PETE ZIEBRON
Immediately outside the ATP top ten sit five players that have achieved their career high ranking as 2018 draws to a close.
11 Karen Khachanov RUS
12 Borna Coric CRO
13 Fabio Fognini ITA
14 Kyle Edmund GBR
15 Stefanos Tsitsipas GRE
Karen Khachanov won three titles in 2018, including defeating four consecutive top ten players to win the ATP Masters 1000 in Paris. The twenty-two year old Russian dropped just one set in the tournament and recorded straight set wins over Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem and Novak Djokovic. In addition to the Paris title, Khachanov also was victorious at the ATP 250 in Marseille {d. Lucas Pouille} and in Moscow {d. Adrian Mannarino}. Personally, my most memorable Khachanov match in 2018 was a four set battle with world #1 Rafael Nadal in the 3rd round of the US Open. The linescore in favor of Nadal read: 5-7 7-5 7-6(7) 7-6(3).
Borna Coric rallied in 2018, defeating world #1 Roger Federer to win the Halle title. In the opening round in Halle, Coric also beat world #3 Alexander Zverev. Late in the year, the Croat reached the Final of the ATP Masters 1000in Shanghai losing to Novak Djokovic. En route to the final, Coric defeated world #4 Juan Martin del Potro and #3 Federer.
Fabio Fognini collected three titles in 2018, winning in: Sao Paulo, Bastad and Los Cabos. The majority of the players that the Italian beat in 2018 were ranked significantly lower, however he did defeat world #4 Juan Martin del Potro in the Los Cabos final as well as world #8 Dominic Thiem at the Rome Masters.
Kyle Edmund ended 2018 as the ATP world #14. The Brit won his first career title in Antwerp, defeating Gael Monfils in the Final. Edmund started the year strong, reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open, losing to Marin Cilic. In the quarters, he recorded a victory over world #3 Grigor Dimitrov. Impressively, the Brit also reached the final in a clay court event, in April in Marrakech.
Young Stefanos Tsitsipas won in Stockholm in October defeating Ernests Gulbnis. The result served as confirmation to the rest of the ATP field that his march to the Canada Masters was a sign of things to come. In Canada, the twenty year-old defeated: #8 Dominic Thiem, #10 Novak Djokovic, #3 Alexander Zverev and #6 Kevin Anderson before falling to #1 Rafael Nadal.
The world has been waiting for multiple players to finally challenge the Big Three regularly. Will 2019 be the year of the breakthough?