Carpe diem, seize the day boys - 5 stars who could make it big in 2015
It is with a sense of sadness, that I use the line by the recently deceased Robin Williams as the title of this article, but it seemed perfect to use considering the state of men’s tennis at the moment. Stanislas Wawrinka, Kei Nishikori and Marin Cilic, have this year, managed to not only knock on the door, but break it down, with Wawrinka and Cilic winning 2 of the 4 Grand Slams this year and giving hope and belief to ‘the others’ that someone not named Federer, Djokovic, Nadal and Murray can also win slams.While skeptics may argue that these 2 find themselves on the wrong side of 25, and are unlikely to go ahead and dominate the tennis world, there are a number of upcoming stars who may well have that on their agenda. Let’s take a look at the Top 5 young players who could take the step up in 2015.
#5 Nick Kyrgios
Lukas Rosol, Steve Darcis and Nick Kyrgios have one thing in common; they’ve inflicted shock defeats on Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon. However, while Rosol and Darcis are journeymen who just happened to play the match of their lives on that day, Kyrgios made the world stand up and take notice as he blasted tournament favourite Rafael Nadal off court in the fourth round at Wimbledon this year.
With a hint of cockiness about him, Kyrgios reminds me of a young Safin, full of exuberance and fearlessness. Like Thiem, Kyrgios started the year ranked No.182 in the world and now finds himself on the verge of breaking into the Top 50. Just 19, the Aussie won the respect of his home crowd when he lost an epic five-setter in the Australian Open to start the year, before capturing a host of Challenger titles in Sarasota, Savannah and Nottingham.
And then there was THAT performance against Nadal at Wimbledon which had been preceded two rounds earlier by a classic five-set win over Richard Gasquet. An impressive performance followed at the US Open, where he reached the third round, beating Youzhny and Seppi along the way, certainly not two pushovers.
Kyrgios is exciting for men’s tennis, and has age on his side. He has burst on to the scene in his first full year on tour, and can only go upwards from here on.