Tennis Influence

Junior tennis is almost as old as normal tennis but how did it come to be and should your kids be playing competitive tournaments? The biggest junior tour, the ITF junior tour was founded in 1977 and has grown since. During the year of its foundation, the tour only included 9 tournaments compared to its 350 tournaments in 2001. In the latest release of rankings, the ITF included 2563 boys players and 2542 girls contestants. Some of the top players on the tour have already established a presence on the pro circuit. The Serbian Olga Danilovic has won the doubles tournament at the age of 16 in the most recent edition of The Wimbledon Championships. ITF junior world number 1 Yibing Wu has an ATP ranking of 329. On top of his rank, he has also earned 80,000 dollars and has achieved a career-high ranking of 320. Miomir Kecmanovic, the ITF junior world number 5 and former world number 1 has a ranking of 294. He finished 2016 with a year-end world number 1 title on the ITF junior tour h

Z verev has had an amazing run in his dream 2017 season and was showing no signs of stopping ahead of this year’s US Open. Last night something unpredictable happened. He lost to his fellow next gen contender, the Croatian Borna Coric 6-3, 5-7, 6-7, 6-7. Zverev at the 2015 US Open Zverev started off his year with an impressive run to the round of 32 in the Australian Open until he got shut down by Nadal 6-2, 6-3, 6-4. Later he exited a tournament due to Kyrgios on 2 straight occasions. Which was then followed up by another defeat to Nadal in the round of 16 in Monte-Carlo. 8 days before his first round match he beat Raonic and Djokovic to get his first Masters title. Following that achievement he suffered a first round exit to Verdasco in 4 sets, 4-6, 6-3, 4-6, 2-6. Maybe his curse is real! A little later, he reached a round of 16 match. Then he fell to Milos Raonic 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1. I’m sure he and the majority of his fans hoped and believed he could’ve do

Denis Shapovalov has certainly been turning heads lately during this year’s edition of the Rogers C up With a shocking defeat over Nadal. He was accepted as a wildcard into the tournament, but the tennis world didn’t think much of it, he was just another normal wildcard accepted into the tournament because he’s from the same country. All that changed after a triumph over Del Potro in the round of 32. It was a nice surprise for all Canadians watching for home or from the stands. The real shock came after he battled it out with Nadal in three sets and won 3-6,6-4,7-6(4) in two hours and forty five minute’s time. His next challenge is Zverev, will he beat him in the youngest Masters 1000 semifinal ever? The 19 year old prodigy was born in Tel Aviv, Israel and moved to Canada when he was just shy of his first birthday. He grew up with one older brother, Evgeniy and was raised by a Russian Orthodox father and a Jewish mother. Denis took up tennis when h

Recently There have been a lot of new young players making a ruckus on the mens' tour. That is what inspired me to make this article, I will go over my top 3 next gen players. My first big prospect is Zverev he is big and has a style that is a combination of Nadal, Djokovic and Raonic. He would be even deadlier if he used his height to an advantage on his serve and improved his serve.  My next pick is Kyrgios. He is an amazing natural athlete and a great entertainer how can really pound his serve down the T. He needs to work on his endurance and needs to be more active on the tour. My final pick is a more recent one, Karen Khachanov, although I haven't been able to watch him he has been responsible for two upsets in the Roland Garros so far.