Up-and-coming players to watch out for in upcoming tournaments

We live in an era that is dominated by two absolute phenomena: Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. The world No.1 and 2 ranked players have been sharing the spotlight during the last few years. Sometimes the Italian wins, some other the Spanish does. A lot of tennis enthusiasts wait for each Slam final only to see the two top dogs facing each other. But how long will they dominate? They are usually the favourites everywhere: for those who want to closely follow their performances and take advantage of special offers to place their bets, it is possible to find the best betting options for upcoming matches by visiting the most reliable betting sites and platforms.

In the next few years (or maybe in the next few tournaments, who knows?) we may see some other names rising to the top. Who will they be? We tried to put together a list of the most promising youngsters to follow, looking to find some serious competition for the two alpha dogs.

The quest for a third: reshaping the big three

Ok, we may be a bit nostalgic but, as a lot of other tennis fans did, we enjoyed the time of Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic. We know that their era ended and we may not see something like that anymore, but one can dream. We already have Sinner and Alcaraz and we are missing only a third player to reshape a holy tennis trinity for the next decade or more. Maybe some player between the ones we list in the next lines can be that third force.

Joao Fonseca

Fonseca is a 19-year-old Brazilian who is still largely unknown, because he’s unproven. He became somewhat popular after his performance at the 2023 US Open Junior Championship, where he, surprisingly, won the title. He made his ATP debut the following year, creating some buzz about him. Today, Fonseca ranks #45 in the ATP world rankings and is on the rise. This puts him on the spotlight as one of the top-ranked male players to watch.

Flavio Cobolli

The Italian federation is building a masterpiece. A country that never produced a #1 ranked player managed to put a true wonderkid atop the singles ranking plus a #10 (Lorenzo Musetti) and a #26 (while we write this) in Flavio Cobolli. The player from Florence may not be as destructive as Sinner is and maybe lacks Musetti’s determination, but his tennis is delightful to watch and pretty effective. He’s not in his top condition right now and recently lost some positions in the rankings, but he’s only 23 and can improve a lot.

In 2020, he won the French Open boys’ doubles title, marking an early career milestone at 17. He then made his ATP debut, winning his first match and reaching two Challenger finals in 2021. Cobolli also won his first Challenger title and debuted at the Rome Masters’ main draws in singles and doubles.

Jakub Mensik

The Czech is another promising young star, making steady progress in the tennis world. He began his career professionally in 2022 and won his first Challenger title within a year of this milestone. This made him become the youngest player from Czech to do so, which is remarkable. That same year, he qualified for his first Grand Slam main draw.

Mensik made his Australian Open debut in 2024 after successfully qualifying for the tournament. He was selected for the Next Gen program and competed in the 2024 Qatar ExxonMobil Open. He also received a wildcard for the 2024 BNP Paribas Open, where he made his Masters debut. Also, he competed at the US Open. At this rate, he’ll be leading the rest in the coming years. In 2025, he won the Miami Masters, but has often been missing from the radar. At 19 though, he will have all the time in the world to leave his mark.

Will these stars truly shine in the near future? We do hope so and will be here to tell you all about it if and when it happens. In the meantime, stay up to date with the most important news in tennis, such as the latest Venus Williams’ quest in the US Open. At 45, the sister of the world’s greatest female to ever swing a racket won’t stop playing at the highest level.