Hyping a young prospect never ends well for me. But as far as the men’s tour is concerned, it’s a good time to peer far into the future. With nine straight Slams won by either Carlos Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner, and—with respect to Novak Djokovic—no sign that the pattern will break anytime soon, many fans are rooting around to figure out who their true challengers will be. They are just 22 and 24. I don’t think they will be troubled by any of their direct contemporaries. I’ve watched Ben Shelton lose 22 straight sets to Sinner, and I can’t be convinced that the gap is closing. As for the even younger players, the 19-year-old ball-striking prodigy Joao Fonseca lags behind in terms of movement (and, currently, health). While 20-year-old Learner Tien has endless touch and guile, will he ever have enough point-ending power? Many seek the Novak Djokovic figure who will complicate the Sincaraz reign, and while I’m not sure that the future will rhyme with the past so neatly, it’s at least worth noting that Novak is a full six years younger than Roger Federer. So maybe the promised one is still a long way out.

Which is partially why I welcome the buzz around a player six years younger than Carlitos: the French 16-year-old Moise Kouame, who this week made it into the main draw in Montpellier. On those loud blue-and-pink hard courts, Kouame cut a striking figure, clad in purples. He stands 6-foot-3, with speed, balance, and elegant technique. Despite his age he appears to already have the legs to tolerate some grindy pro-level rallies, and the sudden power to find a winner when he sees the opening. He says he looks up to Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner. While it’s way too early to tell, his play style tempts me to place him in that same lineage. I can envision a baseline crusher very hard to hurt on either wing. 

In the qualifying rounds, Kouame played two difficult three-setters, which were his first two wins over players ranked inside the top 200. These weren’t the prettiest matches, but they secured a historic result. There’s little recent precedent for a kid this age making it into the main draw of an ATP tournament. Kouame became the sixth-youngest qualifier for a tour event since 2000. The only names ahead of him are Richard Gasquet (twice), Ryan Harrison, Rafael Nadal, and Rudolf Molleker (a 25-year-old now ranked No. 442). So you never know what will happen. But perhaps he stands to benefit from having one of those men, the recently retired Gasquet, as his coach. Ivan Ljubicic, another former great, now director at the French Tennis Federation, has been singing Kouame’s praises for a long time. It’s clear that France thinks he’s their future.

Heading into the main draw at Montpellier, Kouame had won 12 consecutive matches, in ITFs and in ATP qualifying. In his first main-draw match on Wednesday he faced world No. 56 Alexander Kovacevic, who was, by a huge margin, the highest-ranked opponent he had ever taken on. Kouame played a superb first set, lost his way in the second, and put up a good fight for his life at the end of the third, before losing. The flaws are the ones you might expect from a young player—conditioning issues and a serve that needs tinkering—but the foundation is already astonishingly good, and the highs are incredibly high. Perhaps by the end of 2026 we could see him competing at the Challenger level regularly. Sinner and Alcaraz were winning Challenger titles at 17. Can Kouame stay on that trajectory? The successes of this week will bump him up to just outside the top 500. There’s still a very long way to climb.