Tsitsipas, Thiem, Shapovalov, the future after Nadal, Federer, Djokovic. Dimitrov to bounce back. CILIC
Marin Cilic is very satisfied that the future of tennis is in good hands. The rise of some fantastic tennis youngsters makes him believe that the old regime made up of Nadal, Federer, and Djokovic will be replaced as they come close to their inevitable retirement. The three yet again registered their usual exemplary performance this year by winning the much-coveted four grand slams and also occupy the top three positions.
Regardless of that, Cilic is very confident the trend will soon be changing. Perhaps, next year and other subsequent years might see the likes of Stefanos Tsitsipas, Dominic Thiem, Denis Shapovalov, and Grigor Dimitrov win a grand slam title. He goes on to highlight some of the great performances the “next-gen” tennis players managed to pull off this year.
Stefanos Tsitsipas in 2019
Stefanos Ttsitsipas is one of the tennis players on a meteoric rise. The Greek boosts of strong baseline groundstrokes and a thunderous serve. These unmatched traits enabled him to win the ATP Finals title in London. The victory established him as one of the greatest threats that most players will have to deal with in the 2020 tennis season. He also enjoys some encouraging odds against other players with an average of around 1.7.
Denis Shapovalov
The Canadian ended the 2019 tennis season at number 15. On 20th October, he beat Filip Krajivonic to win his maiden title in the Stockholm title. He also made it to the Rolex Paris Masters final, where he lost 6-3,6-4 to Novak Djokovic.
The 21-year-old has been under some several coaches with his mother, Tessa Shapovalova, being one of them. Other coaches who worked with him include Martin Laurendeau, Rob Steckley, and currently Mikhail Youzhny, a former world number 8.
Dominic Thiem
Dominic Thiem is widely known as a clay-court specialist, but this season he proved otherwise by performing pretty on fast courts in Indian Wells and the ATP Finals in London. He won the Indian Wells and Barcelona Open titles. The Austrian finished the tennis season at position 4 in the ATP world rankings.
Grigor Dimitrov
Grigor Dimitrov will be hoping to get out of his recovery mood and learn how to win titles once more. The Bulgarian won his last title in 2017 at the ATP Finals. From there, he was sidelined for a long time. This year he made some significant progress by reaching the semifinals in New York, quarterfinals in Chengdu Open, and semifinals in Rolex Paris Masters. It is true to say that his last months in 2019 were at least encouraging.
Grigor Dimitrov