Tiafoe upbeat after ATP debut

[Russeljones]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/tennis/2014/07/28/tiafoe-falls-in-atp-debut/13291841/

​

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sixteen-year-old Francis Tiafoe lost his ATP tour debut while fellow Americans Robby Ginepri and Donald Young won their opening-round matches at the Citi Open on Monday.

Russia's Evgeny Donskoy defeated Tiafoe, the world's seventh-ranked junior player and a D.C.-area native, 6-4, 6-4.

Top-seeded Tomas Berdych will face Ginepri, who advanced to the second round with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Alejandro Falla of Colombia 6-4, 6-2. Young beat Yuichi Sugita of Japan 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

No. 6 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia won the opening match in the WTA draw, 6-3, 6-2 over Slovenia's Polona Hercog. Taylor Townsend, the 18-year-old American qualifier, rallied for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Julia Goerges of Germany.

Tiafoe trains at the tennis center in the Maryland suburbs where his father once worked as a maintenance man and the family occasionally lived. This year the 6-foot-1 slugger played boys' singles at the French Open, where he was the top seed, and at Wimbledon.

Donskoy, ranked 111 on the ATP tour, fended off enough forehand winners from Tiafoe and possible momentum-altering roars from the partisan crowd to break the local favorite twice in the final set.

"Tonight was probably the most fun I've ever had playing tennis," an upbeat Tiafoe said following the match. "The whole crowd with you. Every point you win everyone is going crazy.

"It was really special playing tonight and I hope I can play here again for many years to come."

Tiafoe, who received a wild card entry into the main draw, beat back three match points before eventually falling.

"This guy is just outside the top 100 and we played a pretty competitive match tonight," Tiafoe said. "At 16 and playing at the level like this, I leave here with confidence."

John Isner received a first-round bye, as did Wimbledon semifinalist Milos Raonic of Canada. Isner, a finalist in Washington last year, won the Atlanta title on Sunday.

Other ATP winners on Monday included Americans Tim Smyczek and Rajeev Ram, and Australia's Bernard Tomic.

Really liking this guy's attitude. Hope to see a lot more of him in the near future.

 

[eldanger25]

Agreed - caught the pre-match interview and a little bit of the match. Kid hung tough out there, and seems like he has a good head on his shoulders - good signs.

 

[Keizer]

I'm not too fond of his mechanics, and he hasn't handled pressure well in the junior slams. However, he's still only 16 and has time to rectify that. Would be good to see this crop of USA juniors really making their mark in the pros.

 

[Maximagq]

Tiafoe has the heart and soul of a champion. Good for him!

 

[CDestroyer]

It seems like he has great potential and a nice kid. Hitting a 106 mph forehand at 16? Wow.

I wish he would pop those massive whiteheads on his face. Makes it hard to look at him without cringing. Pop a zit dude.

 

[augustobt]

Watched his whole match yesterday. Good serve, even better forehand. Decent backhand, good movement on court. His main error was the lack of adaptation to the conditions of the court. It was winding pretty bad and he was 'forgetting' to correct the movement and try different spins and shots.

But it was a good 1st tour level match.

 

[Mike Bulgakov]

I like his game and attitude, but his serve worries me. It looks like there is a lot of stress on his shoulder and he is not maximizing his power.

 

[SpicyCurry1990]

Interested to see how he transitions to the pro tour. He was ranked #1 in the junior tour not too long ago after Zverev moved to the pros. Then he had a poor showing at the junior FO (surprise an American loses early on clay) and his ranking dropped a bit to 7.

Him and Kozlov look like 2 of the 3 best best American juniors right now and both are 16 (Rubin is the other who is 18 ). Interested to see if they can move up the ranks like Coric/Zverev in the next year. We should be seeing these guys play futures predominantly for the rest of the year, after the Junior US Open, and then play the Challengers Tour during the Australian/European swings if they do well. One or both may get a wildcard into IW/Miami next year.

 

[atatu]

I like his game and attitude, but his serve worries me. It looks like there is a lot of stress on his shoulder and he is not maximizing his power.

