The Next Big Thing?

As of 20^th March, 2017 he is the only teenager in the top 100 of the ATP rankings(come the 20^th April and we may very well see a Top 100, with no teenagers as that is the day Alexander Zverev. Jr turns 20)

He has excellent court coverage and seems to be able to chase anything down.  A solid backhand, powerful forehand, excellent volleying techniques (this can get better as his brother Mischa is a serve and volley player) all this as a teenager, picture him at 25 once he has spent a few years on tour and gains experience to help him use his talent well. He is being touted as a future World Number 1 and upon observation those people can’t be called foolish as this kid is something special. Has Germany’s search for the next Boris Becker ended? Nope, Boris won Wimbledon as a 17 year old.

In 2014 he announced himself at the German International Open (his second ATP tour level tournament) where he reached the semi-finals and lost to the top seed David Ferrer.

In 2015 he qualified for a Grand Slam  and won his 1^st Grand Slam match (Federer and Djokovic weren’t able to do this) and at the U.S. Open he lost to Philipp Kolschreiber in 5 sets.

He broke into the top 100 and in the following year he established himself as a top 50 player. At Indian Wells he came close to beating Rafael Nadal and had a 5-2 lead in the final set. This was when he was 18. In the grass court season he beat Roger Federer at Halle. He beat the U.S. Open Champion Wawrinka in the final at St. Petersburg after launching a comeback in the final set from 0-3 down.

This year he beat Roger Federer in the Hopman Cup (even though it was an exhibition tournament and Federer was just on his comeback, a win against Federer anywhere can serve as a confidence booster) In the Australian Open he was leading 2 sets to 1 against eventual runner up Rafael Nadal but lost as he got broken physically by Nadal in the final set. Throughout the game he was matching Nadal in groundstrokes.

The moment the ATP NextGen Tournament (similar to the ATP World Tour Finals but this tournament will feature the World’s top ranked players born on or after 1^st Jan 1996) was announced everyone saw this as a tournament built for Alexander Zverev to win (Borna Coric who beat Zverev in their junior Grand Slam days may have something to say about this but he hasn’t gotten the World Ranking that Zverev has)

The issue he has to sort out is his form in Grand Slams where his best finish is  the 3^rd round. A 3^rd round loss has only 90 ranking points. If he could possibly reach the quarters like previous next big things like Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios did, he could rise further up the rankings and avoid the big names in the early rounds of tournaments. However he hasn’t yet gotten any attitude problems like the aforementioned duo and this is his third year in the top 100 and his results seem to be improving. He just beat Stan Wawrinka again at the Miami Open losing just 3 of the last 15 games.

He has shown the ATP Tour that he is here to stay but can he win a Slam? Can he end the dominance of the Big 4? Milos Raonic, Grigor Dimitrov, Kei Nishikori have all tried and come short. Marin Cilic, Stan Wawrinka and Juan Martin Del Potro have managed to win a slam in the era of the Big 4 but they haven’t been able to be consistent. He can end the dominance as when he is in his prime i.e. 24 years, Djokovic and Murray will be 34, Nadal will be 35 and Federer 40.They should be done as age will and ideally should catch up with them.

Is he the first from the generation that can take over from The Big 4? Time will tell.

His next game as against Nick Kyrgios in the quarter finals at Miami.