This article is part of The Next Generation series. As the greats, such as Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal, become the past and Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek handle the present, The Athletic explores the next generation: the rising stars who will be tasked with securing tennis’ future.
The ‘Big Three’ of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic fended off what felt like countless generations of ‘next generation’ players during nearly two decades at the top of tennis.
With their oligopoly over, there should be more opportunities for the latest batch of promising youngsters — unless Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner prove to be similarly dominant.
In any case, the list below is predicated on potential as much as age, which is why someone such as Alcaraz is not included. Yes, he’s only 21 and younger than some of the below players, but with four Grand Slam titles and counting, his talents are hardly a secret.
That’s true of some of the following too: players who have not yet exploded, but might well do in the next few years. From last year’s ATP Next Gen survey by The Athletic, Arthur Fils — who leads the so-called “Race to Jeddah” for the ATP Next Gen finals in November, joined by many players on this list — and Jack Draper have already become much more recognisable names as they’ve begun to fulfil their rich potential.
It promises to be a lot of fun to see whether this next group of talented youngsters can make similar strides in the coming years.
After winning the boys’ singles at the 2023 U.S. Open, Fonseca announced himself to the wider tennis world with his run to the quarterfinals at the Rio de Janeiro Open in February.
Playing in his hometown tournament, the 18-year-old thrilled the crowds with his shotmaking ability and punishing forehand. In the first set of his first-round match, he ‘bagelled’ (tennis speak for 6-0) fellow prospect Fils, who looked shell-shocked by Fonseca’s level. The Brazilian, who only turned 18 today (Wednesday, August 21), was playing on the court named after Brazil’s last Grand Slam winner, Gustavo Kuerten, and looked every inch the country’s most exciting male player since the great Guga.
“This is where I belong,” he said after beating Fils.
Fonseca’s success in Rio convinced him to turn down a place on the NCAA college tennis circuit at the University of Virginia in favour of the professional tour.
After taking advantage of a wildcard into the ATP 1000 tournament in Madrid by beating American contemporary Alex Michelsen, he has risen to No 162 in the world, and he won his first ATP Challenger title in Lexington, Kentucky in July. Now he has advanced to the second round of qualifiers at the U.S. Open, hoping for a first Grand Slam main draw appearance of many.
When Cobolli took to the court against Nadal in Barcelona this year, he appeared to wilt at the first sight of the Spaniard’s iconic headband. He made 41 ‘unforced’ errors in two sets, including 27 of the 34 total points that Nadal won in the first, losing 6-2, 6-3.
Cobolli now stands at a career high of No 31 after a breakthrough few months for the Italian.
He enjoyed notable results on the clay — the surface he grew up on — after that chastening defeat. He reached the Geneva semifinals and then was involved in one of the matches of the French Open, losing in a final set tie-break to Holger Rune in the second round. Cobolli’s exciting game contributed to a frenzied late-night atmosphere out on Court 14.
The atmosphere felt like something from a football match, which was perhaps fitting given that Cobolli was a very promising defender in the Roma academy before deciding to focus on tennis.
Cobolli served further notice of his potential by reaching the Citi Open final in Washington, D.C. this month, and last week knocked out Tommy Paul in the first round in Cincinnati.
Further along than most of the other names on this list, Cobolli enters the U.S. Open full of confidence and looks like another Italian prospect to get excited about.
It’s almost a year since Mensik posted his best result of his career to date by reaching the U.S. Open third round as a qualifier, aged 17. He became the youngest man to win a main draw match at Flushing Meadows for nine years.
Mensik, a former French Open boys’ finalist, has since backed that up by reaching the Doha final in February, beating the then-world No 5 Andrey Rublev along the way, having beaten Denis Shapovalov in the first round of the Australian Open the previous month.
At 6ft 4in (193cm), Mensik’s game is built around a big serve, but he possesses good variety too — especially with what can be a very effective drop shot. He grew up idolising Novak Djokovic and trained with the Serb a couple of years ago, which he found to be an invaluable learning experience.
Demonstrating a level of ambition that would no doubt please Djokovic, Mensik said this year that his ambition is “to win all of the Grand Slams”.