Yeah, the serve really has to go ! Kinda hard to believe that his coaches have let it go this long, plus he had like 7 doubles last nigh, which can't happen. Overall, though, he looked pretty good out there.

 

[Keizer]

Interested to see how he transitions to the pro tour. He was ranked #1 in the junior tour not too long ago after Zverev moved to the pros. Then he had a poor showing at the junior FO (surprise an American loses early on clay) and his ranking dropped a bit to 7.

Him and Kozlov look like 2 of the 3 best best American juniors right now and both are 16 (Rubin is the other who is 18 ). Interested to see if they can move up the ranks like Coric/Zverev in the next year. We should be seeing these guys play futures predominantly for the rest of the year, after the Junior US Open, and then play the Challengers Tour during the Australian/European swings if they do well. One or both may get a wildcard into IW/Miami next year.

Kozlov is my favorite out of the three. He has great mechanics. Rubin is good but never did well in the majors prior to the Wimbledon win. Kozlov has been consistent since 2013.

 

[SpicyCurry1990]

Kozlov is my favorite out of the three. He has great mechanics. Rubin is good but never did well in the majors prior to the Wimbledon win. Kozlov has been consistent since 2013.

Ya I agree Kozlov has the most upside. Interested to see him start playing more futures. Disappointed he lost to Rubin in the finals since a junior slam win gets you wildcards into the main draw of some nice futures. Rubin already plays enough futures that his rank gets him into those events, but Kozlov really can't get into any outside of the USA via WC and he could use the international experience.

I think all three may get a shot at the qualifying draw of Cincy.

 

[Recoveringhobo]

I'm not sure about his future yet. Tiafoe has a Roddick backhand.

 

[Keizer]

Ya I agree Kozlov has the most upside. Interested to see him start playing more futures. Disappointed he lost to Rubin in the finals since a junior slam win gets you wildcards into the main draw of some nice futures. Rubin already plays enough futures that his rank gets him into those events, but Kozlov really can't get into any outside of the USA via WC and he could use the international experience.

I think all three may get a shot at the qualifying draw of Cincy.

Kozlov took a set off of Groth a few days ago. I'm hoping this kid goes places, he's got the fundamentals spot on unlike several of the other juniors.

 

[MakeItRain]

Interested to see how he transitions to the pro tour. He was ranked #1 in the junior tour not too long ago after Zverev moved to the pros. Then he had a poor showing at the junior FO (surprise an American loses early on clay) and his ranking dropped a bit to 7.

Him and Kozlov look like 2 of the 3 best best American juniors right now and both are 16 (Rubin is the other who is 18 ). Interested to see if they can move up the ranks like Coric/Zverev in the next year. We should be seeing these guys play futures predominantly for the rest of the year, after the Junior US Open, and then play the Challengers Tour during the Australian/European swings if they do well. One or both may get a wildcard into IW/Miami next year.

Jared Donaldson is the best American junior imo. http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Do/J/Jared-Donaldson.aspx?t=pa

He also won 2 rounds at US Open qualifying as a 16 year old and qualified for Washington by beating two quality players, whereas Tiafoe was given a WC.

 

[Team10]

I'm not sure about his future yet. Tiafoe has a Roddick backhand.

He's only 16 and his backhand was really good last night, did you even watch the match? His backhand was consistent and with him throughout the entire match. His serve definitely needs a lot of work and his forehand takes him too long to setup, needs to have a quicker setup and prepare earlier.

He hit a clean 106 mph forehand winner though in the match, has the power but no where near the consistency. That and better technique especially on the serve will come with time.

 

[Nostradamus]

he should be playing college for at least 2 years before turning pro. college will do him much good

 

[Rjtennis]

I'm not too fond of his mechanics, and he hasn't handled pressure well in the junior slams. However, he's still only 16 and has time to rectify that. Would be good to see this crop of USA juniors really making their mark in the pros.

The mechanic are pretty funky, but I imagine he will be able to fix it with good coaching. He definitely has the athletic ability and attitude to suceed.

