As we approach the 2025 season, which starts on Friday 27 December with the United Cup, our writers and editors tackle the most important questions of the new year.
Question four: which young promise will make a major breakthrough next season?
FRANZISKA BRUELLS: At just 17 years old, Germany’s Justin Engel won his first ATP-level match in October 2024, becoming the youngest player to win a match at this level since Carlos Alcaraz in Rio de Janeiro in 2020. At the same time, he was the youngest professional in his class of 2007 to win a match on the men’s tour.
The extent of his success was clear in the following weeks: he was invited to the Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) in Frankfurt as an alternate player, where he trained with Dominic Thiem and Jan-Lennard Struff, among others. This was followed by the big announcement that the 17-year-old will be supported by former pro Philipp Kohlschreiber as a coach in the future, will serve for TC Großhesselohe in the Tennis Channel Bundesliga from 2025 and is under contract with the sports marketing agency ‘Sportfive’.
The foundations were laid for Engel. However, they were already there in terms of his game: a crackling forehand that is a bit like Alexander Zverev’s, a solid ground game, a hammer serve and a good dose of self-confidence, which Engel can put to good use on the professional tour. What does he still lack to play at the top? ‘Maybe I need to get a bit bigger. I think I do almost everything well. There’s not much missing from the top. It’s just a mental thing, because you don’t win most matches because you are the best player, but because you are mentally stronger than your opponent,’ the 17-year-old himself said in an interview with Tennis Channel.
Even though Engel is often compared to stars like Alcaraz and Zverev, one thing is very important to him: ‘I will always stay grounded. So he has the right professional qualities, now he just has to keep up mentally with his much older rivals to really take off in 2025.
JON LEVEY: From a results perspective, it’s hard to imagine a player who can match Coco Gauff when it comes to rankings, wins and major titles. Yes, he is only 20 years old. But since she will turn 21 during the season and is already firmly established, we take ‘best’ to mean biggest leap forward. For this, I choose Jakub Mensik.
The ATP Newcomer of the Year 2024 will not take anyone by surprise. The 19-year-old Czech has already reached the top 50, undermined Top 10 players such as Andrey Rublev and Grigor Dimitrov, and earned himself a place in the ATP Nitto Next Gen Finals. At 1.93 m tall, Mensik possesses great firepower, but his determination has proved equally impressive.
Exhibit A was the last US Open. After eliminating Félix Auger-Aliassime in the first round in two sets, Mensik lost the first two sets against Australian Tristan Schoolkate in scorching hot conditions. It would have been very easy for the then 18-year-old to declare the tournament. But he fought back, saved a match point in the fourth set and completed the comeback in a tie-break in the fifth set. She lost the next game, but not for lack of effort: it also took five sets. No wonder his nickname is Menimal.
It is probably still too early for Mensik to be a consistent threat for the Grand Slam, but winning a Tour title and climbing into the Top 20 by the end of 2025 are within her reach
STEPHANIE LIVAUDAIS: The ATP Newcomer of the Year, Jakub Mensik has shown that when he catches fire he can beat anyone. Just look at Doha, where he defeated Andy Murray, Andrey Rublev and Gael Monfils on the way to his first ATP final, or Shanghai where he again defeated Rublev and beat Grigor Dimitrov on the way to his first ATP Masters 1000 quarter-final. The 19-year-old Czech’s slow and steady progress shows no signs of slowing down and he ended the year with a new career high at No. 48.
On the WTA side, Mirra Andreeva is set to continue her rapid rise up the rankings. At 17, she has already entered the Top 20 and reached a Grand Slam semi-final, and is still targeting many of Martina Hingis’ “younger from” records.
This year she added former Spanish number 2 Conchita Martinez to her coaching team, and their partnership continues to pay off with Andreeva also ending the year winning her first WTA title in Iasi and reaching another final in Ningbo.
Stay tuned for Friday’s question: which American woman will have a better season: Jessica Pegula or Coco Gauff?
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