4) Dominic Thiem
The 23-year old from Austria was built the tough way. His training growing up was not the usual training that a young tennis player would go through. Training under fitness coach Sepp Bresnik, a former track and field athlete, Thiem used to spend the entire day training in a jungle, carrying tree trunks from one corner to another, and doing sit-ups at nights until he could do no more.
A rather direct correlation was his liking for clay, a surface that is synonymous with similar toil and hard-work. Thiem is also one of the very few players from the younger generation who use the single handed backhand, making him a delightful player to watch.
To look at his 2016 season, Thiem did wonderfully well to win four titles, three at the 250 level, Buenos Aires(Clay), Nice(Clay) and Stuttgart(Grass), and a lone 500 title in Acapulco (Hard). This helped him breach the top 10 ranking barrier for the first time in his career, reaching a career high rank of 7.
What was all the more impressive about his wins was the fact that he beat all-time great Roger Federer on grass on his way to the title in Stuttgart, & beat Rafael Nadal, the undisputed King of Clay, on his way to the clay court title in Buenos Aires.
This bolsters the fact that Thiem is a player who can be very dangerous on all surfaces alike, despite his self-admitted liking for clay. Thiem also reached his first semi-final at the Grand Slam, reaching the last four of the French Open, before losing to eventual winner Novak Djokovic.
The only drawback from Thiem's season this year was the unnecessary burden he inflicted on his body, playing week in and week out, without giving his body proper rest. The Austrian played a total of 82 singles matches this season, to go along with 29 doubles matches. This led to him suffering a burnout at the end of the season, causing him to miss important tournaments.
With better scheduling in 2017, Thiem can definitely establish himself as a serious threat for years to come.
