You would assume that most players on the ATP tour will start a new season with optimistic objectives and wild dreams. Not everyone will be able to meet their expectations, but there are a few players who look destined to keep building on impressive starts to their tennis careers.
Here is a nod to three players who will have aspirations of enjoying a breakout season on the ATP Tour, and who have the skills to realize such ambitions.
Jannik Sinner
It might feel a bit like Sinner has already broken out. It’s rare for a player with a career best ranking of #78 to be talked about this much, but these are special circumstances. Looking at the pre-match probabilities from Antwerp 2019 in the Betzcenter archive, it’s clear that few were betting on Sinner to defeat top-1o stalwart Gael Monfils. Yet the Italian defied a win probability of 32% and brushed Monfils aside 6-3 6-2.
His win at the NextGen ATP Finals confirmed that the hype was justified, with Sinner defeating current top-2o player Alex de Minaur in the final. It’s not unreasonable to suggest that Sinner could end the year in the top 20 himself. The 18-year-old Italian is on an upward trajectory, with #78 unlikely to remain his career high ranking for too much longer.
Emil Ruusuvuori
Ruusuvuori was dominant on the Challenger circuit last year, with the 20-year-old Finn accumulating a 57/19 win/loss record across 2019. While those who excel in Challengers don’t always make the step-up to the main tour, Ruusuvuori looks well-equipped to do so. A 6-3 6-2 win over Dominic Thiem in the Davis Cup has done no harm to his ATP Tour credentials.
Ruusuvuori triumphed in four of his five finals last year, with two trophies in September and one in November compelling evidence of a man outgrowing the Challenger tour. He ended the year with a career high ranking of 125, which will give him a far better chance of making the cut at ATP events. Tennis World reported that Ruusuvuori spent time training with Rafa Nadal at his academy, where he might just have picked up a tip or two to help him achieve tour success this season.
Corentin Moutet
Moutet enters his third year at tour level in 2020, having played his first Grand Slam in Australia in 2018. With two years under his belt, the 20-year-old will be confident that he can breach the top 50 in 2020 – and maybe go even higher. Moutet has a 4-2 record in Challenger finals, with his first victory coming in Brest in 2017. He overcame Stefanos Tsitsipas that day, although the Greek has somewhat bounced back from that disappointment since.
Moutet has still performed admirably since, racking up a 40/27 record in 2019 that took him as high as #80 in the rankings. The Frenchman lost respectably (7-6 6-4) to Djokovic at the Paris Masters, but his record on Tennis Abstract reveals that he is yet to beat a player from the top 20. Moutet is not far off from making that jump. If he can grind out wins against higher-ranked players, Moutet can thrive at the ATP 250 and 500 levels this season.
One tournament can define a player’s season – just look at Filip Krajinovic and Jack Sock’s heroics at the Paris Masters in recent years. However, these three players have the ability to produce consistently over the course of the 2020 season.
