The Baseline Top 5: Possible Next Gen finals of the past

Over the past two seasons, the Next Generation ATP Finals has turned the spotlight on the game’s best and brightest under the age of 21. The unique round-robin event has proven to be a welcome addition to the calendar for the contenders, like Stefano Tsitsipas, who won the title over the weekend over Alex De Minaur.

Here’s a question, though: What took the ATP so long to come up with this idea?

If the tournament had been around for years now, future Hall of Famers by the dozens would have gotten an early taste of season-ending competition—if they weren’t in the ATP Finals already.

This week’s Top 5 takes a look at what could’ve been in some of the years past and what ended up happening in those players' careers. And to avoid the Alexander Zverev conundrum of choosing between the two year-end events, these season-ending selections will look past any Top-8 breakthroughs. The first number in parentheses is their year-end ranking, by way of ATPWorldTour.com, followed by their age.

1

1987

The Players: Kent Carlsson (No. 12, 19), Guillermo Perez-Roldan (No. 19, 18), Andre Agassi (No. 25, 17), Jonas Svensson (No. 30, 21), Carl-Uwe Steeb (No. 41, 20), Jay Berger (No. 47, 21), Andrei Chesnokov (No. 52, 21), Magnus Gustafsson (No. 53, 20)

Notes: Six of the eight players in this field would go on to reach the Top 10 at some point in their careers, while the other two—Steeb and Perez-Roldan—would crack the Top 15. Agassi, who made his debut at the year-end Masters a year later, would become the only player in history to win Olympic gold in singles, the Davis Cup, a year-end championship and all four Slams in his career.

2

1996

The Players:Marcelo Rios (No. 11, 21), Albert Costa (No. 13, 21), Carlos Moya (No. 28, 20), Mark Philippoussis (No. 30, 20), Bohdan Ulihrach (No. 41, 21), Hendrik Dreekman (No. 49, 21), Jiri Novak (No. 52, 21), Thomas Johansson (No. 60, 21)

Notes: Costa, Moya and Johansson each won a major later on, while Rios became No. 1 in the world two years later, showing the strength of this group. Surprisingly, the 1997 French Open champion, Gustavo Kuerten, wasn’t able to crack this lineup as three players 21-and-under were still ahead of him in the rankings.

3

2000

The Players:Roger Federer (No. 29, 19), Andreas Vinciguerra (No. 52, 19), Arnaud Di Pasquale (No. 60, 21), Juan Ignacio Chela (No. 63, 21), Olivier Rochus (No. 68, 19), Nicolas Massu (No. 87, 21), Guillermo Coria (No. 88, 18), Ivan Ljubicic (No. 91, 21)

Notes: The top player here is still going strong on the tour at 37. While all of the others have retired, Federer still sees one of them on a regular basis: Ljubicic, the former world No. 3 who is his coach these days.

4

2004

The Players: Mario Ancic (No. 29, 20), Robin Soderling (No. 34, 20), Florian Meyer (No. 35, 21), Fernando Verdasco (No. 36, 21), Tomas Berdych (No. 45, 19), Igor Andreev (No. 50, 21), Rafael Nadal (No. 51, 18), Gilles Muller (No. 69, 21)

Notes: Nadal, the youngest player in this group, skyrocketed up the rankings the next year to No. 2 in the world. Despite the tremendous accomplishments of the eight players in this season, the Spaniard has far surpassed them all to earn his place among the all-time greats.

5

2008

The Players: Marin Cilic (No. 23, 20), Sam Querrey (No. 39, 21), Ernests Gulbis (No. 53, 20), Kei Nishikori (No. 63, 19), Jeremy Chardy (No. 75, 21), Mischa Zverev (No. 80, 21), Thomasz Belluci (No. 85, 20), Fabio Fognini (No. 88, 21)

Notes: Fognini, the last player in the Top 8 among the 21-and-under set in ‘08, has been critical of the current tournament. An event in his day would’ve pitted him against a future Slam winner (Cilic), finalist (Nishikori) and two major semifinalists (Gulbis, Querrey), but he could have held his own.

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This Week on Tennis Channel:

ATP Finals (Sun - Sun 11.11 - 11.18) - Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and the world's best collide in the season Finale. Live coverage begins on Tennis Channel Sunday at 7:00am EST.