Surging stars De Minaur, Shapovalov headline Milan field

The Next Gen ATP Finals—the year-end 21-and-under championships—is just a week away, and this year's Milan field features a mix of young stars with spotlight experience and surging competitors who are still almost famous.

Two of the top three players in the Next Gen standings are unavailable, with 2018 champion Stefanos Tsitsipas playing the the ATP Finals, in London, and Felix Auger-Aliassime out with an ankle injury. Still, the remaining field is composed entirely of Top-100 players, many of whom are currently playing their best tennis of the year.

Here are the finalists:

1

Alex De Minaur

Age: 20

Ranking: No. 18

The No. 2 Next Gen player behind Tsitsipas is De Minaur, who broke through in 2019 with his first three titles: in Sydney, Atlanta and Zhuhai, where he bested Andy Murray in September. Last week at the Swiss Indoors, he beat Taylor Fritz and Reilly Opelka to make to the ATP 500 final, where he fell to Roger Federer.

2

Denis Shapovalov

Age: 20

Ranking: No. 28

Shapovalov has been a much-talked-about player for a few years now—he beat Rafael Nadal at the 2017 Rogers Cup and hit the Top 20 this April—but the one thing he'd long been missing was an ATP title. He checked that milestone off a week ago, when he defeated Alexei Popyrin, Yuichi Sugita and Filip Krajinovic to win the Stockholm Open.

3

Frances Tiafoe

Age: 21

Ranking: No. 46

Though he hasn't made any finals this year, Tiafoe's season is highlighted by quarterfinal results at the Australian Open and the Miami Open, with wins versus Kevin Anderson, Grigor Dimitrov and David Goffin. A strong showing in Milan could give him the momentum he needs heading into the Davis Cup and the 2020 season.

4

Ugo Humbert

​Age: 21

Ranking: No. 56

Humbert, a 6'2" left-handed Frenchman, had his breakthrough at Wimbledon this year, where he defeated Gael Monfils and Auger-Aliassime to make the fourth round. Just on Sunday, he picked up his 10th ITF and Challenger title, in Brest, France, where he won the final, 6-2, 6-3, against Evgeny Donskoy.

5

Casper Ruud

Age: 20

Ranking: No. 63

Recently, Ruud has been in the news mostly for his feud with Nick Kyrgios, in which the Swedish site Tennisportalen quotes him as calling Kyrgios an "idiot," and Kyrgios on Twitter calls Ruud "boring af."

Don't let that distract, though, from the Norwegian's solid season, which includes four wins in Rome (the last being Kyrgios' infamous default), a quarterfinal in Rio de Janeiro and a run to the championship match in Houston.

6

Miomir Kecmanovic

Age: 20

Ranking: No. 55

Kecmanovic made his bones in 2019 at the ATP Masters 1000s in Indiana Wells and Cincinnati, where he won a combined eight matches, with wins over Auger-Aliassime and Alexander Zverev. In June, he reached his first ATP final, in Antalya, Turkey.

7

Mikael Ymer

Age: 21

Ranking: No. 73

The younger and higher-ranked Ymer has had his best results on the ATP Challenger Tour, with 2019 titles in Finland; New Caledonia; Mouilleron Le Captif, France; and Orleans, France—which include wins against Federico Delbonis, Aljaz Bedene and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Ymer played only three tour-level main draws this season, so the Next Gen Finals offer a chance to see how he stacks up against stiffer competition.

WC

Jannik Sinner

Age: 18

Ranking: No. 93

Sinner, the youngest competitor in the event, is the Italian wild card, but he's also the ninth-best available player. He's won four lower-level tournaments, the highlights being ATP Challengers in Kentucky and Italy. This month, Sinner defeated Gael Monfils and Frances Tiafoe to make his first tour-level semifinal, so the Next Gen Finals could be the perfect transition tournament to where he wants to go next.

With their esoteric rules and lack of ranking points, the Next Gen Finals have always been an odd event. They've been a success, though, in how they've promoted the game, and with their 2018 champion, Tsitsipas, going on to make the 2019 ATP Tour Finals. In that sense, the Milan tournament has thus far lived up to its name.

5

Casper Ruud

Age: 20

Ranking: No. 63

Recently, Ruud has been in the news mostly for his feud with Nick Kyrgios, in which the Swedish site Tennisportalen quotes him as calling Kyrgios an "idiot," and Kyrgios on Twitter calls Ruud "boring af."

Don't let that distract, though, from the Norwegian's solid season, which includes four wins in Rome (the last being Kyrgios' infamous default), a quarterfinal in Rio de Janeiro and a run to the championship match in Houston.

6

Miomir Kecmanovic

Age: 20

Ranking: No. 55

Kecmanovic made his bones in 2019 at the ATP Masters 1000s in Indiana Wells and Cincinnati, where he won a combined eight matches, with wins over Auger-Aliassime and Alexander Zverev. In June, he reached his first ATP final, in Antalya, Turkey.

7

Mikael Ymer

Age: 21

Ranking: No. 73

The younger and higher-ranked Ymer has had his best results on the ATP Challenger Tour, with 2019 titles in Finland; New Caledonia; Mouilleron Le Captif, France; and Orleans, France—which include wins against Federico Delbonis, Aljaz Bedene and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Ymer played only three tour-level main draws this season, so the Next Gen Finals offer a chance to see how he stacks up against stiffer competition.

WC

Jannik Sinner

Age: 18

Ranking: No. 93

Sinner, the youngest competitor in the event, is the Italian wild card, but he's also the ninth-best available player. He's won four lower-level tournaments, the highlights being ATP Challengers in Kentucky and Italy. This month, Sinner defeated Gael Monfils and Frances Tiafoe to make his first tour-level semifinal, so the Next Gen Finals could be the perfect transition tournament to where he wants to go next.

With their esoteric rules and lack of ranking points, the Next Gen Finals have always been an odd event. They've been a success, though, in how they've promoted the game, and with their 2018 champion, Tsitsipas, going on to make the 2019 ATP Tour Finals. In that sense, the Milan tournament has thus far lived up to its name.