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Originally Posted by Inglewood Jack
the 19 year old who just took the #5 world ranked 2017 USO and 2018 SW19 finalist to 5 sets...is at a crossroads in his career. you've got to be kidding me.
we all agree that there's lots of technical and strategic parts of his game that require development, especially that service motion. but the constant hyperbole about the state of his game when he still can't legally drink in many of the places he's playing..like geez, we didn't even start throwing Sam Bennett into the garbage that quickly.
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There's a long list of players that plateau or lose their way at a young age on the ATP tour. Your entire basis is off if you are comparing tennis to hockey where players can stew until they're 23 and still become elite. Tennis is more about how long you've been on tour than what a players age is and you'll see many players currently in the top 20 who made their moves after a similar time frame on tour. Players must always be improving and can ill afford to struggle for long periods of time or risk losing confidence, points and drive to become the best they can be. Why do you think his mom has jumped back into the fold? It's not just simply an injury to Laurendeau, they certainly realize he needs a specific type of coaching to continue his upward growth.
Dennis has had a very up and down season so far and frankly not great since May (ish). Now is the time to make the adjustments necessary to make a move to top player on tour or remain in the very good category. Points will start coming off his rankings in a hurry if he doesn't sort things out and make life much harder. There is nothing wrong with being in the very good category, but to reach the heights many see him hitting, time is of the essence.