The up-and-coming youngsters
Among the many promising players to look out for in the future, the one name that stands out is that of 19-year old Sumit Nagal. After having become only the sixth Indian ever to win a Junior Grand Slam title last year, Sumit has been transitioning rather well to the senior circuit.
Nagal spent most of his season playing in the tough European clay court circuit, and managed to rack up impressive results that stand out for a player of his age.
He managed to win the first ITF $25K title of his career in Poland this season, and backed it up with another title a few weeks later in Hungary. In only his second season on Tour, the teenager has managed to rise rather quickly to a rank of 334 in the ATP Rankings.
He's only expected to go higher in the rankings in 2017.
But after Sumit, there's been no one in the top 100 of the ITF Junior Rankings on the boy's side, although youngsters like Adil Kalyanpur, Siddhant Banthia and Nitin Kumar Sinha are working hard to get there.
On the girls’ side, there has been a steady flow of top 100 players, with the emergence of Pranjala Yadlapalli, Karman Kaur Thandi, Mahak Jain and Mihika Yadav.
But again, the one name that stands out is that of Zeel Desai. The youngster managed to break Sania Mirza's long standing record of 10 ITF Junior Titles this year, after having cracked the top 40 barrier in the ITF Junior Rankings.
She has all but cemented her place in the main draw of the Junior Grand Slams for 2017, and big things are expected from her in the coming year.
