Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
In general I hear what you're saying, I think there's still time before anyone needs to worry that he's not going to pan out as one might have hoped late last season. But there's no comparison between these two types of players.
Yes, you would have - well, Federer would have been slightly younger, but yeah, you could have said "he really needs to sort out his consistency issues, be more disciplined and select shots better, and not let the frustration seep into his game" for Fed. He did that, and he became the great player that everyone thought he could be (and then kept on getting better). Now, likewise, Denis needs to deal with his own weaknesses to take that same type of step into the upper echelon.
It already is together. That's the thing. Most of his game is getting to a point where it's not reasonable to expect a ton of improvement. His forehand isn't going to get much better, though he may get better at making decisions with it. His backhand isn't going to get much better. Volleys, footwork, those things show some room for improvement but he's already made the biggest part of the strides he needed to make in those areas. He's not going to get faster, his athleticism is probably about at its peak. This is probably 80% of the player he's capable of being. It's not crazy to suggest that whether he caps out at 85%, 90%, or 100% of what he's capable of being depends a whole hell of a lot on the next year or so.
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Well put. Too many people seem to think all sports fall into the category of; if you're young, you always have time to improve. No matter what, Denis is not going to fizzle out like someone like Genie did, that was not what I was saying. Tennis is a different beast entirely and so many things have to click at the same time in order to get to the top 15,10,5 and 1 level.
As you say, he already has about 85% of what he needs to be a top threat on tour and I mean going toe to toe with Nadal/Djokovic/Federer. The rest is tightening up things like tactics, serving, volleying that will take him from fringe great to great. Who knows, in 2-3 years he might be battling injuries, confidence issues or potentially have already lost a step physically which would make things that much harder. The time is definitely now to start to define his career one way or the other.