At 17, most people are in school, working to get into college or secure their future in the workforce. At 17, Mirra Andreeva just won one of the biggest tennis tournaments of the year and is currently ranked 11 in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings.
Mirra Andreeva is just one of the current, young tennis phenoms in the sport. Countless players ages 21 or below are making waves in the sport, a growing trend over the past few years.
For the majority of the early 2000s and 2010s, male tennis was dominated by three players: Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer. Women’s tennis was dominated most significantly by Serena Williams. These players governed tennis and won most tournaments for a long time. In August of 2022, Serena Williams played her last match at the US Open. A few weeks later, Roger Federer also retired. Soon after Federer’s retirement, Carlos Alcaraz won the US Open at only 19 years old.
Now, as Nadal retired in 2024 and Djokovic seems to be nearing the end of his career due to injuries, the male player field is more open for new talents than it has been in years.
The 2025 Australian Open, one of the biggest and most prestigious tournaments of the year, had numerous upsets from rising talents on the men’s side. Brazilian rising talent, Joao Fonseca, dominated a match against Andrey Rublev, the ninth seed, at only 18 years old. In his first-round match, American Alex Michelsen got the better of Stefanos Tsitsipas, the eleventh seed, in four sets at only 19 years old. Jakub Mensik, just 19 years old and already a relatively established player, beat the sixth seed, Casper Ruud in a quick four sets. Then, possibly the biggest upset came from the 19-year-old qualifier Learner Tien, topping the fifth seed Daniil Medvedev in the second round after a grueling four-hour and 49-minute match. The Australian Open hinted at the potential success of these young players and the possibility that they may be key to the future of tennis.
After the Australian Open, Joao Fonseca found success at an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) 500 Tournament in Argentina, being the youngest South American player to win an ATP Tour title since 1990. Learner Tien also found success in Acapulco, beating the number two ranked Alexander Zverev for the biggest win of his career.
Carlos Alcaraz at 21 years old and Jannik Sinner at 23 both hold multiple grand slams and top spots in the rankings. These players are potentially years away from reaching their full potential, yet they are spoken about as old news. Attention is already moving to who will be next, the future of tennis, regardless of the current talent.
This situation happens often, tennis experts and fans are all too eager to find the next big three to replace the legacy left. Many male players are expected to be the next Federer, Djokovic or Nadal. One rising star, 19-year-old Nishesh Basavareddy, has repeatedly been compared to Djokovic. They played against each other in the 2025 Australian Open, with Basavareddy taking the first set off of Djokovic before losing in four.
When Grigor Dimitrov was a junior player, his one-handed backhand was consistently compared to Federer’s. Many people gave him the nickname “Baby Fed”, symbolizing that he could be the next Federer. He has had a successful career, winning the 2017 ATP Finals, however, he has yet to truly live up to Federer’s legacy.
False expectations can be a problem for many young talents in tennis, hindering their ability to improve. In 2022, Holger Rune won the ATP Paris Masters 1000 at 19 years old. After his win, he broke into the top 10 players and people believed that he was going to be one of the next big things, with fellow young players Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. These three players were dubbed the “next big three”, signifying that they could replace the legacy of Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic. Although Alcaraz and Sinner have been making waves in the sport, Rune has not won any major tournaments since his title in 2022 besides one, smaller title in 2023.
It can be particularly challenging for teenage men to break through on tour, so it is exciting that there are so many young male talents. As teenagers, men tend to develop later than women, so a 16-year-old teenage male will typically not have the muscle mass that an older player will have. In the women’s field, it is more likely that younger players will be able to compete with older ones.
The NextGen ATP Finals is an annual tournament that highlights young male talent. It works similarly to the regular ATP Finals, the top eight players are selected from their total points amassed for the year, however, these players must be aged 20 or below for this event. The tournament has been won by numerous prestigious players, such as the current ranked one, Jannik Sinner and the current ranked three, Carlos Alcaraz.
In the WTA, it has always been more common for teenagers to rise to the top of the ranks, with eight women earning grand slams as teenagers. Monica Seles had eight grand slams titles as a teenager, getting her first at the age of 16. This is possibly the reason why there is no NextGen WTA finals as there is for men.
On the women’s side, there is clear evidence that the younger generation of players is ready to dominate. Coco Gauff was just 19 when she won the 2023 US Open. This past year, she won the 2024 WTA Finals in Riyadh which is the most selective and highest-paying event of the year, having only eight top players in the singles draw.
Overall, the current outlook for tennis is exciting, with numerous new players hinting at exciting new changes in the sport’s top competitors.
