WHEN many think of strong up-and-coming tennis nations, countries such as the United States, Australia, Italy and Russia come to mind, but when it comes to quality over quantity and over both the ATP and WTA Tours, it is hard to discount Kazakhstan as an underrated nation. The country that is best known for the Borat franchise, Kazakhstan has plenty of promise on the tennis court with three players aged 24 and under in the top 60 of the world, whilst a host of teenagers are pushing their case going forward.

On the women’s tour, the two top stars are Elena Rybakina and Yulia Putintseva. Many might not have been too familiar with the 21-year-old Rybakina coming into this year, but the talented youngsters took the world by storm in 2020, becoming the top ranked Kazakh and moving as many as 20 places into the top 20 and leapfrogging Putintseva.

Rybakina could have been in the top 10 had all her finals gone to plan. Coming into 2020, the then 20-year-old had won a title in Bucharest, before coming runners-up in Nanchang. Six finals later, Rybakina would add just the one title in Hobart at the start of the year, but make finals in Shenzhen, St Petersburg, Dubai and Strasbourg, three of that quartet in the first half of the season. She reached 17 in the world and announced herself on the biggest stages.

Her Round of 32 run at the Australian Open was her debut win at a major, having bowed out in the first round at Roland Garros and Flushing Meadows last year. A straight sets loss to world number one Ash Barty was hardly a disgrace, and her other finals losses came to Ekaterina Alexandrova, Kiki Bertens, Simona Halep and Elina Svitolina, the latter three of whom were all in the top 10. Rybakina became a lot more consistent, and while her year finished off in disappointing fashion – back-to-back losses in the second round at Roland Garros and first round at Ostrava – the youngster showed what she is capable of in the future.

The soon-to-be 26-year-old Putintseva does not quite have the same accolades, having won the one title in 2019 at Nurnberg after runners-up titles in St Petersburg and Guangzhou the years preceding that title. Having played at Grand Slams since she was a teenager, Putintseva has made two quarter finals at Roland Garros and in 2020, cracked through to the quarter finals at the US Open.

She will be disappointed she was unable to progress past that final eight after stunning Petra Martic before going down to giant-killer Jennifer Brady. A week later she beat Martic again, as well as Rybakina, before losing to Halep in Rome. Her second round exit at Roland Garros to eventual finalist Nadia Podoroska was disappointing, but she was fairly consistent in the ones she beat below her this year.

On the ATP Tour circuit, Alexander Bublik is still only 23, and has shown moments of absolute brilliance, but inconsistency. A huge server, Bublik won against his first Top 10 player this year at Roland Garros when he downed Gael Monfils. The issue being, it was his only Grand Slam win all year with first round losses at the Australian Open and US Open. He finished with a 14-16 record in 2020 which is hardly glamorous, but he seems to do well in deciding sets, winning five of seven this year, backing up his overall 19-8 record.

Since reaching the quarter finals at Hamburg – notching up wins over Albert Ramos-Vinolas, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Tommy Paul along the way, he has only won two of six matches and finished the year with a less than ideal straight sets loss to Lorenzo Sonego after a straight sets loss to Mackenzie McDonald. That came in Nur-Saltan in his home country after defeating McDonald a fortnight earlier in St Petersburg.

He has the talent – the aforementioned wins and other victories over Benoit Paire, Denis Shapovalov and Hubert Hurkacz earlier in the year attest to that – but he just has to put it all together, and in Grand Slams, if he is to step up to the next level. Nonetheless, Bublik is a great white hope for Kazakhstan going forward, and is quickly joining his two female compatriots in the top 50 of the world.

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