EACH year tennis sees a number of breakout players who have a season that catapults them from the middle or lower world ranking spots, into the top echelon of players. In the men’s game, year-end number one Carlos Alcaraz lived up to expectations far sooner than expected, while Casper Ruud and Taylor Fritz both became consistent Top 10 players and even Holger Rune reached 11th by December. Next year there will be some new names joining them as breakout players, and we take a guess at who they might be.

Maxime Cressy (United States)

One of two Americans on the list, Cressy might be a debatable player as to whether or not he has already had a breakout year. The 25-year-old is the oldest on the lst by far and won his debut title in 2022, reaching as high as 31st in the world. Right now, Cressy is 34th, so also higher than anyone else on this list. Having not had the luck before, Cressy looked destined for a Top 20 finish after winning Newport in July. It came off a near title with a finals appearance at Eastbourne before going down to Fritz, but included wins over British pair Cameron Norrie and Daniel Evans, as well as Top 20 talent Reilly Opelka. The upcoming season will be a massive watch given Cressy came from qualifying in Melbourne at the start of 2022 to reach the final, going down to Rafael Nadal. Though he did not finish inside that Top 20 with a bit of a shaky finish and inconsistency plaguing him, he is that all-round tennis talent who could be anything.

Jack Draper (Great Britain)

A fully fit Draper would warm the hearts of English fans who yearn for the days of Tim Henman as the last Top 10 England-born talent. After some frustrating years, Draper managed to play a career-high 33 matches on Tour, winning 19 of them and rising to 41st in the world, and now sitting at 42nd. He reached the semi-finals of the Next Gen ATP Finals, and defeated Dominic Thiem and Felix Auger-Aliassime in the second half of the year. Beginning the season at 262 in the world, Draper won Challenger events before focusing on the senior Tour. Big wins over Fritz and Diego Schwartzman in his home nation gave him confidence, and he went on to stun Stefanos Tsitsipas at Montreal en route to a quarter finals appearance at the ATP Masters 1000 event. He has not had much luck over the journey with injuries, and the exposed form is largely limited to 2022, but when up and about he can match it with the best.

Ben Shelton (United States)

Shelton is one of the most unusual cases in the fact that he reached the Top 100 without ever leaving his home country. The United States talent has played College tennis and local events, though many who look at his ATP Tour record of 3-3 might be puzzled how he is ranked 96th in the world. The 20-year-old won the last three Challenger events of the year in Charlottesville, Knoxville and Champaign. Only kicking off his year in May, Shelton made up for lost time with a 37-8 record in Challenger events, but his best result would come at the ATP Masters Cincinnati where he earned a wildcard to the 1000 event. There, he defeated Lorenzo Sonego and shocked Ruud to reach the third round before going down to world number 11, Norrie. Now stepping out of his American comfort zone, it will be sink or swim for the talented youngster.

Jiri Lehecka & Tomas Machac (Czech Republic)

These two have been explicitly linked together, with the 21 and 22 year-old from the Czech Republic both hovering just inside the Top 100. Lehecka is at 81st, having just celebrated his 21st birthday last month, and has been as high as 59th, while Machac is in at a career-high 97th, scraping in to automatically qualify for the Australian Open. Both are taking part in the United Cup and will be ones to watch, with Lehecka first consistent season on Tour netting a 13-19 record, including reaching the final in the Next Gen ATP Finals. His best ATP Tour result was a semi-finals appearance in Rotterdam where he reached the semi-finals from qualifying having defeated Denis Shapovalov to get there, cracking into the Top 100 before losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Machac did not yet have the half breakout year that Lehecka had despite being a year older, just sneaking into the Top 100 at year’s end and finishing with an 8-9 record on Tour. His last tournament on Tour was the US Open where he took then world number 22 Botic Van de Zandschulp to five sets in the first round. He played well in Australia 12 months ago, winning the Challenger event in Traralgon with victories over a couple of Top 200 players, then made it through Australian Open qualifying, defeated Juan Manuel Cerundolo in the opening round and went down to Cressy in four sets.