Over the last year, several promising youngers have entered the fray showing they are capable of big things in the future. The hard hitting Austrian Dominic Thiem, Czech young gun Jiri Vesely and Australian powerhouses Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios to name a few. There is one name that is omitted from most promising youngster lists that needs to be on everybody's lips and who before long will become a household name on the ATP tour and that player is 17 year old Borna Coric.
Coric may not be as big a name as the likes of Thiem or Kyrgios yet but he is the real deal. He is capable of reaching the top echelon of tennis and could definitely break the hearts of top ranked opponents in the not so distant future. As a tennis fan first and foremost, I am very excited about what the future holds for the 17 year old from Zagreb.
Borna has already shown that he can hang with the big boys, out-hitting Andy Murray several times in their Davis Cup encounter, as well as defeating Jerzy Janowicz in five gruelling sets to help Croatia advance to the World group playoffs in September. As well as this, he reached the quarter-finals of Umag earlier this year before being defeated by Fabio Fognini in a very close match which went to three sets.
Having reached the top 200 this week thanks to his run in Umag, the sky really is the limit for Coric in terms of progressing up the rankings. He comes into the US Open as the 2013 Boys champion and in very good form, having looked impressive in qualifying beating much higher ranked Jimmy Wang in the final round to reach his first ever grand slam.
In the first round he faces Czech Lukas Rosol, who won the tournament in Winston-Salem last week. It will be a tough task for Coric but one he can definitely conquer. That is only half the battle at a grand slam though and with it being Coric's first, he may be overwhelmed. I really hope that isn't the case because this could be his breakthrough tournament. Theoretically he has more of an offensive game than Milos Raonic so if they were to meet further on in the draw, I'd give him a very good shot at coming out on top. Theoretically. One step at a time though, he needs to get past Rosol first and achieve that pivotal first grand slam win.
It's a very exciting time to be Croatian though having the young prodigy in their ranks and with friends in high places in the form of Croatian great Goran Ivanisevic, it's only a matter of time before he breaks through. At just seventeen years of age, having this much talent at this point in time is just incredible. Remember the name Borna Coric – you will be hearing it a lot in the future.