He’s six days younger lol
He's not even at the level of players like Zverev, Tsitsipas and Ruud
Zverev used to love grouping himself with Fed/Nadal/Djokovic circa 2018, when he could be relied on to lose in the first two rounds of any slam.
Step one has already happened with Ben Shelton (also age 21) having overtaken him in the rankings. Now, the question is whether Shelton can solidify himself in that position (and I could see that going either way). Meanwhile Fils, who is more than a year younger, is coming close to supplanting Rune as well.
Shelton is definitely overperforming after his early step back in Australia, not sure Fils has done anywhere near enough yet to be in that boat, good as his Wimbledon and Hamburg runs have been. Musetti is another one trying to get a look in right now. Holger definitely has his work cut out staying in the picture.
Fils up to #20 in the live rankings with the Hamburg win today. I agree that he still has more to prove to be ahead of Rune, but he's closing the gap quickly.
Rune has declined massively since his Paris win. To call him a headcase would be an understatement.
Last year I was a bit skeptical about Fils but this year he really surprised me so far. Played some great matches! Looking forward to his progress. And even if I think that Rune actually has more potential, I have a hard time believing he manages to work things out.
He hasn’t won a title in like 2 years now lol
He hasn’t improved in the last 18-24 months. He hasn’t won a title in over a year and the title that he won was due to a massive choke from BVDZ
Rune will never win a slam. He has not got the mentality and never will have it. I can see him actually fading from the sport by his mid twenties.
Shelton will win slams, he has the cajones and work ethic. He is relatively late to the game as i think he went to College, but he has the raw tools to win slams on all surfaces.
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I hope so. He's one of the few Americans I've liked in a long time since the rest are boring, but he's one of the most raw players I've seen. The college system is definitely why, but it feels he's basically had to learn the game from scratch outside of his serve.
His serve is monstrous. The FH when on is the biggest the game has seen in terms of power and spin (dwarfs Alcaraz) and his BH is actually very solid and a good rally shot but he can smoke winners with it.
Not even a slam semifinal. And all of his losses have been either tame straight set losses or 4 sets without putting up a proper fight. Not even a masters final. He’s playing worse than how he did in 2023
You think Shelton can beat Sinner/Alcaraz/Djoko consistently enough to win slams? He has some really bad stretches, like in 2023.
Also, if it's about the Paris masters win, Karen Khachanov also won Paris beating a bunch of top 10 players including Djokovic in the final.
I think from next season he will be too much for Djokovic for definite.
Yup and hasn’t won a big title since, much less made another masters final.
He did win the Paris Masters in 2022 when he was 19, since then he has only declined...
Ever since the Paris final, he has not made a masters final in 2024
He got up to #4 last year, played some good/decent matches in AO, on clay, Wimbledon and Paris/YEC.
He doesn;t put in the effort and expects to just breeze into major wins like when he thought that he should have one already
Let’s see. Musetti has a slam semifinal just after turning 22. Rune is yet to make one