Another player with a Djokovic link, Prizmic demonstrated his rich potential in January with an outstanding performance against the 10-time champion in the first round of the Australian Open. Prizmic, who had come through qualifying, won the second set and was a break up in the third before eventually running out of steam. Still, he extended Djokovic to his longest first-round match at a major, at over four hours. “He’s an amazing player, so mature for his age,” Djokovic said afterwards.
Part of that maturity manifests in Prizmic’s shot selection and the way he varies his ball speeds. Most comfortable from the baseline, Prizmic is happy trading blows from the back of the court, waiting for his moment to pounce. He won the French Open boys’ event last year and showed there the damage he can do on the forehand side. Prizmic also won his first Challenger event in 2023.
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He has not won a main-draw ATP match since Australia though, and needs to add a bit of aggression to his very solid game as he tries to take that next step. Born in Split and having grown up at the same club as Goran Ivanisevic and Mario Ancic, Prizmic has useful sounding boards should he ever want advice about kicking on.
Blanch, an American 6ft 3in leftie, has been foisted with ‘Next Big Thing’ status for a little while. And he doesn’t turn 17 until September 28.
A favoured hitting partner of Carlos Alcaraz — they train at the Juan Carlos Ferrero Academy in Alicante — Blanch is clearly doing something right. But for all the talents he possesses, a couple of matches in March and April offered a reminder of the steps Blanch needs to take. First, he was defeated in straight sets in Miami by Tomas Machac, before an uneven performance saw him well beaten by Nadal in Madrid.
All valuable learning experiences for the second-youngest player to record an ATP ranking point (doing so in February 2022 aged 14 years and five months) and ones you suspect he will kick on from. Blanch’s father said this year that his son will no longer play junior events having reached the semifinals of the boys’ French Open and Wimbledon aged 15 last year, and so the focus is already on working his way up through the ITF and Challenger circuits towards the ATP Tour. In his last tournament, in July, Blanch reached the final of an ITF event in Tunisia.
A compatriot of Djokovic who grew up hitting with the 24-time major champion and receiving advice and financial support from him, Medjedovic was awarded a wildcard to the Belgrade Open, which Djokovic organised in 2021.
That was the then-17-year-old’s first ATP Tour event, Medjedovic has shown a great deal of promise since, reaching his first ATP Tour semifinal in Gstaad last July as a qualifier, and reaching the world’s top 125 two months later by winning his fourth Challenger event, in Mallorca. After reaching the semis at another ATP Tour event, the Astana Open in October, Medjedovic finished the year in style by winning the ATP Next Gen Finals for the highest-ranked 21-and-under players in December. Medjedovic beat Fils in the final.
This year, Medjedovic’s best result has been reaching the third round of the Masters-level Italian Open third round as a qualifier, and his next target is to crack the world’s top 100 for the first time (his personal best is No 102 last October).
Coached by another one-time top Serbian player Viktor Troicki, the former world No 12, Medjedovic possesses a huge serve and forehand, and describes himself as a “very aggressive player on the court”. Now it’s about harnessing that power, as Medjedovic looks to become the next Serbian tennis star.
Shang Juncheng, who also goes by Jerry Shang, is based at the IMG Academy in Florida. He is the son of former Chinese international footballer Shang Yi and Olympic gold medal winner in table tennis Wu Na.
A leftie with good hands who’s quick around the court, Shang has come a long way over the last 18 months. He qualified for the 2023 Australian Open to become the youngest man in the draw, and followed that up at this year’s event by reaching the third round. Just prior to that run, Shang reached his first ATP Tour semifinal at the Hong Kong Open, defeating Frances Tiafoe in straight sets along the way. Shang then took out another top-ranked American in July, as he beat Ben Shelton at the Atlanta Open to reach another semifinal. Doing so took Shang into the world’s top 75 for the first time.
An exciting player to watch (and involved in one of the craziest matches of the year against Corentin Moutet in April), Shang’s profile could explode if he can help deliver China the success it has been craving in men’s tennis.
(Top photo: Buda Mendes/Getty Images; Design: Ray Orr for The Athletic)
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