The Next Generation of Tennis Players Who Have A Bright Future

1) Hyeon Chung (South Korea)

Hyeon Chung defeated Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open this year

I first noticed Hyeon Chung when I astonishingly watched him take Rafael Nadal to a tie-break at the Barcelona Open last year. I was pretty shocked to see a newbie take the King of Clay to a tie-break on clay.

I hadn't read about him before the NextGen ATP Finals and had made up my mind beforehand that either Denis Shapovalov or Andrey Rublev would win the tournament. Therefore it was a shocker for me when Chung had won the NextGen ATP Finals, defeating Andrey Rublev in the finals. He also didn’t lose a match throughout the tournament.

This year though, he sent shockwaves through the entire tennis world when he shockingly defeated 6-time champion Novak Djokovic in the 4th round of the Australian Open. He reached the semi-finals of the tournament, where he had to withdraw mid-match due to foot blisters when he was about to go two sets to love down against Roger Federer. During the tournament, he became the first South Korean, male or female, to ever advance beyond the fourth round of a Grand Slam.

As far as consistency is concerned, he has reached the quarterfinals or better in his last 6 tournaments. Due to this consistency, he has also made his debut in the Top 20 of ATP.

He has a great backhand and return game, but his lacklustre serve might prove to be an obstacle which he would like to definitely improve in the near future.

He has also been compared with Novak Djokovic on more than one occasion. It’s just a matter of time when we will get to know if he can replicate Djokovic’s incredible success as well.