WITH the ATP Tour currently on pause due to the coronavirus, we take a look at five players who have already shown signs of progressing to the next level with their games. For this task we have looked at players outside the top 30 who are yet to really make their mark, but three of them have won their maiden titles this year, with the other two coming close.

Casper Ruud (Norway)

The Norwegian only turned 21 last December and has already proved to be a clay court specialist. He won his first title at Buenos Aires last month, and after a minor stumble in Rio, reached the final in Chile and came close to winning title number two. Ruud has been inconsistent to-date, but that could be put down to his age and relative inexperience. The problem is his clear strength on clay (where he holds a 63.8 per cent winning record) which overshadows the fact he has struggled on the hard courts (37.8 per cent) and completely avoids grass events (0-1 record). On clay, he has won 82 per cent of his service games and 26 per cent of his return games, with those numbers dropping to 79 and a lowly 14 per cent on hard court. Put simply, he struggles with opposition serves on the hard court surface and considering the surface makes up the bulk of the tour, it will be an area he has to improve on. He has the potential to become a better all-round player, but first round losses at his last three Grand Slams – the non-clay ones – and not even making it past the first round of qualifying at the 2019 Australian Open tells a story. So much potential, but so much to improve on. Could become a top five clay court player though.

Ugo Humbert (France)

An exciting Frenchman at a career-high 42nd after winning his maiden title in Auckland earlier this year, Humbert has nice size at 188cm to be a potent server whilst not losing his mobility around the court. He has a 29-31 overall Tour record, but has 10 wins and five losses to his name this year, reaching the semi-finals at Delray Beach and quarter finals in New York, but first round losses to John Millman (Australian Open) and Feliciano Lopez (Montpellier) have shown that experience can often win out against the developing Frenchman. Almost the opposite to Ruud, Humbert is a hard court player who can perform on grass, but prefers to avoid clay at this stage. He has an almost 50 per cent record on hard court, while being six from 10 on grass, as his clay court record of 1-4 could certainly improve. He is certainly a comfortable server and it is among his strengths, but he needs to make more of his chances off the break points and improve his returning game to take his game to the next level. He sits at about 50 per cent for total points won, but just 20 per cent when it comes to return games won.

Alexander Bublik (Kazakhstan)

An absolute workhorse, Bublik seems to be flying under the radar, with the Russian-born Kazkhstani an imposing figure at 198cm. He has a 50 per cent record on Tour, but has won 10 out of a tolling 17 matches this year. Of those outside the top 10, Bublik is second behind Felix Auger-Aliassime for matches played this year and he has earned himself a place just outside the top 50 after getting to as high as 47th overall. He led his nation to a spot in the Davis Cup Finals with back-to-back wins and was not disgraced in both his appearances against Stefanos Tsitsipas in Marseille and Dubai. He has already claimed wins over top 30 players, Denis Shapovalov, Benoit Paire and Hubert Hurkacz this year. At almost 200cm, you do not need to be a rocket scientist to work out his game, with the big serving Kazak relying a lot on serving consistency week-in, week-out. When on serve he is hard to stop, but he also struggles at winning return games, with a career record of just an 18 per cent success rate. He creates a high volume of break point opportunities – an average of two per game – but is not converting them regularly enough which is the next step in his career. You cannot ignore his obvious improvement just because he does not represent a European nation.

Tommy Paul (United States)

The American is an excitement machine who genuinely could be the top ranked player from his country by year’s end. It is a huge call with John Isner, Taylor Fritz and even the likes of Tennys Sandgren and Frances Tiafoe in the conversation. But there is something about the 22-year-old that seems to have clicked now he is becoming a regular on the ATP Tour. He had a 20-20 record last year, and while he is older than some of the others on this list, he is also a late bloomer. He has a 9-5 record in 2020 with his best win coming courtesy of a 6-3 6-4 stunning upset of Alexander Zverev in the Round of 16 at Acapulco. He has also beaten top 20 player Grigor Dimitrov, as well as a host of top 50 talents on his way to the semi-finals in Adelaide before a Round of 32 appearance in Melbourne. For Paul it is about continuing this throughout the year and branching out from his hard court preference. Of his 20 ATP Tour wins, 19 have come on hard court. He also has a good record after winning the first set (81.3 per cent) and is yet to play outside of hard court this year so has no knowledge of his performance on another surface in his current form. He is at a point in his career where he could really take off, or just be a solid top 50 player for the next decade.

Thiago Seyboth Wild (Brazil)

The Brazilian young gun has really stepped up in 2020, with the 19-year-old holding a 6-2 win-loss record on the ATP Tour so far. Whilst that is somewhat disguised by losses to Peter Gojowczyk in qualifying at Melbourne Park, and then going down to 375th ranked Hernan Casanova the next week in a Uruguayan Challenger event. Once he makes the main draw he has gone well, narrowly losing to Croatian Borna Coric at Rio which steeled him for his run to the Chile Open title, defeating the likes of Rudd and Cristian Garin – albeit the latter by retirement – along the way. Following his maiden title, he pushed Australia’s Millman all the way in Davis Cup, and considering he does not turn 20 until October, he has plenty of upside for the future and expect him to improve his career high ranking of 113th very soon given he has still only played 13 matches on the Tour.