Top 20 breakthroughs in professional tennis circuit this year: Part Seven – Tennis Special
9. David Goffin (Belgium)
Belgian tennis prodigy, David Goffin, has been among the underrated players in the professional circuit. His consistency this year has been absolutely phenomenal and the youngster has been one of the most talented players to rise
in the ATP World Tour Rankings this year.
He started off the 2012 ATP season as the 174th ranked contestant but it has taken some real dedicated effort from him to break into the Top-50 rankings in the opening week of October. Goffin posted some stunning performances
on regular basis, registering a number of upsets against the superior ranked opponents. His agile game play and proactive approach plays a vital part in his success but the 21-year-old is yet to bag his maiden ATP World Tour championship title.
Goffin has been brilliant on the ATP Challenger Tour this season, winning 14 of the 20 matches he played and bagging two championship titles. However, his magic didn’t work to much effect on the more competitive World Tour and
he didn’t even reach the final of an event so far. He kept on playing the Challenger tournaments to collect the ranking points this season but a couple of major breakthroughs from him have brought him under the lime light.
The Belgian started the year with a quarter-final appearance at the season-opening ATP World Tour 250 event in Chennai, India. He lost to the eventual runner-up, Janko Tipsarevic, followed by a bad patch of form in the preceding
tournaments. Goffin couldn’t go past the second round of most the events he participated but a Challenger tournament title victory in Le Gosier was all what he needed to regain his lost confidence. He dumped Mischa Zverev in the final, 6-2, 6-2, to break the
shackles and but couldn’t sustain the momentum he generated from his triumph.
Goffin had his major breakthrough of the current season at the Roland Garros French Open voyage. The Belgian youngster beat all the odds to reach the fourth round of the Grand Slam event in Paris. He outplayed the likes of Radek
Stepanek, Arnaud Clement and Lukasz Kubot before he fell victim to the class of the 17-time Grand Slam champion, Roger Federer, in the pre-quarter-finals.
His brilliant performance at the French Open propelled him from the 109th spot to the world number 66 rank and he kept on with his winning roll at the Wimbledon Championships to further improve his ratings. Goffin defeated
the Australian number one, Bernard Tomic, and Jesse Levine in the initial rounds but couldn’t do much against the American tennis ace, Mardy Fish, in the third round of the grass-court Grand Slam.
Goffin’s next breakthrough performance came at the Winston-Salem Open, where he reached the quarter-final of the ATP 250 tournament. He disposed of Nicolas Mahut, Viktor Troicki and Lukasz Kubot to reach the round of eight, only
to be defeated by the American number one, John Isner, in straight sets.
The Belgian had his latest leap in the world rankings in the last week of September, winning his second Challenger Tour title in Orleans. He defeated his fellow compatriot, Ruben Bemelmans, in the final showdown and reached his
career-best world ranking of 48. Goffin has broken into the Top-50 rankings and he is committed to reach the elite Top-10 group in the next season.
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