After an exciting 2015 that saw both Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic dominate their respective tours and barely miss claiming Grand Slam glory with heartbreaking losses in slam upsets (Djkovic in the French, Williams in the US Open), attention is now turning to 2016 as the pros rest and recuperate and prep for a strong start in the Oceanic swing of the tour. Although there were many breakthroughs on the ATP Tour in 2016 with the likes of Nick Kyrgios, Borna Coric, and Jack Sock making rankings climbs, for several former young guns 2016 may be a make or break season, a time for former ATP young talent to to reclaim their stake on tour and jolt their careers back on path.
Ryan Harrison
The talented and long praised American hope started off the year with a great run at Alcapolco making the semifinals with wins over Grigor Dimitrov and Ivan Karlovic. The 23-year-old American struggled to find wins though following the potential breakthrough and spent a majority of the season on the Challenger circuit trying to find confidence and points. Harrison regained the media spotlight in the summer after a heated exchange with Thonsanai Kokkinikas went viral and hit all the important media outlets, but following that episode his success on the main and Challenger tour stagnated and his ranking dropped out of the top 100. A gifted athlete with a big forehand, Harrison captured the American tennis fan’s attention when at the age of 15 he became only the 10th ATP player to win an ATP main draw match by defeating Pablo Cuevas at the US Clay Court Championships. That win came during a vacuum of young American male talent and expectations for Harrison exploded. At 23 it is difficult to call an upcoming season make or break, but after years of borderline results, Harrison is in need of finding life on tour. Harrison has always had good fitness (when healthy) and with his forehand the potential is there if the belief can accompany it. In a recent interview with Ben Rothenberg on No Challenges Remaining podcast, Ryan seemed confident believing his hard work and mind set are aligning to find success on tour again. Ryan noted that he won’t be applying for any wild cards this season noting that “it is now just time for me to go out and win, when I need to win.”
Jerzy Janowicz
The spirited Pole has been quite the question mark on tour. Janowicz burst into the limelight by reaching the Paris Masters final in 2012 where he defeated five top 20 players, including Andy Murray. He then followed that result up in 2013 where he became the first Polish man to reach the semis of a Slam by making the semis of The Championships at Wimbledon. The semifinal run boosted his ranking to an impressive 14 in the world. The tennis world seemed to be his for the taking. Tall at 6’8″, with a huge serve that often cracks 140, Janowicz also utilizes big groundstrokes along with a knife like slice that he isn’t afraid to use. But somewhere over the course of the past 2 season, Janowicz has lost the confidence in his ability to string wins together and has seen his ranking drop into the high 50’s. Beyond making the finals at Montpelier in February, the 25-year-old didn’t make it past the round of 32 in any main tour event the rest of the year. In many of his matches over the course of this slide, Janowicz has seemed to bail out of points by drop shotting often and early as if abandoning belief in his ability to rally. Janowicz will be spending part of the off season at a mini camp in Europe with other ATP tour pros (away from his home base in Lodz) to try and find the confidence and movement that will once again propel him back into the top 20 in the world.
Sam Querrey
The 28-year-old American is arguably the most talented player from his American generation of professional players. Gifted with a big serve, big ground strokes, good touch at the net, and surprisingly quick movement around the court, Querrey rose to a career high ranking of 17 in the world in 2011. Since then his ranking has slipped into the high 50s. This ranking slide is often contributed to his lack of consistency and sometimes motivation on tour. Querrey had flashes of his old form this season as he reached the finals of both the US Clay Court Championships and Aegon Nottingham, along with reaching semis in doubles (with Steve Johnson) at the US Open, along with other good doubles runs at the Japan Open and the Miami Masters. If Querrey can find the motivation to stay in the big points mentally and continue to develop his already potent arsenal of weapons on the court, there is no reason why he can’t crack the top 20 again, especially considering when several big names in the top 20 are entering the twilight of their careers and themselves have not had banner years.
These talented players are not the only questions marks approaching an important 2016 season. Even players in the top 10 like Thomas Berdych still have many questions to answer about their career trajectory, and these questions will start to be answered by the attitude and wins they bring to the table during the lead in tourneys for the 2016 Australian Open. Will these former young guns find a place in the upper echelon of the tour, or will they continue to be conundrums for the tennis pundits to try analyze and explain?
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