Top 20 breakthroughs in professional tennis circuit this year: Part Three – Tennis Special
16. Christina McHale (the Unites States of America)
Last entire decade of the American women tennis has been absolutely dominated by the belligerent Williams Sisters and no other female tennis professional has got even near to the achievements of these two former world number one
players. However, 20-year-old Christina McHale has been the fastest rising tennis star of the current season from the United States. The crafty right-hander has shown potential in the professional circuit but as these are her initial days to the competitive
players’ field, she is lacking consistency at the moment.
Currently rated at number 32 in the WTA Premier Rankings, McHale is yet to bag her maiden championship title. She has won an ITF event but her success in the coveted WTA Tour has not been that great. However, the 20-year-old American
certainly leads the next wave of talent to emerge from her country.
McHale has taken merely two years in the pro-circle to break into the Top-100 in 2011 and went as high as the world number 24 spot with some exceptional performances some months ago. She had a decent beginning to the 2012 WTA season,
finishing in the round of 16 at Auckland and then in the round of 32 at the Australian Open Grand Slam tournament. She kept her fine run of form in Paris as well, finishing again in the round of 16 but had a quarter-final finish in the mega event in Doha the
same month.
The American youngster showed her brilliant skills once again at the Indian Wells Masters, reaching the round of 16 for yet another time. McHale had another sublime run of form in Carlsbad, losing in the quarter-final round, followed
by a third round loss at the Cincinnati Masters Premier-level event.
She has suffered opening-round exits at the US Open and the China Open in Beijing, resulting in a slump of her WTA ranking. McHale has already impressed the tennis critics with her superior mental acumen and her performances in
2012 season will certainly whet her appetite to achieve even more in the coming years.
15. Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria)
Having started the 2012 ATP season as the world number 76, Bulgarian tennis prodigy, Grigor Dimitrov, has been the real eye-catcher in the list of the uprising tennis professionals. The 21-year-old had to labour extremely hard
to recover from the early slump of form this season, which had driven him out of the Top-100 ATP rankings by the beginning of the Miami Masters hard court event.
Dimitrov got his first breakthrough of the season when he beat all the odds to reach the pre-quarter-finals of the Miami Masters, losing to Janko Tipsarevic. He cemented his sublime run in the grass-court swing by reaching the
semi-final of the ATP tournament at Queen’s Club. The Bulgarian youngster had another semi-final run in Bastad and Gstaad events, resulting in a significant improvement of his rankings to number 56 at the present. Dimitrov hasn’t bagged a championship title
this season but he is certainly the most thrilling player to watch on the indoor tennis courts.
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