Van Assche is an 18 year old French player and a very promising youngster coming through already.    I am a great admirer of the young crowd players  - Alcaraz, Sinner, Rune and Helecka  - but I think Van Assche is in the same league.   We are going to see a lot of this guy in future tournaments beating ranked players.

*    Sinner and Helecka  are 21 year-olds

*    Alcaraz and Rune  are 19 year-olds

Alcaraz, Sinner and Rune are already top 10 ranked players - the other 2 will knock on that door before the end of this year.        

Okay, will do…thanks.

Mozart

Guess who is the opponent in Round 2 of the Banja Luka tournament to be played tomorrow?  It is Van Assche - so have a look at that result to see whether Van Assche really can prevent an easy win by Djokovic.         

H e really gave Djokovic a hard time  in the match and I see a promising future for this 18-year old.  

H e really gave Djokovic a hard time  in the match and I see a promising future for this 18-year old.  

Just watched the match. Like Alcatraz ,  van Assche is amazingly well developed at a young age. For the most part he held his own in the rallies, but got worn down as the match progressed. I guess the big question mark is the serve. He barely cracked 180ks.

Of the young guys I think this kid and Alcaraz are the most developed at this stage. Sinner has room for improvement in his net game and Rune likewise.

They all know how to win and take down the established players. They have already shifted the needle on drop shots and Alcatraz is probably better at net than any of the big 3 were, except Federer.

But I still think the real successors to Novak, Roger and Rafa have yet to emerge. Like golf after Tiger we are probably in for a period of musical chairs.

Mozart

This has nothing to do with the great three players you constantly refer to.    The present crop is much younger when they started to perform than the three greats were,    Nobody denes they were tennis greats - but Federer already retired from international tennis and Nadal is rapidly on the same route - but the youngest of the three (Djokovic) won the Aussie Open, but in tournaments since then was dismal in the tournaments he played in.   

This has everything to do with the future of tennis as a sport - not the past.   You expressed surprise  about physical development of youngsters at present - but there are better dietitian and training facilities than there used to be even 20 years ago.   That is why youngsters mature faster than they used to be.                      

Duplication         

It’s not how you play at 19, it’s whether you can maintain that level for 15 years.

Agree with you on that issue.    I was hopeful for Ruud to be successful - but at present trends he will be out of the top 10 by the end of this year - for instance if he does not reach the semi at Roland Garros he may lose over a 1000 ranking points.   He seemed to be in the same way as the case was with Thiem - but the latter had an excuse -  e got seriously injured takinmg  him out of the game for nearly two years.    

I can foresee a recovery by Zverev - but I think some youngsters have pushed their way into the Top 10 ranking and I cannot see much is the case with Norrie, and a number of players that slipped badly in the ranking stats.

I do not know what is happening to Djokovic?  He has been dismal since winning the Aussie Open and I cannot see other than Wimbledon much of a cha nce of not going down in ranking .                

Still looking for Luca.

Mozart

There seems to be a prblem with younger players and that si they suffer from injuries mmore ftn th an other players.

Sinner is in the same category of injuries to players and the latest news is that he would not play at Roland Garros and may likely be out of Wimbledon as well.   Alcaraz over the last two years had injuries that caused huim to not play or when he played he lost because of injury problems.  

The same applies to  Mensik - who I blieve is physically mre talented than some of the other youngsters.   

Maybe the situation will ch ange when the young  bodies adjusted to the serious physical requirements needed to play top tennis.      .