 

[Rjtennis]

Yeah, the serve really has to go ! Kinda hard to believe that his coaches have let it go this long, plus he had like 7 doubles last nigh, which can't happen. Overall, though, he looked pretty good out there.

I thought the same thing. He should really start working on retooling that serve.

 

[Borg Number One]

I hope he keeps improving. He seems like a nice talent.

 

[SpicyCurry1990]

Jared Donaldson is the best American junior imo. http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Players/Do/J/Jared-Donaldson.aspx?t=pa

He also won 2 rounds at US Open qualifying as a 16 year old and qualified for Washington by beating two quality players, whereas Tiafoe was given a WC.

You could be right about Donaldson, but I haven't seen the same upside to him as Kozlov/Tiafoe based on the eye test. Granted I've been mainly seeing them play vs juniors and I've only seen Donaldson in futures so they may look better by comparison to the competition.

 

[SpicyCurry1990]

Kozlov took a set off of Groth a few days ago. I'm hoping this kid goes places, he's got the fundamentals spot on unlike several of the other juniors.

Agreed his game is very textbook, skillful and polished while Tiafoe looks like the more natural athlete. We've obviously seen both examples shine in the pros.

 

[Deleted member 716271]

I love Tiafoe's game and attitude especially. I think he probably ha smore upside than Kozlov if he works on some mechanics (particularly on serve). He is a natural athlete and less polished than Kozlov, but he seems to take the game very seriously unlike athletic clowns Fognini and Monfils.

 

[SoBad]

This is huge for Tiafoe, fantastic result. Donskoy is one of the most talented and promising players on the tour, incredible to keep the set scores so close.

 

[SoBad]

And while on the subject of DC rising players, what happened to the overrated Junior Ore?:lol:

 

[dominikk1985]

Kozlov is my favorite out of the three. He has great mechanics. Rubin is good but never did well in the majors prior to the Wimbledon win. Kozlov has been consistent since 2013.

kozlov has better technique but tiafoe is much taller, stronger and a better athlete.

admittedly tiafoe needs to improve his technique a little but while you can teach mechanics you can't teach hight and power.

I think kozlov just got better training at a young age than tiafoe but if he does not grow it will be hard for him. tiafoe is already a big athlete and only getting bigger, if he gets the right coach I think he can get farther.

 

[McLovin]

he should be playing college for at least 2 years before turning pro. college will do him much good

Possibly the only sane, sensible thing you've ever posted here, 'Ace of Fed', although I don't know what the rules are on him playing (and earning $) on the ATP, then obtaining a scholarship at a D1 school.

 

[JLyon]

He's only 16 and his backhand was really good last night, did you even watch the match? His backhand was consistent and with him throughout the entire match. His serve definitely needs a lot of work and his forehand takes him too long to setup, needs to have a quicker setup and prepare earlier.

He hit a clean 106 mph forehand winner though in the match, has the power but no where near the consistency. That and better technique especially on the serve will come with time.

I felt his BH was mich more reliable than the FH in the match, he rarely missed, whereas his FH is huge but was prone to errors with his wind-up but if on is a major weapon. Then also you can not be hitting 70 mph 2nd serves on the tour, he will get eaten alive

 

[Keizer]

kozlov has better technique but tiafoe is much taller, stronger and a better athlete.

admittedly tiafoe needs to improve his technique a little but while you can teach mechanics you can't teach hight and power.

I think kozlov just got better training at a young age than tiafoe but if he does not grow it will be hard for him. tiafoe is already a big athlete and only getting bigger, if he gets the right coach I think he can get farther.

Kozlov is a good 178-180cm. Plus he's only 16, he may well grow to be 183-185 cm. I was just checking Donaldson's futures results, he's got a great record against some of the top juniors. He beat Nikola Milojevic and Lazlo Djere pretty easily, both were top 3 juniors. He's also beating all the best D1 college players fairly convincingly. Does he not play the junior slams intentionally?

