Mumbai: Point out teen tennis sensations and your thoughts would in all probability swing to Jennifer Capriati, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Steffi Graf or, if you happen to occur to be from a youthful crop, Maria Sharapova and Coco Gauff.
Learner Tien of the US in motion throughout his second spherical match in opposition to Russia’s Daniil Medvedev. (REUTERS)
Whereas we’re on the 2025 Australian Open, you can carry up Learner Tien, Jakub Mensik and Joao Fonseca. Additionally throw in Alex Michelsen.
The primary three, every of their teenagers, are chargeable for knocking out three prime 10 gamers —Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev, respectively — at Melbourne Park. This uncommon phenomenon has taken place simply thrice in Grand Slams in 5 a long time. Michelsen, 20, took down 2023 finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas within the first spherical.
American Michelsen will play Karen Khachanov on Saturday for a spot within the fourth spherical, whereas his compatriot Tien, 19, faces Corentin Moutet. Czech Mensik, 19, was inside touching distance of it on Friday, observing two match factors within the third set earlier than shedding a five-setter to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Brazilian 18-year-old Fonseca too is out, however made fairly a splash at this Australian Open alongside along with his fellow band of teenage boys. For a very long time in tennis, that band was largely feminine, with the Capriatis and Grafs and Sharapovas lighting up the Slam stage with their sprint of youth and freshness. Now the boys look like pulling the strings.
The ladies’s tour, which for a big a part of the final decade was a beehive of younger achievers, at the moment has only one teen within the prime 100 rankings: 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva, who performs world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka within the fourth spherical. Over to the boys, six gamers aged 21 or under have reached the third spherical of this Australian Open. Of the eight that competed within the 2024 Subsequent Gen ATP Finals, six gained their first-round matches. That features the 4 giant-slayers of this week.
Tien, who like Fonseca got here via the qualifying rounds, noticed what his Subsequent Gen members did and felt “inspired” in grabbing an excellent greater fish — final yr’s finalist Medvedev.
“Just trying to almost join them,” mentioned the world No.121 after his win. “I think seeing them, and the wins they’ve had this week, just adds a little bit more belief that it’s possible.”
It’s additionally potential as a result of the ‘OG’ Subsequent Gen, which was meant to take the large leap in Slams within the submit Large Three period, retains stumbling far too typically even now. The likes of Tsitsipas, Medvedev, Ruud and Rublev — all of their mid to late twenties — haven’t solely stood and watched the gorgeous overtake of Carlos Alcaraz, 21, and Jannik Sinner 23, however have additionally fallen to such shocks more and more.
To be truthful to them, their youthful variations needed to cope with the person and collective prime of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. If one gained’t get you, the opposite will. Now, if Alcaraz or Sinner gained’t get you, a Tien or Mensik will. And that, with two of the Large Three not round, leaves little room for excuses.
By the way, these early chaotic shocks engineered by recent faces on huge names was once the order of the day within the ladies’s tour not too way back. Younger one-Slam wonders shook issues up within the ladies’s attract Slams from round 2017 to 2021. It’s been a lot calmer and extra constant over the past three years, with the likes of Iga Swiatek and Sabalenka protecting a variety of the youthful hopefuls at arm’s size. Swiatek has reached at the very least the third spherical in each Slam after 2019, and Sabalenka after 2020. It partly explains the presence of only one teen within the prime 100.
“Me and Aryna, and the other players in the top, are pretty consistent,” Swiatek mentioned in Melbourne. “So maybe if you have us on the draw, there’s less probability that we’re going to flop in the first rounds or something.”
The ladies’s sport can also be getting much more bodily, and it might take one thing extraordinary for a younger lady to maintain up with the facility of Swiatek, Sabalenka, Gauff or Elena Rybakina from the baseline. Gauff, who made her first Slam quarter-final on the 2021 French Open as a 17-year-old and have become the 2023 US Open champion at 19, is aware of it too nicely.
“People pay attention to sports science a lot more, so I feel like there’s more of a gap, maybe physically, between a 15-year-old body to a 20-25-year-old. Which, I know the difference,” Gauff, now 20, mentioned. “And the tour is tough. You’ve got to get used to getting your butt kicked.”
The American has been via that as the latest teen sensation to have gone on to seize a Slam. Gauff recollected how she was nearly delusional after her first early deep run in a Slam, inserting herself as a “Slam contender” again then as a “naive kid”.
This new band of boys, naive or not, are additionally dreaming huge. “Of course, my expectations are bigger now. I want more and more,” Fonseca mentioned. “I think that’s the mentality of a champion.”