Wimbledon boys’ champions – Where Are They Now?

While none of the last 10 boys’ winners have gone on to lift the men’s singles trophy at Wimbledon, a few have enjoyed further success on the senior circuit, most notably 2008 winner Grigor Dimitrov.
 

2006 Thiemo de Bakker (NED)
2006 French Open boys’ champion Martin Klizan was seeded second but fell early, leaving Dutchman de Bakker to sweep all before him, defeating Marcin Gawron 6-2 7-6(4) in the final. The now 27-year-old turned pro soon after but hasn’t hit the heights on Tour. He broke into the Top 40 in 2010 but has never made the second week of a major and holds a disappointing win/loss record of 63-78 . His 80% success rate in Challenger level finals is fairly impressive though.

2007 Donald Young (USA)
The left-handed American had already won the Australian Open junior title in 2005 when he lifted the trophy at Wimbledon two years later. Results have been anything but as spectacular in the main draw however, and Young has only managed to win more than one match a grand slam on three occasions. The Atlanta native is yet to win a title, losing both his Tour level finals in straight sets. In 2012, he lost seventeen successive matches.

2008 Grigor Dimitrov (Bul)
Touted from very early on as the man who could break the mould of the top four, ‘Baby Fed’ seemed to be brink of fulfilling expectations when he defeated Murray at Wimbledon in 2014. But it would be two years before he defeated a seeded player at a major championship again and a dramatic loss in form saw the Bulgarian’s ranking tumble after climbing as high as eight in August 2014. Still very much a work in progress second time around, expect him to add to his haul of four career titles.

2009 Andrey Kuznetsov (Rus)
At 25 the relatively young Russian is starting to find his feet, and 2016 saw him reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time. In his championship winning year seven years ago, Kuznetsov defeated third seed Bernard Tomic in the semi-final in straight sets before coming through in the final in three sets. There have been no Tour trophies for the mantel piece to date but big scalps over Stan Wawrinka and David Ferrer at Miami and Wimbledon underline his potential talent.

2010 Marton Fucsovics (HUN)
Unlucky for some, Fucsovics’ victory at SW19 was as the 13th seed. However unlike his predecessors, progress on the ATP Tour has been far from smooth. The 24-year-old Hungarian has only played 16 matches on the highest tier of the circuit and lost just over half of them and he is yet to make a main draw of a Slam. He’s kept plugging away on the Futures though and has collected two titles, defeating James Ward and Dustin Brown in Anning and Andria respectively.

2011 Luke Saville (AUS)
Saville was the party pooper back in 2011 when he defeated Liam Broady in the junior Wimbledon final. Months later the young Aussie achieved his then dream of winning his home Grand Slam as a junior before turning pro soon after. To date though he has only played seven matches on Tour and despite collecting a win at Wimbledon in 2014, he is yet to break into the world’s top 150. Outside of his two junior majors Saville’s CV also boasts six Future Tour trophies.

2012 Filip Peliwo (CAN)
The Canadian made the final of all the Junior Slams in 2012, but didn’t get across the line until Wimbledon, where he defeated defending champion Saville in straight sets- exacting revenge from the Australian Open earlier that year. Defeated Liam Broady in the US Open boys’ final in September but two wins on tour from eight attempts and no Grand Slam main draw appearances means the Canadian, now ranked 422, is unlikely to be joining Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil in the top 100 anytime soon.

2013 Gianluigi Quinzi (ITA)
Just 17 when he won at SW19 in a draw which featured Nick Kyrgios, Alex Zverev, and Borna Coric. Quinzi came through the week victorious without dropping a set- including a 6-4 6-4 win over Kyle Edmund in the semi-finals. A year later and the Italian had climbed to the summit of the Junior world rankings. Since then the 20 year old has had five different coaches to try and establish himself on Tour, but he is yet to play an ATP level match and sits just inside the world’s top 400.

2014 Noah Rubin (USA)
The 20-year-old is already inside the top 200 in the ATP rankings, and what’s more won a main draw match at a major earlier this year in Melbourne, when he stunned 17th seed Benoit Paire in straight sets. The win is currently his only win of the main level Tour to date. Two years ago Rubin defeated high rated compatriot Taylor Fritz in the last four before overcoming another American, Stefan Kozlov, in a three-set finale.

2015 Reilly Opelka (USA)
Last year’s winner is still making his way up through the ranks and at 547 he still has a way to go. Like Rubin before him, Opelka defeated Taylor Fritz en route to victory, and also made the final of last year’s Boys’ doubles competition. His solitary match on Tour ended in defeat to American Sam Querrey in Houston earlier this year. Very much a work in progress.

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