Cam's performances in college over the last two years should inspire confidence when he plays opposition outside the top 350, he was very dominant loosing only 1 match winning 21 in 16-17. He was playing number 1 in a power conference or national tournament.
His opponents would be the best the other colleges have to offer ie. often the under ranked guys who take out the seeds in the US summer futures (really would be equivalent to 400-550 ITF if ranked college top 20), generally they weren't capable of giving him a game. Ok challengers is a tier up but his performances over the year would suggest he is well set to consistently go deep.
-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Friday 4th of August 2017 10:24:11 AM
Let him guarantee at least Aus Open qualifying first - which I am sure he will !
All the best to Cam, but as for the main draw, though of course it's "do-able", I do think though that there's rather more chance of James Ward playing Davis Cup tennis next year ( in the context that I think that there is a more significant chance than some do of James doing precisely that ).
I ll go a step further. By end of 2018 Cam will be ahead of Kyle Edmund in the rankings. Cam would probably beat Kyle at the moment and has an ATP chance, Kyle is a clay court challenger champ and won't break the top 32. (Based on current form and ability in my opinion).
Kyle is the 4th highest ranked player not yet 23 he is ranked 41, there are 15 players 30 or older in the top 32, 19 players ranked higher than Kyle are 30 or older. Kyle has constantly progressed, he is now the highest ranked 1995 born player bar one of his contemporaries (Nick the Greek) on whom he has closed the gap in rankings considerably, and from a mental attitude perspective they are like chalk and cheese (or Evo and Federer) others have fallen away.
There is substantial scope for improvement in his game, he will continue to get fitter and stronger with further physical maturation, his backhand will get stronger, his first serve more consistent under pressure, and his utilisation of his forehand more refined purely through experience and playing better players. The evidence I see is consistent with a top 20 player between now and the age of 26 with plenty of time in the top 10 thereafter.
Cam is doing really well but it is only very earlier days into his professional career, unless you have seen him play a lot on the college circuit which I haven't it's quite hard to make any comment apart from what a great start he has made.
-- Edited by Oakland2002 on Friday 4th of August 2017 03:47:32 PM