Since the tournament of the Next-Gen ATP Finals in 2017, with the generation of 1996, many tennis players have been classified as the next generation. Those who were there to monopolize all the attention of the circuit and share the tournaments that for almost two decades they went mostly to Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
But that paradigm of the Big 3 champion of everything seems to be changing. First, because the Swiss (close to turning 41 years old) is rehabilitating from his physical problems, the man from Manacori in the same way and the Serbian only played two tournaments in the year due to his non-vaccination against Covid-19.
In this context, the new generation began to dominate the circuit. And above all, in the most important tournaments. So far this year, a Grand Slam tournament (Australian Open) and two Masters 1000 have already been played, in addition to one that is ongoing: Monte-Carlo.
Of these four tournaments, 32 players have reached the quarterfinals, that is, they have positioned themselves among the top eight in the competition. And of those 32, 24 (75%) are players born in 1996 or later. That is to say: Next-Gen.
Those who have occupied these places are: Matteo Berrettini (Australian Open), Denis Shapovalov (Australian Open), Janik Sinner (Australian Open, Miami and Monte-Carlo), Stefanos Tsitsipas (Australian Open, Monte-Carlo), Félix Auger-Aliassime (Australian Open), Daniil Medvedev (Australian and Miami Open), Carlos Alcaraz (Indian Wells, Miami), Miomir Kecmanovic (Indian Wells, Miami), Taylor Fritz (Indian Wells, Monte-Carlo), Andrey Rublev (Indian Wells), Hubert Hurkacz (Miami, Monte-Carlo), Francisco Cerundolo (Miami), Casper Ruud (Miami), Alexander Zverev (Miami, Monte-Carlo) and Alexander Davidovich Fokina (Montecarlo).
The only tennis players “out” of the Next-Gen batch to have reached this round were: Rafael Nadal (Australian Open and Indian Wells), Cameron Norrie (Indian Wells), Gael Monfils (Australian Open), Nick Kyrgios (Indian Wells), Grigor Dimitrov (Indian Wells and Monte-Carlo) and Diego Schwartzman (Montecarlo).
Finally, in terms of tournaments of lower hierarchy, that is, the ATP 250 and 500, the only ones that were raised by Next-Gen players were Adelaida II (Thanasi Kokkinakis), Montpellier (Alexander Bublik), Rotterdam (Auger-Aliassime), Argentina Open (Ruud), Dallas and Houston (Reilly Opelka), Rio de Janeiro (Alcaraz), Marseille and Dubai (Rublev) and Santiago de Chile (Pedro Martinez).
With this great pace of young people, the circuit in 2022 seems to be taking a very different course than in recent years. The showcases of the new generation are beginning to fill with trophies and take the baton of a new era in the world of tennis.
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