Our Aussie youngsters...

So I was just thinking about a few players that have just finished juniors within the last few years, the group of Duckworth, Mitchell, Bolt, Saville, Krygios, Kubler, Whittington, Andrijic and Barton. I was thinking about which out of these players will have the most success, 3 years ago I'm pretty sure everyone would have jumped on the Kubler bandwagon when he received a wildcard into the Aus Open maindraw where he lost to Ljubicic I think if my memory serves me correctly. But since then has had a few injuries that have set him back and other stuff that I'm not sure about. Duckworth and Mitchell both were consistent on the junior tour and they're clearly going to be top 100 players at some point in their careers. Luke Saville has dominated the junior tour winning 2 Grand Slam titles I think, may be wrong there though but since hasn't done anything overly special at Future or Challenger level but he still is currently ranked 349th in the world, he had his pro tour debut yesterday against Go Soeda of Japan and went down in 4 sets, I just could never see this kid making the top 150 let alone that huge step of top 100 or even further. Alex Bolt is my favourite player out of the group, never did anything special on the junior tour and really stepped up this season just gone to a real good player at future level beating Duckworth 2 or 3 weeks out from the New Years in straight sets, he then beat Benny Mitchell in the qualifying at the Apia International also in straight sets, then went to the Open as a qualy wildcard and knocked off a player around 280 I think or maybe even 260 also in straight sets, then played the 8th seed and lost 8-6 in the third which to me shows a load of potential, plus he just played with Greg Jones in the doubles and knocked over two top 100 singles players, Krygios in my opinion is in the top 3 best juniors in the world and has knocked over Bolt, Saville and Reid from only playing 8 men's events last season. Whittington hasn't really done anything since juniors, he did beat a few good players last season at future level but nothing huge yet. Jay Andrijic beat Yani of the USA ranked just outside the top 200 few weeks back in the qualifying at Syndey but his 2012 season only seen him play two mens events. Barton has already beaten Karlovic and Ito this season in Sydney qualies and also got a win at the Open in qualies, he didn't do anything overly special other then win one future event in Australia where he beat Lindahl, Look and Groth on the way to the title.

So I'd just like everyone to put their opinions and rankings of these players, these are mine. Also I know there are more player like Kokkinakis, Harris, Bouchier, Schpanski, Mousley, Mott. and Jasika
Duckworth end of year 120 end of career high 45
Mitchell end of year 175 end of career high 60
Bolt end of year 150 end of career high 70
Saville end of year 250 end of career high 150
Krygios end of year 525 end of career high 90
Kubler end of year 150 end of career high 75
Whittington end of year 650 end of career high 300
Andrijic end of year 800 end of career high 200

Cheers just curious on what others think on my predictions and opinions. I'm also adding a poll for "Who will have the most successful career"

Kokkinakis is by far the best prospect.


Saville and Mitchell don't have any weapons, Duckworth and Krygios are too erratic, Kubler is stuck in Futures.

For some odd reason my post in the Thanasi Kokkinakis thread did not bump it. The post before mine still reads as the last post.

In any case I basically said there having now seen a lot of these young kids play, Kokkinakis is easily the most impressive. I think a lot of the others could be solid top 100 players for a long while, but Kokkinakis is the only one with the tools to be a genuine top 10 type player who can contest a GS. But he's got a lot of work to do to get there. Upside is a Del Potro type though IMO (hopefully without the injuries).

I'm still not completely sold on Kokk yet though. He has great talent and all the technical tools to become a great player, but attitude wise he hasn't really done it for me.

Or should I say lack of attitude. All great players had some kind of mental trait, Tomic has supreme arrogance, Hewitt is a fighter, and other players have a mixture of both.

Haven't seen anything from Kokk yet.

The Kokk will with some more physical development be a power player. Most of those types don't tend to have some outstanding mental trait, so I don't think it's a major issue, certainly not at his age. You think of Philippoussis, Safin, Del Potro currently, they were all lackadaisical players that were/are top players because they could overpower everyone. He's plays with a natural flair, which each of those three showed.

I haven't seen enough of him play to determine that though. 17-15 in the deciding set against a top 200 player at least shows some level of mental endurance for a 16 year old. But his complete lack of any real results in juniors or seniors isn't the best sign.

I think, the most talented are: Jason and Luke. Also good prospects Mitchell. Ducky, he may well show itself, but he is more workaholic, but it is also very good quality.

Ahhh I didn't mention this but I was only talking about players inbetween 17-22 thats why I didn't mention Kokkinakis.

May have jumped the gun a bit on Kyrios. The match I saw him play he was extremely erratic, but in another his return of serve was excellent. He's 17 but plenty of time to improve and he's 6'4, which is important. I still like Kokkinakis the best, but I'd say Kyrios has the potential to be a GS winner in the future also if it comes together.