This article is not going to be very long. However, with Ugo Humbert making his first ATP 500 final, I have to ask the question: does being a good tennis junior actually mean anything at all?
I ask this because Humbert, who, along with Jannik Sinner, Matteo Berrettini and several other rising stars, had anonymous or irrelevant junior careers. Humbert peaked at No. 18 in the junior rankings. Sinner never played juniors whatsoever. Berrettini struggled with injuries and didn’t break out until he was 21. Meanwhile, junior stars like Yibing Wu and Benjamin Sigouin have done absolutely nothing in the professional ranks.
When Humbert was rising through the Challenger ranks, it became very clear that he was actually quite good, yet by tennis standards he was one of the latest bloomers in recent years. I feel like pro tennis has a particularly awful teenage sensation to "actually good player” hit rate, and for every Dominic Thiem or Casper Ruud, there are an equal number of Roberto Bautista Agut or Diego Schwartzman types who had zero traction until they got better in their 20s.
Does that give me any hope of improving at tennis significantly in my 20s? Probably not. However, Ugo Humbert is legitimately a great grass court player and I hope he does well.
