Rafa and pros in their teens

citybert said:

Does anyone know how Rafa was so successful during his early years. He seemed to easily win and go deep in many challengers and qualified for atp tourneys early at 16. Rafa didn't have many weapons at that age(and some will say he still has none - was it really just all the mental toughness as they say? Yes, realize most were clay, but still most of the guys don't break through as early these days, like Sampras, agassi and Chang all did in their teens. Closest I can remember is i think Nishikori made R16(USO) and won a 250(delray) at 19 yrs old. But he hasn't gone anywhere lately aside from the Nole win last year.

Seems like the game has really changed now.

Roger also did very well going to R32 and R16 in the slams at around 19/20 but you don't see the young ones come up like they did back then, maybe Luke Saville can prove me wrong when he has a full schedule next year.

Click to expand...

Alchemy-Z said:

when he was young he seemed to run on pure passion to win. You see flickers of it now-a-days. He has way more weapons now but when he was younger he had the Giant Killer mentality and was gunning for Fed out the gate....I think once he became a giant himself he didn't know how to handle it as well and was always a better underdog.

to me it's always been

Fed mentality "I am the record breaker/the bar raiser/and every match is on my racquet to win"

Rafa mentality " I am the fighter/the Under dog/ and every match I win will be the sum of the points I fought more than my opponent for"

Click to expand...

citybert said:

Does anyone know how Rafa was so successful during his early years. He seemed to easily win and go deep in many challengers and qualified for atp tourneys early at 16. Rafa didn't have many weapons at that age(and some will say he still has none - was it really just all the mental toughness as they say? Yes, realize most were clay, but still most of the guys don't break through as early these days, like Sampras, agassi and Chang all did in their teens. Closest I can remember is i think Nishikori made R16(USO) and won a 250(delray) at 19 yrs old. But he hasn't gone anywhere lately aside from the Nole win last year.

Seems like the game has really changed now.

Roger also did very well going to R32 and R16 in the slams at around 19/20 but you don't see the young ones come up like they did back then, maybe Luke Saville can prove me wrong when he has a full schedule next year.

Click to expand...

batz said:

Murray also made R3 @ Wimbledon, an ATP final and won an ATP tour event at 18. In the 12 months after turning 19, Murray made R4 at 2 slams and won another ATP title.

Click to expand...

citybert said:

Anyone in the last 5 yrs put together a string of wins as a teenager? Asking not saying there are none.

Click to expand...

KineticChain said:

Nadal in a Futures/Satellite at 16 y.o.

Click to expand...