
"He stops hitting his forehand, he throws his arms up, he looks at his box and just spends too much time beating himself up." Denis Shapovalov "You see him lose a lot of deciding sets that aren't very close," O'Shannessy said. O'Shannessy believes Zverev has a tendency to back off on his forehand "when push comes to shove," and that he also gets down on himself too easily. It's that underwhelming record in the majors, the sense Zverev is spinning his wheels. But there's a reason he hired coach Ivan Lendl. Zverev already owns three Masters 1000 titles. Petersburg final (Zverev's third final of the year, but his first win) was the launching pad for the then 19-year-old sensation. Next Big Thing moment: If you were paying attention, Zverev's triumph against No. Still, he has an infinite capacity for work, a blazing serve and forehand, and he's improved on hard and grass courts. But Thiem has been unable to step up very effectively at the other three majors. Were it not for the greatest clay-court player of all time, the Austrian baseliner could have as many as three French Open titles and a handful of Masters wins earned on Euroclay. Thiem's biggest problem can be summed up in two words: Rafael Nadal. Next Big Thing moment: Early in 2016, Thiem won titles, on a clay and hard court, then punched through to the semifinals at the French Open. You have to work hard so that no matter what level you bring on a given day you are able to win with it." Dominic Thiem

Paul Annacone, a Tennis Channel analyst who's been helping Fritz, told : "Taylor has worked hard at trying to play perfect tennis, which is the wrong mindset. Is it possible to want something too much? Despite his obvious volume of talent and excellent physique (he's a lean 6-foot-4), Fritz has been hampered by his earnestness and all those comparisons to Pete Sampras. Next Big Thing moment: An 18-year-old wild card at the ATP 250 event in Memphis in 2016, Fritz upset Steve Johnson and Ricardas Berankis to become the youngest American to reach an ATP final since Michael Chang in 1988.


Khachanov is a rangy 6-foot-6 power-server whose recent wins (he also swept Moscow) vaulted him to No. 1 Novak Djokovic in Sunday's Paris Masters final established the 22-year-old Russian as the latest in an impressive list of players hailed as the "Next Big Thing." It's a popular pastime, finding the successors to the Big Four. Karen Khachanov's impressive win against new No.
