Why the tennis community’s standards are too high on up-and-coming ATP stars

The standards for young stars Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov are insanely high. Here’s why the tennis community needs to relax and let them both develop.

As the era of the Big 3 in the ATP comes to a close, it’s only natural that the game’s current young stars will eventually take up the titles as best players in the world. From established top players like Dominic Thiem, Alexander Zverev, and Stefanos Tsitsipas to future greats such as Jannik Sinner, Lorenzo Musetti, and Denis Shapovalov, it isn’t going to be anywhere close to a struggle for tennis fans across the world to find talented players.

It seems as though, because of the consistent and sustained dominance that the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic trio have had in the last 15 years, the tennis world has lost sight of what it really takes to get anywhere close to that level. The same can even be said for the ATP’s ‘NowGen’. At 23 years old, Alexander Zverev has 12 ATP titles, including a US Open Finals appearance, 3 Masters 1000 titles (and 3 other trips to the finals), and the 2018 Nitto ATP Finals title. That’s an incredible stat line for someone his age. As is Daniil Medvedev’s, who has two Masters titles to go along with his 2019 US Open Finals trip.

So, what’s the deal? It takes time for a player to develop into a consistent tour opponent that can compete at a high level. Even some of the greats struggled out of the gates. World #1 Novak Djokovic was forced to play in Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s shadow for the first ten years of his career (winning only the 2008 Australian Open) before he finally broke past them in 2011. Stan Wawrinka has played under a similar situation and needed 6 years just to reach his first Masters 1000 final. To top it off, it took him another 6 years after that to get to his first Grand Slam final in 2014.

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It’s alarming how high of a standard we have for two specific players: Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov.

At 20 years old, Auger-Aliassime is ranked 22nd in the world. He’s shot up ATP rankings since the beginning of last year and has reached 6 tour-level finals in the last two seasons. Shapovalov has even gotten into the top ten before settling back at 12th in the world. The kicker, it seems, for some is that they struggle mightly during the last two rounds of tour-level events:

Shapovalov does have an ATP title (last year in Stockholm, but has failed to get past the semifinal in his other nine attempts. Auger-Aliassime has yet to win a set in a finals matchup (0-for-12) and his 0-for-6 record in those matches ties him for the most finals entered without a win (for a player that has yet to take a title).

"“Tough to say. [For it to happen] again in a final, it’s tough,” Auger-Aliassime said after his loss to Zverev in the Cologne 1 final last week. “I don’t play good [in finals]. I’m not able to play my game,” Auger-Aliassime said. “It’s just tough to accept, so I don’t have much to say outside of I’m disappointed with my level today overall and I’ll try again.”"

It’s clear that they have a ton of room for development, but what’s the rush for them to succeed? Part of the problem is the fact that many people consider men’s tennis to be made up of two groups:

1. The Big 3
2. Everyone Else

Naturally, Auger-Aliassime and Shapovalov are grouped with Thiem, Zverev, Tsitsipas, and Medvedev because neither of them is part of the Big 3. In turn, the expectations for the two of them skyrocket. Since they haven’t performed up to the same level as the NowGen group, they’re put front-and-center. Why can’t they win the big ones?

The answer is: They’re young. They’re not ready. They don’t need to win titles just yet, as much as we want them to. Their time will come. It isn’t now but it certainly won’t be long until it is.