17 year old Russian Andrey Rublev just took out Fernando
Verdasco in Barcelona, and it's looking like he's going to be a major factor in
men's tennis over the next decade.
Rublev displayed some of the best and most complete groundstrokes we've
seen from a young player in quite some time, and seems well on his way to
becoming a top tier ATP player. Not only
does he crack the ball from both wings, but he takes the ball extremely early
with great racket head speed. Players
with his quality of groundstrokes don't come around very often, and the ATP Tour
is better off when they do.
Brad Gilbert compared Rublev to the recently retired Nikolay
Davydenko, and the comparison is a good one.
Davydenko was known for his incredible ability to take the ball early
off both sides, and had some of the best groundstrokes in the game despite his
slight frame. Rublev has a respectable
serve and appears to have decent movement (without being a freakish athlete a
la Nadal or Djokovic), but possesses a forehand and backhand that many more
established pros would take in a second.
Rublev will need to become more fit, as he started to cramp
in his two-set victory over Verdasco.
Nerves may have played a factor, but it's obvious that he won't hold up
in grand slams unless he improves his conditioning. However, he's hardly the first 17 year old to
have issues with fitness, and the vast majority of players figure it out by the
time they hit their twenties. Rublev
also displayed some strange celebrations (including the unique "full body
fist-pump"), and will likely rub many players the wrong way if he
continues these antics. However, tennis
fans have long complained that the Big Four is too "gentlemanly", and
can't have it both ways.
He may not end up being the best player out of the strong
group of emereging teenagers, which includes Borna Coric, Alexander Zverev,
Thanasi Kokkinakis, Nick Kyrgios, Jared Donaldson, Frances Tiafoe and a host of
others, but none of them have Rublev's natural ability off the ground. If nothing else, they all better work on
their fitness, because it looks like Rublev may have them on a string for the
next ten years.
Great as always Daniel! I didn't get a chance to see the match, so it was great to read your thoughts on how he looked today. Definitely agree that a 17-year old with fitness problems is nothing to be worried about. He's certainly not used to being tested by someone like Verdasco, who is playing in his home country, but he will get to that point sooner than a lot of other people will. It's crazy how many good teenagers there are right now. I certainly wouldn't put Kokkinakis ahead of Rublev though. I was pretty high on Rublev last August and I only get more excited about him the more he plays, because he keeps getting results like this. I think he has certainly put himself ahead of a lot of other teenagers and into the group where only Coric and Kyrgios had resided.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I definitely agree. I think he's nearing that top tier of the very talented teenage group. I know it's easy to overreact when seeing a good young player, but I really think Rublev's got some of the best pure groundstrokes tennis has seen in a while.
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