Shelton has gone out in both Madrid and Roma Masters this year in first round?
Shelton just lost to Altmaier in 3 sets in Hamburg just now, as I have said many times , his rally ball tolerance is low and his return game needs to be addressed, he needs a new coach, these faults in his game have been ongoing for years and they are not getting any better
Mensik has had a lot of injuries and just cant get consistency, which he needs in his career, I am really not a fan,
Agree with Draper now his body reminds me of Nishikori
Rune has had a serious injury, I am not sure he can come back to his former self
With Jodar and Fonseca, whose games I really love, I am just going to sit back and watch how they progress.
Alcaraz is doing the most sensible thing and not returning until his wrist is fully healed, he has just turned 23 and has a whole lot of tennis to look forward to
I suppose Shelton could be the top Stanimal candidate. I think his best-case scenario is that one or both of Sincaraz struggle with injuries and Joseca aren't as good as hoped for. He is still only 23, and Stanimal began his run at 28. But again, that is one of the most unusual peaks in tennis history. But Shelton fits the profile: Untapped potential requiring refinement. But even if he refines his game, his main problem is that his prime aligns with not just two garden variety all-time greats (e.g. Agassi, Edberg, Becker), but two guys headed to inner circle greatness. Same with Stanimal, of course (who had three, plus Andy), but I'm not sure that Shelton will improve enough, or has the mental game, to beat one or both in a Slam. He might vulture one, though.
Poor Kei. He might be the best player never to win a big title. In a different context, say if he played in the 90s, he probably would have won half a dozen and maybe a Slam or two.
Alcaraz should recover, but the (possible) concern is that such injuries can be chronic. But I'm not too worried for him.
I like to think of prospects in terms of reasonable "floor" and "ceiling." By
reasonable I mean barring catastrophic injury, or the very upper ends of possibility. Both Jodar and Fonseca have an easy floor of good 2nd tier types/borderline elites - sort of like peak Medvedev, Zverev, and Tsitsipas. Meaning, I'd be surprised if they weren't that good...it meant something went wrong. I think the reasonable ceiling on Jodar is a lesser/near great, in the Courier/Hewitt mold. He
could be better than that, but I'd like to see more of his game. For Fonzie, it is maybe not quite sky's the limit, but at least true greats ala Edberg/Becker...again, maybe better, but I'm not ready to speculate on that until we see him come more fully into his own.
While they're old enough to have a good sense of who they are, both Shelton and Rune have untapped potential. They've already reached a second tier (top 10) floor, and I think both have borderline elite/near great potential, ala Wawrinka or prime Del Potro.
For the younger than Alcaraz group, I see Fils' floor being a 2nd tier guy, with a ceiling similar to that of Shelton/Rune. But I think he's more likely to reach his potential than those two.
Tien/Mensik are good top 20 floor (e.g. Gasquet), ceilings in the Berdych/Tsonga/Ferrer range.
Too soon to say on Landaluce, Prizmic, and others, especially Kouame, who turned 17 just a couple months ago. Two guys I was hoping to see start getting notice this year are Engel and Bernet, but both are still on the Challenger circuit and neither is doing particularly well. Kjaer and Blanch are two guys who I expect to put together a good run and rise into the top 100 this year.
