Coric among youngsters in fine form heading into French Open

Storylines at Friday’s French Open draw ceremony will be dominated by Rafael Nadal and other title contenders. In whose quarter will nine-time champion land? That is the most pressing question. But don’t forget about the youngsters.

Nick Kyrgios, Dominic Thiem, and Borna Coric are part of what has become an intriguing second-round lineup at the Open de Nice Cote d’Azur. All three up-and-comers are in fine form but looking to pick up even more momentum heading into the French Open, which begins on Sunday.

Coric opened on Monday with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Sam Groth. The 18-year-old Croat now has 11 match wins at the ATP level this season.

“It was a very tough win for me,” Coric reflected. “Sam was serving really well. I had had a lot of break point opportunities that I didn’t use. It was quite tough to stay patient. I just kept trying and in the end I did quite good.”

Kyrgios and Thiem also advanced through their openers in straight sets. They respectively ousted veterans Mikhail Kukushkin and Victor Estrella Burgos. Theim had recently lost to Estrella Burgos in Barcelona, but the 21-year-old Austrian turned the tide by prevailing 7-6(5), 6-2 on Monday.

Now Kyrgios and Thiem must go head-to-head for the first time in their careers. Both men boast 12 ATP-level match victories this season but a slight edge in current form may go to Kyrgios, whose 2015 has been highlighted by a quarterfinal showing at the Australian Open, a runner-up finish in Estoril, and a third-round performance in Madrid. The 20-year-old Aussie is up to 30th in the world and will be seeded at Roland Garros. Thiem, though, will happy to play this one on clay. The world No. 42 has won two matches in consecutive tournaments (Munich and Rome) and last year he went on runs to the Barcelona and Madrid third rounds as a qualifier.

Also keep an eye on Lucas Pouille, a 21-year-old Frenchman who has a wild card into the Roland Garros main draw. Pouille thrashed American Tim Smyczek 6-3, 6-0 in the Nice opening round.

Another rising star who made some noise this week was Andrey Rublev, who will not be at the French Open but who will undoubtedly be a major part of future Grand Slams sooner rather than later. The 17-year-old Russian picked up his sixth ATP-level match victory of 2015 by outlasting Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-6(4) in the Geneva Open first round. Rublev came painfully close to reaching the quarterfinals on Tuesday, but he could not quite take down 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic. The underdog had a match point in the second set, but Cilic snuffed it out with a big first serve and ultimately survived 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-1.

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