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Michael Chang remains the youngest player to have the Roland Garros, having won the trophy aged 17 years and four months, a feat he achieved in 1990. However, Chang. despite showing promise at a very nascent stage in his career, failed to win another Grand Slam event and by the time he hung up his boots in 2003, he was little more than a shadow of the robust teenager who had defied all odds to win the French Open in 1990. However, there was another teenager who also went on to get his first taste of Grand Slam success on the red clay of Roland Garros. But the trajectory of this precious talent’s career was nothing like that of Chang’s. The win marked the beginning of a new epoch in tennis, one that would see this very same teenager stamp his authority in the French Open like no other in history. No prizes for guessing who this player was: Rafael Nadal. After defeating then-World Number one Roger Federer in the semi-final of French Open 2005 on his 19th birthday, Nadal went on to win the first of his nine French Open titles two days later when he took out Mariano Puerta of Argentina in the final in a four-set match.Steffi Graf had three French Open titles before she turned twenty, as did her arch-rival Monica Seles. With the clay court season all set to commence, let us now take a look at five youngsters in the current circuit who can look forward to emulating the feats of those mentioned above.
#5 Alexander Zverev (Germany)
Alexander Zverev, who will turn 18 on the 20thof this month, isnt likely to be on anyones list of potential French Open champions this year. Currently ranked 119 in the world, Zverev is a German player who started playing tennis at the age of five.
After a successful junior career, where he ascended to the top of the rankings, Zverev started his professional career in 2014 playing a series of challenger events. Playing in his first ATP tournament at the International German Open at Hamburg, En route to the semi-final at the event, he took out Robin Hasse in the first round and Mikhail Youzhny in the second. His win against Youzhny was his first against a top 20 player. His impressive run in the event was brought to a rather abrupt halt when he ran into David Ferrer in the semi-final. Ferrer took him out in straight sets.
Although he suffered a series of first roundlosses following his unbelievable run in Hamburg, his ranking rose up over a hundred spots, jumping from 285 to 161 at the end of the International German Open. However, he got back to winning ways, registering his fifth win against a top 100 player when he beat Paul Henri-Mathieu at the Trophe des Alpilles challenger event.
A clay court specialist, Zverev was a junior French Open champion and will look to the clay season to both improve his rankings as well as to establish himself firmly in the professional circuit.
#4 Madison Keys (USA)
20-year old Madison Keys is being seen by many experts in America as a possible successor to the legacy of the Williams’ sisters. By reaching the semi-final at the Australian Open this year, Keys has shown that she possesses the wherewithal to succeed at the Majors.
She rose to prominence in 2013, with impressive performances in WTA tour events. The following year saw her earn wins against top 10 players such as Simona Halep and Jelena Jankovic. She even went on to win her first WTA title at Eastbourne where she beat Angelique Kerber in the final.
Prior to the start of 2015, she enlisted the guidance of former World Number one Lindsay Davenport and under the latter’s tutelage, Keys’s career has indeed touched great heights.
En route to the Australian Open semi-final, Keys took out Venus Williams and reigning Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova before coming undone against Serena in the semi-final. Her sterling performance at Melbourne saw her earn praise from none other than Serena herself, who dubbed Keys a future World Number one.
A lot will be expected of Madison Keys at the French Open this year and she will be eager than ever to engrave her name on Coupe Suzanne Lenglen.
#3 Belinda Bencic (Switzerland)
Ranked 35 in the World, 18-year old Belinda Bencic of Switzerland is, inarguably, one of the most exciting young players on the WTA circuit at the moment. Bencic stormed into the ‘Big bad world’ of professional tennis when she was all of 15 years in 2012, and won two consecutive ITF tournaments, during which she was near unstoppable, dropping just the one set across the two events.
In 2013, her run in the junior circuit was nothing short of spectacular, as she went on to win the French Open and the Wimbledon titles. She also rose to the apex of junior rankings.
However, it was in 2014 that her professional career really took off. Throughout the year, she kept climbing up the WTA rankings, despite not progressing beyond the second round of any Grand Slam (apart from the US Open). Heading into US Open 2014, her preparation hadn’t been exemplary, which only made her performance at the Grand Slams that much more hard to digest.
En route to her first Grand Slam quarter-final, Bencic took out seventh seed Angelique Kerber and ninth seed Jelena Jankovic, to become the youngest quarter-finalist at the US Open since Martina Hingis in 1997. Although her magnificent run was halted by unheralded Peng Shuai of China in the semi-final, she broke into the top 40 as a consequence of her remarkable run in New York.
Despite a poor start to 2015, where she lost in the first round at the Australian Open, she has managed to recover her form and was impressive at the Indian Wells and Miami events.
She will hope to reap greater rewards on the clay courts.
#2 Borna Coric (Croatia)
Currently ranked 54th in the world, 18-year old Borna Coric from Croatia is also the youngest player on the ATP Top 100 rankings list.
Coric won the Junior title at the US Open in 2013 before going on to make his first appearance in a Grand Slam at the same event a year later, when he qualified to the main draw. He defeated 29th seed Lukas Rosol in the first round, but was shown the door by Victor Estrella Burgos in the second.
Some of the other notable wins in his brief professional career include his victory against Jerzy Janowicz in the Davis Cup and a win against Edouard Roger-Vasselin at the 2014 Vegeta Croatia Open, the latter of the two wins coming on clay. Over the last two years, his rankings have seen a remarkable growth. From being ranked 762 in May 2013, Coric has climbed up over 700 spots to attain his current ranking at 54.
Unlike Kyrgios, who by dint of scoring victories against top guns such as Nadal at Grand Slam events has come into everyone’s notice, Coric’s record at the two Majors that he has appeared in thus far hasn’t hogged many eyeballs. However, the promise that he has shown at such a tender age seem to portend an illustrious career.
Although clay is not his favourite surface, his strong baseline game definitely makes him a player to keep a keen eye on as the clay court season begins.
#1 Nick Kyrgios (Australia)
To say that Nick Kyrgios’s rise in the professional tennis circuit has been meteoric would be nothing short of a travesty. Ranked 838 in the World when he began the year 2013, this 20-year old Australian, who has made a habit of upsetting the big guns at the tournament, has risen to the 34th spot in the ATP rankings. Going by the raging form that he displayed at the Australian Open earlier this year, he clearly is not in a mood to look back.
His record at the French Open in his two appearances aren’t likely to give reigning champion Rafael Nadal sleepless nights. In his first appearance at Roland Garros, he was sent back in the second round despite having triumphed against veteran Radek Stepanek in the first round. In 2014, he fell to eighth seed Milos Raonic in the first round.
While his failure to progress beyond the second round at the French Open might point to his weakness on clay, his victory at the 2014 Sarasota ATP Challenger event, a tournament played on clay, indicate that he is not as fallible on clay as his poor Roland Garros record might have us believe.
His performance at Wimbledon last year, when he toppled Nadal, who came into the tournament after having won his ninth French Open title and his awe-inspiring performance at the Australian Open this year, where he defeated Andreas Seppi in five sets, coming back from two sets down, merely serve as reminders to this young lad’s immense abilities.
The vast array of strokes that he has at his disposal coupled with raw power that he can strike the ball with make him a veritable dark horse at the French Open. He will certainly look forward to a highly fruitful clay court season.
