage, and they could rival each other to greater things.

philwrig · Hall of fame

Andy's ranking progression though was slow to start off with and then meteoric.
I have alot of time for Bhambri but he still has alot to prove. He will also have to endure the huge pressure associated with being a top sportsman from India.
As for the other two players you mentioned David I don't share the same level of optimism.

Salmon · Tennis legend

It's amazing how quickly life changes (or how quickly others can change your life).

LadyTigress · County player

I do have a strong suspicion that the down side of us having such a strong men's Tour right now could be that the youngsters coming through could really struggle to break through. At least, that's what I worry.

On a random note - YAY OLEK! I had no idea he commanded that stat, but I've been following him since last year and his progress over the past 12 months has been astonishing. He's recently become world 81, so I guess that means he replaces Marin Cilic as youngest in the top 100.

Krajinovic, who was mentioned by someone, isn't really a 1989 or 1990 lad though, being born in 1992. He and 1991'ers like Dimitrov might come through better than the 1989 and 1990'ers as the old guys fade? It's a possibility.

indiana · Tennis legend

Wow, Olek certainly on the rise and I hadn't realised how much on the rise when I wrote my first post.

He was outside the top 300 in July and has risen to 80 now. I guess maybe connected to 4 challenger titles, a challenger final and 4 challenger semi finals since July !! smile

I think that lad may be having more than challenger success sooner rather than later.

I notice he was in the top 200 for a while in 2007 while aged 18 before falling back, not sure if any real reason for that, but certainly now coming on very strong.

Yes, he must be the youngest in the top 100 now ( born 07/11/88 ) since I can't see anyone younger can have suddenly burst into the top 100 from outside the top 150.

LadyTigress · County player

Yeah, he recently won the Meknes Challenger (which pushed him to WR 81), AND reached the doubles final in the same event.

He's going seriously well. He's gonna be top 50 at least I should think, by the end of this year. Potentially one of our future big names?

-- Edited by LadyTigress on Tuesday 9th of March 2010 11:15:35 PM

indiana · Tennis legend

Oh, I'd say Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jnr is already a big name

LadyTigress · County player

On the Challenger Tour, certainly. He's playing Rabat this week and I'd expect him to play Marrakech next week - and I wouldn't be surprised if he picked up titles at both of those too. Given his new ranking I would expect him to very shortly make a break onto the ATP Tour, in to 250's and the 500's, and even shooting for qualies at Masters 1000's and the Slams. And I think he can go further.

Ukraine this past year since we played them in DC seem to really be harvesting a big crop of talent. Stakh is going solid. Olek and Illya have made dramatic progress up the rankings and improved their games, and behind them Bubka Junior and Sergeyev have been making slower but fairly decent progress also. Behind them there's a stack of other Ukrainians coming up making steady strides, AND this year they are harvesting a new crop of juniors to add to their ranks (see below). It's going very well for them. Bazhayu uspikhu i bahato peremohi! (And, I would write that in Cyrillic but I already tried and apparently this forum doesn't support Cyrillic script!)

Speaking of the youngsters (and it didn't seem appropriate to start a separate thread, as this board is so sparse in threads and only seems to contain big-question threads, not tons and tons of threads for trivial enquiries like mine)...

Two juniors have floated onto my radar recently - both are just making their transition onto the pro tour and I'd never heard of them before. Anyone heard anything about them/seen them play/got any opinions about their future prospects?

David Souto (Venezuela) DOB 26th March 1992:
http://www.itftennis.com/juniors/players/player.asp?player=100087205

Stanislav Poplavskyy (Ukraine) DOB 2nd April 1991:
http://www.itftennis.com/juniors/players/player.asp?player=100102904

Both also have Men's Tour profiles but as you can imagine there's not much on those yet, so I've provided the junior profiles. I suspect that Souto's pro rank of 665 currently is underranking him (due to him only just turning pro), because he seems to be playing better than that. He's a left-hander who emulates Nadal, and I can't say I remember the last time I saw a Venezuelan on Tour... has there ever been a Venezuelan in the top 100? He seems fiesty and he's got ambition, that much is clear.

-- Edited by LadyTigress on Thursday 11th of March 2010 03:42:20 PM

James · Satellite level

LadyTigress wrote:

David Souto (Venezuela) DOB 26th March 1992:
http://www.itftennis.com/juniors/players/player.asp?player=100087205

Very strange that you mention Souto as it was only this morning that I stumbled across him myself and went on a little hunt for information. I also struggled to find anything of much weight though, other than from a poster on TennisWarehouse who said that he had seen him play and described him as "talented" - that was it though unfortunately.

His results look promising, and it will be interesting to see how he does this week in Turkey having already defeated the 5th seed, Artem Smirnov (WR 367), 6-3 6-2. Interestingly Poplavskyy also entered into the same tournament, however he lost in Q3 to a Vadim Alekseenko (WR 895). Souto and Poplavskyy met a few weeks ago in Spain, the Venezualan triumphant 6-1 6-2.

Is there any particular reason you see Poplavskyy as a future prospect? Based on his results/junior career he seems a little uninspiring - nothing really suggests to me that he will go on to a big career.

SMC1809 · All-time great

Hi Lady, I'd be very surprised if anyone here would've seen them play, but I noticed that Poplavskyy has played against both Neil Pauffley and Dan Smethurst and appears to have been soundly beaten by both. Neil is a year older, while Dan is 6 months older than him, so comparable in terms of development. Also, Marcus Willis beat him in 3 sets, so his record against Brits is nothing to worry about yet.

Maybe that puts Dan's WR into perpective?

steven · Tennis legend

No idea re. Poplavskyy, but Souto won a Future at home in Venezuela in the autumn without losing a set and being ranked in the top 700 (albeit heavily influenced by that title in what was a very weak Future) isn't bad for a 17-year-old (enough to suggest possibly top 100 later, though not that likely to crack the top 10) - Evo was only just in the top 1000 when he turned 18, though he had reached the top 500 seven months later.

I think the only male player Venezuela has ever had in the top 100 was Uruguayan-born Nicolas Pereira, who reached WR 74 in 1996. He was a bit of a muppet, with a reputation of playing well against higher-ranked players (Brad Gilbert was one of his scalps) and rubbish against lower-ranked players. They've had a few doubles players in the top 100 and two women in the singles top 50 (Vento-Kabchi and Sequera) in the last few years.

LadyTigress · County player

James -

Yes, I know, I've been following the Turkey F2 all week! That's how/why Souta and Poplavskyy "floated onto my radar". I don't see Poplavskyy as a future prospect (at least, I'm pretty sure I didn't say that), but I always like to take note of youngsters coming through, store it away for future reference, that sort of thing. It's always interesting in future to come back and see how they've been doing.

SMC - No, I don't expect anyone to have seen them play, but I suspected more than a few people might've heard talk about them or have stats about them. And I see steven has just that. When you say "Dan's WR" I assume you mean Smethurst there, not Evo. I don't think I've ever mentioned Smethurst on this forum before, let alone panned him. :) Did very well last year in Romania Futures, did Smetty.

Steven - Souto appears to be 665 at the moment and yet to have his 18th birthday, impressive, but yes I also noted the Future populated almost entirely by fellow Venezuelans. And his favourite surface isn't even clay, he says it's hard courts. I certainly can't account for his win in Turkey. And yes, I did feel fairly certain that Venezuela were particularly underrepresented in tennis.