These Aussie Tennis Teens Are Making Their Presence Felt On The World Stage

With all the ink and emotional rhetoric being spilt over Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic in recent times, one thing is being seriously overlooked in the realm of Australian men's tennis. Our teenagers are having a killer year.

On the weekend, 17-year-old Alex De Minaur made the final of an ATP Challenger event in Eckental, Germany. Not only did he qualify for the main draw, he then went on to beat Kenny De Schepper, Jurgen Melzer and Franko Skugor – all well-established professionals, with Melzer an ex-world No.8.

In the process, De Minaur, who also made the junior final at Wimbledon this year, became just the second player his age to reach a Challenger final this year.

Consider this. Last year, there were two 17-year-old Challenger finalists as well – Americans Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe – and both of them ended up cracking the top 100 in 2016.

And De Minaur wasn't the only teenager delivering on the Challenger stage last week either. Marc Polmans, 19, fell to fellow Aussie James Duckworth in the Canberra final.

They became the third and fourth Aussie teens to reach Challenger finals this year after Blake Mott (18) and Max Purcell (18) each went one better and won titles in Launceston and Gimcheon (Korea), respectively.

Polmans run of late has been particularly impressive. The Melbourne prodigy began the year ranked a relatively lowly world No.841. In the last three months, after four titles on the ITF Futures tour and now an appearance in a Challenger final, he has risen well over 600 places to sit just outside the world's top 200.

"I've had a big jump this year," Polmans told us after the Canberra final. "But it's great to see a lot of the other guys my age doing well too. It pushes us all to keep improving and get to the next level."

Duckworth said after the match that Polmans' biggest strength is his fighting quality. "He never gives up and competes super hard every point."

Polmans said this is the main thing he focuses on. "Just to give it my best and fight for every point because I know that will give me the best opportunity of getting the result I want. It's a big part of my game that I try to bring to every match."

His semifinal win over Omar Jasika in Canberra was particularly telling. Jasika, also 19, has previously been the teen most likely after winning the junior title at the US Open and making the main draw of the Australian Open – where he lost a high-profile second round match to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga inside Margaret Court Arena.

But while Jasika has now made three Challenger quarterfinals alongside his semifinal berth in Canberra – he has now been eclipsed in world rankings by Polmans and Mott, with Purcell not far behind.

Time to put this all in some perspective. The last time Aussie teens won this many Challenger titles in a season was 2014, but that was all about Kyrgios, who saluted in Sarasota, Savannah and Nottingham. That's extremely impressive, but to have this kind of success shared around a crop of teenagers coming through together is especially encouraging.

In fact, aside from the American teenagers, the results racked up by these four on the Challenger tour this year is the best of any country in the world. Not bad, when you consider 140 countries compete at this level.

Make no mistake, things augur well for the future of Australian men's tennis and these guys look to have the talent, passion, commitment and respect for the game worthy of our next Grand Slam champions. There's an awful lot of water yet to flow under the bridge, but here's hoping.

Follow David Packman on twitter.