 

[SpicyCurry1990]

kozlov has better technique but tiafoe is much taller, stronger and a better athlete.

admittedly tiafoe needs to improve his technique a little but while you can teach mechanics you can't teach hight and power.

I think kozlov just got better training at a young age than tiafoe but if he does not grow it will be hard for him. tiafoe is already a big athlete and only getting bigger, if he gets the right coach I think he can get farther.

Fair enough, I suppose I shouldn't say that Kozlov has more upside. Tiafoe has more upside.

What I meant is since Kozlov already has the mechanics and he is the more likely of the two to be consistent and make an impact on the next level.

Tiafoe is a talented supreme athlete but he could fall anywhere on the spectrum from being a flash in the pan to a superstar.

I'd say Tiafoe is the more likely future top 50 player, Kozlov the more likely future consistent top 10 player, Tiafoe the more likely future world #1/slam winner.

 

[SpicyCurry1990]

Kozlov is a good 178-180cm. Plus he's only 16, he may well grow to be 183-185 cm. I was just checking Donaldson's futures results, he's got a great record against some of the top juniors. He beat Nikola Milojevic and Lazlo Djere pretty easily, both were top 3 juniors. He's also beating all the best D1 college players fairly convincingly. Does he not play the junior slams intentionally?

Ya not sure how much lower level/juniors tennis you follow, but once you are capable of being an impact player on the futures circuit, the junior slams don't really make much sense to play. The hierarchy is generally:

ATP>Challengers>Futures>Junior Slams>Non-slam ITF Grade A>USTA national level>ITF below grade A>USTA Regional Level

Most of the top juniors are on the cusp between Jr Slam and Futures and so play both. The very high level juniors are firmly entrenched in the Futures and hence playing in Junior Slams presents a field of competition that is pretty much below them and its better for them to focus on complete Futures play to try to make the jump to Challengers.

An average DI player is probably equal to a an average Junior Slam player. Some of the better DI players are futures level players and the top DI players are generally on the cusp between Futures and Challengers, with some rare talents being on the cusp of Challengers/ATP (Devvarman and Isner).

Its why Zverev once he won the Jr Aussie Open and then had some decent futures results decided to quit playing jr slams all together. He is not going to develop much dominating a field he is at the top of and we see how much he has progressed rocketing through the futures and is basically firmly entrenched in the challengers group now with some occasional ATP chances as well.

 

[Nathaniel_Near]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prf-EtlVlts

 

[Keizer]

Ya not sure how much lower level/juniors tennis you follow, but once you are capable of being an impact player on the futures circuit, the junior slams don't really make much sense to play. The hierarchy is generally:

ATP>Challengers>Futures>Junior Slams>Non-slam ITF Grade A>USTA national level>ITF below grade A>USTA Regional Level

Most of the top juniors are on the cusp between Jr Slam and Futures and so play both. The very high level juniors are firmly entrenched in the Futures and hence playing in Junior Slams presents a field of competition that is pretty much below them and its better for them to focus on complete Futures play to try to make the jump to Challengers.

The top DI players are generally on the cusp between Futures and Challengers with some rare talents being on the cusp of Challengers/ATP (Devvarman and Isner).

Its why Zverev once he won the Jr Aussie Open and then had some decent futures results decided to quit playing jr slams all together. He is not going to develop much dominating a field he is at the top of and we see how much he has progressed rocketing through the futures and is basically firmly entrenched in the challengers group now with some occasional ATP chances as well.

Ah, I do not usually follow futures. I get the hierarchy, but dont remember seeing Donaldson in the slams in either 2013 or 14. He isn't like Zverev though, Zverev was a consistent slam player until he won the Aussie Open. Donaldson hasn't won any of the slams, so did he just make the jump?

 

[Sid_Vicious]

Does Tiafoe still have that hitch on his forehand?

 

[SpicyCurry1990]

Ah, I do not usually follow futures. I get the hierarchy, but dont remember seeing Donaldson in the slams in either 2013 or 14. He isn't like Zverev though, Zverev was a consistent slam player until he won the Aussie Open. Donaldson hasn't won any of the slams, so did he just make the jump?

