#9. Kyle Edmund
2016 was a breakthrough year for the 21-year old Briton who has produced quite a few promising performances this year. Edmund began the year by reaching the quarter-finals of the Qatar Open which was his maiden ATP quarter-final appearance.
At the Australian Open, Edmund suffered cramps during his opening round match against Bosnian Damir Dzumhur and eventually lost in five sets. He ended his hard-court with a second-round exit at the Miami Masters at the hands of Novak Djokovic after beating Czech Jiri Vesely in the first round.He did not have a very good clay-court season and exited the French Open in the second round. Edmund began his grass-court by defeating World No.18 Gilles Simon in the first round of the Queen’s Club Championships.
Fritz went on to reach the quarter-finals of the competition before being ousted by eventual winner Andy Murray in three sets. He ended his grass-court season by exiting the Wimbledon in the first round.Edmund produced one of the upsets of the US Open by defeating three-time Grand Slam semi-finalist Richard Gasquet in the first round in straight sets. He later upset former quarter-finalist John Isner in the third round before falling to Novak Djokovic in the fourth round which is his best Grand Slam performance till date.Following the US Open, Edmund reached his third ATP quarter-final of the year at the China Open after qualifying for the competition. He entered the Top 50 of the ATP rankings by reaching the second round of the Shanghai Masters which was followed by his first ATP semi-final at the European Open where he defeated former Grand Slam finalist David Ferrer. Despite exiting the Vienna Open in the first round, Edmund reached a career-high ranking of 40.He has so far been an exciting young prospect and provided he improves his game, this young prodigy could well be the second British player to be World No.1.
