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Old 02-29-2016, 05:08 PM   #277
Brian Swartz
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Join Date: May 2006
One note I forgot to mention. Last week Prakash Mooljee blasted through a tier-2 futures event, pushed to a third set in the final by unseeded Hungarian Florian Berenyi before winning 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(2) in a rather strange match. He finishes the year with just the one blemish, and is starting to approach the Top 200 barrier.


Who's Got Next?

In terms of action on the court, Sri Lanka and Sweden meet up in the first round of the World Team Cup to start off the new year next week. But before that, it's time to look at the next generation for the first time. So far in this dynasty, we've covered the following groups:

** The Eric Gorritepe generation, a generation unto himself for the greatest to ever play. He was just fading away as I started.

** Headlined by Gabriel Alastra but with many other standouts such as Prieto, Elder, and so on, this was the most competitive group I've seen.

** Bjorn Benda was next along with players such as Hogue and Alvarez who came with him.

** Currently, it's Antonin Iglar and Mehul taking the press, with Pierce Gaskell worth noting as well from the same age group. Julian Hammerstein is a notable no-show that would have made this quite a strong trio at the top.

** What I've dubbed 'Generation Flash' -- high on style, low on substance -- is led by my own player, Girish Girsh. Kinczllers is coming along for the ride but with phenom flak-out Marcel Bahana long-gone from the scene, this is a rather astonishingly weak group of players on the whole. A group Girsh should dominate, and has the last couple of years with Bahana's exit. Maybe France's Davide Poilblan comes around to do something, but he seems mired at about 20th.

A sixth generation is now just beginning to make their presence felt. Girsh is now 24, so these players will be those who are about 21-22 right now. Mooljee isn't old enough to be counted as one of them ... his place will come in the 7th gen. However, I would be remiss if I did not point out the ridiculous achievements of Hector Deblock(ROU), the top junior in Mooljee's class, who is still a teenager and presently ranked 73rd in the world. It will bear watching whether his early success can continue. If so, he might well be scary good. But we'll wait and see on that.

Generation Next

I'll just call this next group of early-20s hopefuls this for lack of a better unifying term. There's always a group of a dozen or two in their early 20s or younger in the Top 100 -- the question is, are any of them any good to the point of potentially being champions? Here's how things look right now, a week before the new year begins.

** Andre Herrera(22, PER, 8.75). It's hard to keep track of all the Herrera's, and they all hail from Peru. Andre is presently the top-ranked player from this generation, and also one of the oldest. He's #25 in the world right now, strong but slow with respectable technical skills. I figure him as a run-of-the-mill Top 10 player down the line. A lot of the Herrera's grade out that way.

** Theodore Bourdet(22, FRA, 9.04). Bourdet is right behind in 26th, an incredibly gifted player who isn't dedicated enough and needs to pay more attention to his baseline play, but already a world-class serve and strong mental approach. He has somewhat limited upside due to the issue of not training enough, but is already good enough to be a threat to some top 10 players. He'll be in the mix.

** Afasny Bereznity(21, RUS, 9.02). Just shy of his 22nd birthday, Bereznity presently ranks 31st. I've mentioned him briefly a couple times before: he probably will take a spot on Russia's WTC roster sometime this year. Good-but-not-great across the board(endurance, athleticism, technical skill, mental toughness, etc.). A top-5 player if he's well-handled, he should have more longevity than most of these guys. Could be the standard-bearer.

** Zourab Adronikov(21, GRG, 8.9). Andronikov pushed himself onto my radar late last year, consistently beating up on run-of-the-mill journeymen in the early rounds of big tournaments. He's up to 39th, a sharp rise for him and starting to get more and more respect and hype. Adronikov is an elite prospect when it comes to mental game and athleticism, but is raw still from a skill standpoint and not dedicated enough. He's a prototype disappointment waiting to happen. He's not being well-handled enough by a low-ranking manager to convince me that will change, but the athleticism and time for a young-ish player are enough that he could be Top 10 some day.

Those are the headliners right now, and my money's on Bereznity to give the Russians someone to cheer for again and be the best of this group. The also-rans include Peter Sampras(22, USA, #42), hyper-strong Spaniard Simon Davila(21, #56) has a chance to be a fine clay specialist if he ever develops a serve, George Elliot(22, USA, 59th), is a fine athlete with just enough will to win that he could be relevant. This looks like a reasonably deep group, but at the top I think it's Bereznity with a bunch of players chasing his cape so to speak.

Another American, Phillip Carter, could have done something but he's 'gone doubles' at an early age.

Last edited by Brian Swartz : 02-29-2016 at 06:16 PM.
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