Arthur Cazaux started the 2024 season with a bang and was looking like one of the most talented young prospects on tour. But the rest of the campaign was no bed of roses. Was his game just exposed at the main tour level? Or have the expectations shifted for the 22-year-old?
Arthur Cazaux 2024 in Review
Wonderful Australian summer
After barely missing out on the Next Gen Finals in a great 2023 run, Cazaux was perceived as one of the players who would likely break the Top 100 this season. But little did we know how quickly he’d be able to pull it off. He survived a thriller against Patrick Kypson in the second round of the Noumea Challenger to claim the title and received the reciprocal Australian Open wildcard from the French federation. He posted his first Grand Slam main draw over Laslo Djere and kept the win streak alive by defeating world #8 Holger Rune, which remains the biggest win of his career.
Cazaux’s run wasn’t over yet and he also took down Tallon Griekspoor before losing to world #9 Hubert Hurkacz in the fourth round. The Frenchman broke the Top 100 right after the Australian Open and it seemed like he would simply continue his rise as the year progressed. He was still solid in February, losing a tight battle to Felix Auger-Aliassime in Montpellier and then reaching the second round in Dubai, although getting pretty heavily outplayed by Andrey Rublev.
Back to earth, 2025 expectations
But it would then take until September for Cazaux to win consecutive matches again and going forward he was only able to do it in a few Challenger appearances (or ATP 250 Metz qualifying last week of the season). Not all that happened to him in the spring was his fault at all – he fainted on the court with a heat stroke in Miami, returned a month later to twist his ankle in Barcelona, and was then out for a full month again. The reality is that on the main tour, the Frenchman had no highlights to speak of for the rest of the year, other than beating Ben Shelton at Bercy as a lucky loser and posting opening-round wins at the last two Grand Slam events of 2024.
So what exactly happened with Cazaux this year? Back in Australia, he was playing such free-flowing aggressive tennis and was taking points over easily to close down the net. But in most matches against quality opposition later on, he wasn’t able to play offense as much and was too often forced to rely only on his serve. His speed and athleticism are definitely among his strengths, but they’ve not been enough to allow him to hang with top-tier opposition for the most part.
While Cazaux is currently sitting at a career-high world #63, he’ll have to defend a big chunk of these points in January already. 200 for the Australian Open and 100 for the Noumea title would already have him outside the Top 100 if he can’t hold onto at least some of that. The 22-year-old has plenty of time but he needs to bring back that forehand aggression and make sure that he’s applying his game as best he can against any caliber of opposition.
Main photo credit: Clayton Freeman/Florida Times-Union
