The waters have been a little rough and the sailing hasn’t been smooth during the last year or so for Andrey Rublev, Alexander Zverev, and Frances Tiafoe. Andrey Rublev looks to be turning things around of late and certainly looks like the top-level player many predicted him to be. Alexander Zverev is still searching for answers at Grand Slams, and Frances Tiafoe is in a year-long slump after a promising 2018 campaign. Here is a look at these three promising players and what they can do to right the ship.
Andrey Rublev is Making Strides
Flashback: It is 2017; a 19-year-old Andrew Rublev has just won his first title in Umag, Croatia. The tennis world is on notice of this young man’s potential. Following a trip to the 2017 NextGen ATP Finals, it is now early 2018 and Rublev makes it to the final of Doha and sits at a career-high #31 in the rankings. Then injuries and inconsistent play rear the nasty head. It is now 2019 and the tennis world is now turning its head towards other young Russians such as Daniel Medvedev and Karen Kachanov, not to mention the talented young Canadian Felix Auger-Alliasime. Simply put, the Rublev stock went crashing down in a manner similar to the American stock market in recent weeks. Is this just a recession, or a sign of more permanent things to come?
The Turn-Around
Rublev made it to the final of the Hamburg European Open, losing to Nicolaz Basilashvilli. There is plenty of reason to be hopeful if you are a fan of Rublev. After a couple of early losses at the Citi Open and the Rogers Coupe, it is almost time for Rublev to take his level up a notch.
Enter Cincinnati and a run to the quarterfinals. He not only avenged his loss to Basilashvilli, but he beat a pair of Swiss players that you might have heard of. They go by the names of Stanislas Wawrinka and Roger Federer. He beat both of them convincingly. Watching the Federer match I couldn’t believe how Rublev was controlling the baseline by simply doing everything better than Federer. While he lost to Daniil Medvedev in the next round, this was the type of tennis we all thought Rublev could play when he jumped on our radar in 2017.
The 2019 US Open
After a strong showing at the Winston-Salem Open, Rublev got drawn against Stefanos Tsitipas. If you don’t know Tsitipas, he is a young talent who is in the top 10 of the rankings. He is also the guy who beat Federer at the Australian Open this year. Rublev dug deep and pounced every time Tsitipas had an opening. The outcome was a thrilling 4-set victory. His next opponent will be the veteran counter puncher Gilles Simon. Rublev should be on guard because of the fact Simon is a veteran who can turn other players offense into effective defense, but he should be favored based on their form.
As of now, it looks like Rublev has righted his ship. However, a loss in his next round would again raise some questions. Going forward he needs to stay positive, but for Rublev, I think he just needs match play. For a young player like him, time on the court only means more confidence. Dominic Theim early in his career used that strategy and it paid off with two grand slam finals and the 2019 Indian Wells title. Only time will tell if Rublev rises to the player we all thought he would be, but right now he seems to be taking all of the right steps.
The Curious Cases of Alexander Zverev & Frances Tiafoe
These two have shown a lot of potential during their young careers, and both have disappointed in 2019. In order to recover from mishaps, you have to take it one step at a time. For these two that step will have to start against each other in the second round of the 2019 US Open.
Alexander Zverev
Alexander Zverev has shown glimpses of potential by rising to #3 in the rankings at one point. He even beat Novack Djokovic in Rome and at the final of the year-ending championships last year. Many thought the baton held by Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, and Rafael Nadal was supposed to be passed on to Zverev. However, his 2019 campaign has been a struggle along with his overall results in Grand Slam play. Another lost lead and five-set win seems to sum up Alexander Zverev’s play at the Grand Slam level. His last match saw the squandering of a two sets to love lead over Radu Albot before pulling through in a 5th set. This lack of focus is costing Zverev in the long run as he tends to be more physically exhausted in the later rounds of Slams due to not closing out matches in a quicker fashion.
So how can he fix this? Well, it is not an easy answer. However, Zverev has admitted that his off the court troubles have leaked on to his on-court life. He has mentioned a break-up and even stress involving managing his business ventures. Hopefully, Zverev can seek additional coaching or a sports psychologist of some sort that can help him deal with the stress of balancing his personal and tennis lives.
The next thing I think would benefit Zverev is bringing in someone who can help him with his variety. Too often his ball off both wings is the same. He has a quality forehand and a great two-hander. The problem is he is too predictable for top-level competition. Adding something to his game whether it is more slicing, changing the net clearance of his groundstrokes, or attacking the net more often could do him a lot of good.
Before he can rework his game, he needs to face the man that will be on the other side of the net in his next match. That man will be Francis Tiafoe, a talented but also struggling young player.
Frances Tiafoe
Frances Tiafoe first put his peers on notice in 2017 when he took Roger Federer to the fifth set of their first-round US Open encounter. At that time people were looking to see how Tiafoe would improve. The 2018 campaign showed us more glimpses of progress. He made it to the final in Estoril and won the title in Delray Beach. During his run, he impressively defeated fellow talents Denis Shapovalov and Hyeon Chung. The cherry on the cake was defeating former US Open champion, Juan Martin Del Potro.
However, 2019 has not gone his way. He is slightly above the .500 mark in terms of wins and losses and he hasn’t claimed a title yet. It is a little trickier to put a finger on what has caused his struggles. Has the tour caught on to his playing style? Is his forehand stroke too long? Or is there something else going on. I don’t know what it is, but a win against Zverev will be huge. He is going to have the crowd on his side in New York and maybe a run in his home country will be the remedy he needs to get over his woes.
In the meantime grab your popcorn because Zverev vs Tiafoe could end up being a five-set thriller.
Main Photo from Getty.