Ya its not necessarily about winning a junior slam or even doing well in them, its about playing at the level of a junior slam competitor vs that of higher levels.

Donaldson played in the junior USO in 2012 but lost in the first round. However, almost immediately after that, he got accepted into the qualifying draw of a futures event (which sometimes happens when there are more spots than players with ATP points who sign up, then the tournament accepts top juniors). In his first futures in 2012 he won all of his qualifying draw matches and made a run to the QF of the main draw tournament in Venezuela.

Futures tournaments grant a lot of regional bias in terms of tournament acceptances, so what he did was pretty much hang around South America for a few months playing every future qualifying draw he could get into to try to make the main draws and build his match play + ranking points. He did this in 2013 at the beginning of the year as well (and its why he skipped the junior Aus cause he was in SA playing futures). A couple of times he played a few junior events in SA when he lost early in futures. He was also applying for direct main draw acceptances to other futures but his ranking was usually too low so he didn't get into any.

Eventually he caught a break and got into a main draw tournament in turkey via direct acceptance last June and from there he did reasonably well across a few futures in a row to build up a ranking high enough where he got into the qualifying draw for Newport (an ATP 250). After playing 4 futures in a row with Newport coming up, he decided to take a week off instead of playing Jr Wimbledon. After that he played a few more futures and got into the qualifying draw for the USO Men's draw and won 2 qualifying draw matches. Right after this he also played Jr USO again in 2013, but had a terrible match and lost in R1 (possibly due to not caring since he almost made the field for the men's draw and was also likely tired from those matches).

From there he continued to do well in futures to the end of 2013 and very well in 2014, to a point where playing JR Slams anymore is useless for him.

Its just a matter of circumstances in regards to both his scheduling and development that has resulted in him not playing any Jr Slams besides the USOs where he wasn't that consistent yet and lost in 2012 and then just had a bad match in 2013 (possibly due to not caring) and lost both in R1.

Zverev's development and progression was more traditionalist and hence why you saw him do what he did in junior slams. Its like how Federer played a bunch of junior slams consistently and won a Jr Wimbledon and was a finalist at a Jr USO, but Nadal only played 1 Jr slam in his career and didn't win it.

 

[Tennis sensation]

He has a good game for a 16 year old.

 

[Keizer]

Ya its not necessarily about winning a junior slam or even doing well in them, its about playing at the level of a junior slam competitor vs that of higher levels.

Donaldson played in the junior USO in 2012 but lost in the first round. However, almost immediately after that, he got accepted into the qualifying draw of a futures event (which sometimes happens when there are more spots than players with ATP points who sign up, then the tournament accepts top juniors). In his first futures in 2012 he won all of his qualifying draw matches and made a run to the QF of the main draw tournament in Venezuela.

Futures tournaments grant a lot of regional bias in terms of tournament acceptances, so what he did was pretty much hang around South America for a few months playing every future qualifying draw he could get into to try to make the main draws and build his match play + ranking points. He did this in 2013 at the beginning of the year as well (and its why he skipped the junior Aus cause he was in SA playing futures). A couple of times he played a few junior events in SA when he lost early in futures. He was also applying for direct main draw acceptances to other futures but his ranking was usually too low so he didn't get into any.

Eventually he caught a break and got into a main draw tournament in turkey via direct acceptance last June and from there he did reasonably well across a few futures in a row to build up a ranking high enough where he got into the qualifying draw for Newport (an ATP 250). After playing 4 futures in a row with Newport coming up, he decided to take a week off instead of playing Jr Wimbledon. After that he played a few more futures and got into the qualifying draw for the USO Men's draw and won 2 qualifying draw matches. Right after this he also played Jr USO again in 2013, but had a terrible match and lost in R1 (possibly due to not caring since he almost made the field for the men's draw and was also likely tired from those matches).

From there he continued to do well in futures to the end of 2013 and very well in 2014, to a point where playing JR Slams anymore is useless for him.

