Rising players to watch out for on the ATP in 2019

The 2018 season proved to be a breakout year for some of the younger players on tour, particularly Denis Sharapolov, Alex de Minaur, Frances Tiafoe, Ugo Humbert and Taylor Fritz. Collectively, the group of rising stars captured their first ATP titles, reached career-high rankings and earned upsets over the ATP's top players.

1

Denis Shapovalov

The Canadian reached the semifinals in Delray Beach and Madrid as well as the fourth round in Miami Open and Cincinnati. He made his Top 30 debut at the end of the season, where he reached his career-high, current ranking of No.27. The 19-year-old will aim to make bigger impacts in 2019, ideally starting at the Grand Slams. His best Slam result last year came at the US Open, where he reached the third round before falling to No. 5 seed Kevin Anderson in five sets.

2

Alex De Minaur

De Minaur started off his 2018 season strong, making appearances in the Brisbane semifinals and Sydney final. The Australian also reached the final of an ATP  Challenger in Alicante and Surbiton. He captured the ATP Challenger title in Nottingham, where he defeated Daniel Evans in the final. Later in the season, he reached the Washington final and Shenzhen semifinals. The 19-year-old wrapped up his season at the Next Gen ATP Finals, where he defeated Taylor Fritz and Andrey Rublev before losing in the final to Stefanos Tsitsipas.

3

Frances Tiafoe

At the Delray Beach Open in February, Tiafoe captured his first title of his career with a straight sets win over Peter Gojowczyk. The American made deep runs at the Miami Open, reaching the fourth round after defeating Kyle Edmund and Tomas Berdych. He reached his second final of the season in Estoril. The 20-year-old American qualified for the Next Gen ATP Finals and finished the season ranked No. 39.

4

Taylor Fritz

Fritz’s 2018 season got off to a quick start. The American captured his first title of 2018 at the ATP Challenger in Newport Beach. The 21-year-old had his season best performance in Indian Wells, where he defeated Andrey Rublev and Fernando Verdasco. Fritz took out world No. 44 Robin Haase in Shanghai, reached the semifinals in Chengdu, and finished out his season by qualifying for the Next Gen ATP finals. Fritz heads into 2019 ranked just inside the Top 50 at No. 49, and is slated to kick off his season in Auckland.

5

Ugo Humbert

The 20-year-old experienced great success at the ITF Pro Circuit and ATP Challenger level this season, winning Switzerland F2 and Canada F1 back-to-back and reaching the semifinals at Israel F8 and France F11. Later in the season, he won France F12, the Segovia Challenger and the Ortisei Challenger. The Frenchman finished 2018 at the Andria Challenger, where he defeated No. 180 Filippo Baldi in the final. Now ranked No .84, Humbert will aim to compete at more ATP-level tournaments in 2019.

In 2019, the ATP, WTA—and so much more—are on Tennis Channel Plus: