Sean Calvert: Time running out for Dimitrov and co as young stars rise

Borna Coric has the ability to have a big future in the game

Tennis expert Sean Calvert has been casting his eye over a new crop of youngsters set to challenge the established order sooner rather than later...

The new generation have been giving us a glimpse of the future in Valencia and Basel this week, with strong showings from the next stars of the men's game.

Borna Coric, Alexander Zverev and Stefan Kozlov all had wild cards in this week's ATP 500 indoor events and Coric beat Ernests Gulbis, while Zverev gave Grigor Dimitrov a tough test.

Kozlov will be disappointed in his showing against an injured Martin Klizan in Valencia, but at only 16-years-old he's a year behind the other two and has time to develop.

It was perhaps fitting that it was Dimitrov (although seemingly injured) that was given a bit of a run around by Zverev in the opening set of their Basel clash on Wednesday, as the Bulgarian could well be one of those to miss out on the game's top prizes to the young guns.

Long heralded as a future major winner Dimitrov and his contemporaries such as Milos Raonic could well find themselves as the 'inbetweeners' generation of the men's game.

Dimitrov will be 24 by the time next season's French Open comes around and at the moment he has one ATP 500 title to his name, along with three ATP 250 crowns.

Raonic will be 24 in a couple of months and he has a very similar record to the Bulgarian.

Another much-touted for success is David Goffin, who is 23 and despite his talent he's always seemed to me too lightweight and vulnerable against the bigger servers to go deep in majors and he could do with a similar fitness regime to Dimitrov's if he wants to challenge.

It's certainly their misfortune that they play in an era where all-time greats Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic still ply their trades, along with the likes of Andy Murray and Juan Martin Del Potro, but it's becoming more and more apparent that time is running out for these 'inbetweeners'.

By the time he turned 24, Nadal had seven Grand Slam titles and Federer had five and was about to get a sixth, while Djokovic had two and was closing in on a third.

Djokovic, who became a father on Tuesday, is still only 27 and can reasonably be expected to carry on at the top of the game for another three years at least, by which time the Dimitrovs of this world will be heading towards 27/28 themselves.

Federer will be gone, but Nadal might still be around, as should Murray, and vitally the likes of Zverev, Coric et al will be 20 and surely pressing for major titles of their own.

And it's not only the current crop of 16 and 17 year olds that should concern the 'inbetweeners', but those slightly older such as Nick Kyrgios and Dominic Thiem.

The Aussies also have the likes of Luke Saville and Thanasi Kokkinakis readying themselves for a tilt at the main tour and we've already seen 19-year-old Kyrgios and 21-year-old Thiem take down Nadal and Stan Wawrinka this season.

For all the hype I can't really recall being excited more than sporadically by watching either Dimitrov or Raonic, with the latter being particularly tiresome to endure, which is why Kyrgios was such an enjoyable addition to this year's Wimbledon.

He is certainly one who can potentially lead the next generation to glory ahead of the current crop and I've also been very impressed with Coric this season and to a lesser extent Zverev.

Coric had a fine run at home on the clay in Umag, while it was a similar story for Zverev in his home town of Hamburg.

Kozlov will need another year or two, as he's still a little way away from ATP Tour level, but we could all be talking about him before too long.

It's a generally accepted scenario in most sports that after a superb generation the next one is always a little disappointing and it seems to me to be the case that the 'inbetweeners' will find themselves the victims of circumstance.

After beating Gulbis on Wednesday Coric has a very decent chance of continuing his Basel run against the inconsistent Andrey Golubev on Thursday.

The Croatian looks the pick of the 17-year-old crop right now, with an impressive temperament to back up what is already a well developed serve and reasonably powerful ground strokes off both wings.

Today will be a test to back up that Gulbis win, but he can do it as slight underdog at 2.166/5 with the reward being a meet with Nadal in the next round where we would see two generations clash.

Nadal of course was beating the best at Coric's age, but it would be fascinating to see how Coric handles that match against an appendicitis-ridden Rafa if it happens.

Either way, the kids are closing in and time is running out for those caught in the middle of what could be two excellent generations.

Recommended Bet
Back Coric to beat Golubev at 2.166/5