Its just a matter of circumstances in regards to both his scheduling and development that has resulted in him not playing any Jr Slams besides the USOs where he wasn't that consistent yet and lost in 2012 and then just had a bad match in 2013 (possibly due to not caring) and lost both in R1.

Zverev's development and progression was more traditionalist and hence why you saw him do what he did in junior slams. Its like how Federer played a bunch of junior slams consistently and won a Jr Wimbledon and was a finalist at a Jr USO, but Nadal only played 1 Jr slam in his career and didn't win it.

Thanks for this excellent post. I noticed his loss to Garin in USO Jrs '13, who I know to be a dirt rat since he won the French Jrs that year. I feel like Nadal's physical gifts saw him transcend junior tennis and go pro very early on. Are there any other players who did not play many Jr slams (Djokovic focused on futures I believe), because the current lot of Kyrgios, Dimitrov and Janowicz all did well on the Junior tour.

 

[MakeItRain]

You could be right about Donaldson, but I haven't seen the same upside to him as Kozlov/Tiafoe based on the eye test. Granted I've been mainly seeing them play vs juniors and I've only seen Donaldson in futures so they may look better by comparison to the competition.

Ya, I mean they all have a long way to go. Donaldson has the best results so far in futures events, whereas Kozlov/Tiafoe seem to play more junior events. I was impressed with Donaldson winning three straight futures events and beating some really good former college players like Ray Sarmiento and Jarmere Jenkins along the way. He also beat Collin Altamirano badly, 6-2 6-1, avenging his loss to him in the finals of Kalamazoo last year. I would say winning those futures events is probably slightly tougher than winning something like junior Wimbledon, and winning 3 in a row makes it all the more impressive. I think he's the best American junior and would put him slightly behind guys like Zverev, Coric, and Quinzi right now. Here's a video of him a challenger recently. Some great highlights in the first set, but he ends up losing to the more experienced player in the end. He bounced back to qualify for Washington though, which was impressive, but had a disappointing first round loss to Rajeev Ram in three sets. I thought he could maybe beat Ram. Anyways, all these guys will be playing Kalamazoo next week, so we'll see when they play each other.

 

[tennisaddict]

Do the new guys like Rubin, Donaldson, Tiafoe play an all court game or is their game also modelled like Harrison, Sock based on strong serve / FH ?

Do they know to grind ?

 

[MakeItRain]

Here's the video, forgot to copy and paste it into the last post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSrkYm2cBag

 

[dominikk1985]

Does Tiafoe still have that hitch on his forehand?

no. FH looks OK now. but his serve is still a little out of whack. I'm sure he will work that out too, he probably has good coaches.

 

[dominikk1985]

Kozlov is a good 178-180cm. Plus he's only 16, he may well grow to be 183-185 cm. I was just checking Donaldson's futures results, he's got a great record against some of the top juniors. He beat Nikola Milojevic and Lazlo Djere pretty easily, both were top 3 juniors. He's also beating all the best D1 college players fairly convincingly. Does he not play the junior slams intentionally?

didn't know that. he looks so tiny, I thought he would be more like 170 or so. did he grow in the last months? the last time I saw him was around fall of last year.

 

[Keizer]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/07/s...ows-us-promise-.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

Here is a photo of him with Rubin after the Wimby finals. Rubin is 5-9, and he is slightly less than half a head taller.

The ATP tour lists him as 5-10/178, but he might be closer to 180. He does look really young, though. If he grew to 185, noone can say he is disadvantaged from the height point of view.

