U21 Race to Milan: Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alex de Minaur top standings

The third edition of the Next Gen ATP Finals will take place between November 5-9 in Milan, with the players born in 1998 or later fighting for seven direct spots that guarantee the place in the draw. Back in 2017, Hyeon Chung became the first champion of this event and he reached the semi-final at the Australian Open next January, retiring against Roger Federer due to blisters.

The last years U21 Masters champion Stefanos Tsitsipas has managed to repeat that last week at Melbourne Park, winning five matches to advance into his first Grand Slam semi-final and deliver the best result for generation 1998 at the biggest tennis stage.

The Greek defeated Roger Federer in the fourth round before losing to Rafael Nadal in the battle for the place in the final, earning a massive amount of points to top the standings and make a big push towards Milan (if he decides to play there, of course) already after the opening month of the season.

Stefanos has collected 765 points, 380 more than the Aussie Alex de Minaur who has won the first ATP title in Sydney, claiming two wins in Melbourne as well before losing to Nadal in the third round. The American Frances Tiafoe had a great run at the Australian Open as well, reaching the first Grand Slam quarter-final to trail only 25 points behind de Minaur in the third place.

Just like Tsitsipas and de Minaur, Frances lost to Rafael Nadal but despite that he should be proud of the way he played, targeting Milan berth with a few more similar results. The 20-year-old Swede Mikael Ymer holds the fourth spot on the list after eight Challenger wins so far in 2019, including the title in Noumea in the opening week of the season, 13 points ahead of Miomir Kecmanovic who qualified for the main draw in Brisbane and the Australian Open.

One of the favorites for the place in Milan (he had to withdraw last year), Denis Shapovalov lost in the third round of the Australian Open to Novak Djokovic, gaining 90 points so far together with his Australian coeval Alexei Popyrin who was beaten by Lucas Pouille in the third round in Melbourne after an epic fight.

Jeffrey John Wolf won the Challenger title in Columbus two weeks ago, sitting in the eighth place with 80 points and hoping to challenge the better-ranked opponents in the weeks to come.

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