The best up-and-coming men's tennis players: ATP Next Gen seeking Grand Slams

This article is part of The Next Generation series. As the greats become the past and handle the present, explores the next generation: the rising stars who will be tasked with securing tennis’ future. The ‘Big Three’ of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic fended off what felt like countless generations of ’next generation’ players during nearly two decades at the top of tennis. With their oligopoly over, there should be more opportunities for the latest batch of promising youngsters — unless Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner prove to be similarly dominant. In any case, the list below is predicated on potential as much as age, which is why someone such as Alcaraz is not included. Yes, he’s only 21 and younger than some of the below players, but with four Grand Slam titles and counting, his talents are hardly a secret. That’s true of some of the following too: players who have not yet exploded, but might well do in the next few years. From last year’s ATP Next Gen survey, the likes of Arthur Fils — who leads the so-called ‘Race to Jeddah’ for the ATP Next Gen finals in November, joined by many players on this list — and Jack Draper, have already become much more recognisable names as they’ve begun to fulfil their rich potential. It promises to be a lot of fun to see whether this next group of talented youngsters can make similar strides in the coming years.

Joao Fonseca, 18, Brazil After winning the boys’ singles at the 2023 U.S. Open, Fonseca announced himself to the wider tennis world with his run to the quarterfinals at the Rio de Janeiro Open in February. Fonseca’s success in Rio convinced him to turn down a place on the NCAA college tennis circuit at the University of Virginia, deciding to focus on making it as a professional instead. After taking advantage of a wildcard into the ATP 1000 tournament in Madrid by beating American contemporary Alex Michelsen, he has risen to No 162 in the world, and he won his first ATP Challenger title in Lexington, Kentucky in July. Now he has advanced to the second round of qualifiers at the US Open, hoping for a first Grand Slam main draw appearance of many.

Flavio Cobolli, 22, Italy When Flavio Cobolli took to the court against Rafael Nadal in Barcelona earlier this year, he appeared to wilt at the first sight of the Spaniard’s iconic headband. Cobolli now stands at a career high of No 31, after what has been a breakthrough 2024 so far for the Italian. He enjoyed some notable results on the clay — the surface he grew up on — after that chastening defeat. He reached the Geneva semifinals and then was involved in one of the matches of the French Open, losing in a final set tie-break to Holger Rune in the second round. Cobolli served further notice of his potential by reaching the Citi Open final in Washington, D.C. earlier this month, and last week knocked out then-American-No-1 Tommy Paul in the first round in Cincinnati. Further along than most of the other names on this list, Cobolli enters the U.S. Open full of confidence and looks like another Italian prospect to get excited about.

Jakub Mensik, 18, Czech Republic It’s almost a year since Mensik posted his best result of his career to date by reaching the U.S. Open third round as a qualifier, aged 17. In so doing, he became the youngest man to win a main draw match at Flushing Meadows for nine years. Mensik, a former French Open boys’ finalist, has since backed that up by reaching the Doha final in February, having beaten Denis Shapovalov in the first round of the Australian Open the previous month. Standing at 6ft 4in (193cm), Mensik’s game is built around a big serve, but he possesses good variety too — especially with what can be a very effective drop shot. He grew up idolising Novak Djokovic and trained with the Serb a couple of years ago, which he found to be an invaluable learning experience. Demonstrating a level of ambition that would no doubt please Djokovic, Mensik said earlier this year that his ambition is ’to win all of the Grand Slams’.

Dino Prizmic, 19, Croatia Part of that maturity manifests in Prizmic’s shot selection and the way he varies his ball speeds. Most comfortable from the baseline, Prizmic is happy trading blows from the back of the court, waiting for his moment to pounce. He’s yet to win a main-draw ATP match since Australia though, and may need to add a bit of aggression to his very solid game as he tries to take that next step. Born in Split and having grown up at the same club that Goran Ivanisevic and Mario Ancic learned at, Prizmic has some pretty useful sounding boards should he ever want some advice about kicking on from here.

Darwin Blanch, 16, USA The American leftie at 6ft 3in, Blanch has already had ‘Next Big Thing’ status foisted on him for a little while. All valuable learning experiences for the second youngest player ever to record an ATP ranking point (doing so in February 2022 aged 14 years and five months) and ones you suspect he’ll kick on from. Blanch’s father said earlier this year that his son will no longer play junior events, and so the focus is already on working his way up through the ITF and Challenger circuits towards the ATP Tour. Small but important steps as Blanch looks to make good on being the latest ’next big thing’ in men’s and American tennis.

Hamad Medjedovic, 21, Serbia A compatriot of Djokovic, who grew up hitting with the 24-time major champion and receiving advice and financial support from him. Coached by another one-time top Serbian player Viktor Troicki, the former world No 12, Medjedovic possesses a huge serve and forehand, and describes himself as a ‘very aggressive player on the court’. Now it’s about harnessing that power, as Medjedovic looks to become the next Serbian tennis star.

Jerry Shang, 19, China Shang Juncheng, who also goes by Jerry Shang, is based at the IMG Academy in Florida. He is the son of former Chinese international footballer Shang Yi and Olympic gold medal winner in table tennis Wu Na. An exciting player to watch, Shang’s profile could explode if he can help deliver China the success it has been craving in men’s tennis.

More players to watch… Matej Dodig, 19, Croatia Another promising Croatian, Dodig recently made his ATP-level debut, reaching the second round at the Croatian Open in Umag. Elmer Moller, 21, Denmark The Dane has been making steady progress on the Challenger Tour this year, reaching his first final, and then doing so again in Liberec, Czech Republic, earlier this month. Kaylan Bigun, 18, U.S. The West Hollywood native is headed to UCLA this autumn, fresh from winning the French Open boys’ title in June. That victory took the young left-hander to the junior world No 1 spot.