 

[SpicyCurry1990]

Ya, I mean they all have a long way to go. Donaldson has the best results so far in futures events, whereas Kozlov/Tiafoe seem to play more junior events. I was impressed with Donaldson winning three straight futures events and beating some really good former college players like Ray Sarmiento and Jarmere Jenkins along the way. He also beat Collin Altamirano badly, 6-2 6-1, avenging his loss to him in the finals of Kalamazoo last year. I would say winning those futures events is probably slightly tougher than winning something like junior Wimbledon, and winning 3 in a row makes it all the more impressive. I think he's the best American junior and would put him slightly behind guys like Zverev, Coric, and Quinzi right now. Here's a video of him a challenger recently. Some great highlights in the first set, but he ends up losing to the more experienced player in the end. He bounced back to qualify for Washington though, which was impressive, but had a disappointing first round loss to Rajeev Ram in three sets. I thought he could maybe beat Ram. Anyways, all these guys will be playing Kalamazoo next week, so we'll see when they play each other.

Ah ok gotcha, you are saying who is the best junior right now in terms of production and results. Based on that I would agree its Donaldson. I am saying who I think are the best juniors in terms of potential and to me thats Tiafoe/Kozlov. Winning futures tournaments is for sure tougher than a Jr slam, but keep in mind those two are a year younger.

 

[SpicyCurry1990]

Thanks for this excellent post. I noticed his loss to Garin in USO Jrs '13, who I know to be a dirt rat since he won the French Jrs that year. I feel like Nadal's physical gifts saw him transcend junior tennis and go pro very early on. Are there any other players who did not play many Jr slams (Djokovic focused on futures I believe), because the current lot of Kyrgios, Dimitrov and Janowicz all did well on the Junior tour.

I can't comment on them in specific because the only young guys I have followed in depth are Zverev, Coric, and the top Americans. In general though I'd say its rare because of the way the game is streamlined to go:

Country Tennis Association => ITF => Futures => Challengers => ATP

People don't usually bypass junior slams, almost everyone does at least 1 year.
Also its very rare you would see this happen with a European unless they are a prodigy like Nadal because the ITF is pretty much the level at which they enter and start playing once they turn 14 since competition in each individual country (due to size as well as # of tournaments) is sparse and being in Europe playing Jr Wimbledon or Jr FO is very doable and if the results are good they might just play them all.

In the USA the fields and # of tournaments are generally strong enough that the USTA level can support most players until they turn 15-16 and so sometimes Americans will spend little time in the ITF and maybe bypass most of the non USO JR slams depending on how scheduling situations work out. Again even this is rare, but its more likely to happen with an American than a European.

Donaldson's case I would say is an outlier. He joined the ITF at 14, but wasn't good enough for the junior slams early on and by the time he was a host of circumstances popped out in regards to each junior slam outside of the USO as to why he did not play them and by the time they were resolved he had developed beyond that level.

Also in the US there is sort of a dividing line around age 15-16 where you realize if you are good or great. The good players might not go to the ITF at all and just play in the USTA and only do a couple of ITF events when they can with the intentions to play D-1 college tennis on a full scholarship while the great players will cut out of USTA at this stage and focus on ITF with pro aspirations. This isn't hard and fast but a trend.

 

[rh310]

Does Tiafoe still have that hitch on his forehand?

Don't know but both it, the BH, and the serve seemed inordinately wristy. maybe that's a good thing, but it requires Jedi timing and he didn't always have it.

 

[MakeItRain]

Ah ok gotcha, you are saying who is the best junior right now in terms of production and results. Based on that I would agree its Donaldson. I am saying who I think are the best juniors in terms of potential and to me thats Tiafoe/Kozlov. Winning futures tournaments is for sure tougher than a Jr slam, but keep in mind those two are a year younger.

Ya, I just meant Donaldson has the best results so far. It def helps him that he's a year older, that is huge at this age for sure. In terms of potential...it's tough to say. So many of these top junior prospects flame out and never end up doing anything on tour, and then there's the few that make it. I'd say Tiafoe has the highest ceiling of the 3, simply because he's the best athlete. That being said I think Donaldson/Kozlov are almost surely going to be top 100 level players at some point. Tiafoe could easily end up not making it at all since he's fundamentally not as solid as the other 2. But he is very young still and has plenty of time to improve. Purely based on potential, I believe Tiafoe has the most of the group. However, if I had to bet right now on who I think will have the best career, I'd like bet on Donaldson.