Alexander Zverev
Country: Germany
Age: 20
Rank: 10
The next big thing of world tennis, literally as well as metaphorically, Zverev started to make good on all those projections of his future greatness by taking his first Masters 1000 title with a straight sets win against Novak Djokovic in Rome. Another giant obstacle lurking in the path of Andy Murray but the Scot would relish the challenge.
Dominic Thiem
Country: Austria
Age: 23
Rank: 7
Considering the top five players in the world rankings are all the other side of 30, this plucky little Austrian is making great strides to be No 6 seed in Paris. An excellent clay courter who took the scalp of Andy Murray amongst others en route to being runner-up in both Barcelona and Madrid. Potential quarter final opponent for Djokovic.
David Goffin
Country: Belgium
Age: 26
Rank: 11
This tricky little Belgian - who appeared as an alternate at December's ATP Tour finals in London - has a tough opener against home favourite Pierre Henri Mathieu but he is a talented clay courter and it is about time he made an impact in the slams. Reached the quarter finals here last year, which equalled his best ever major run.
Juan Martin del Potro
Country: Argentina
Age: 28
Rank: 30
It might be advisable to get the popcorn in right now for this projected third round match-up with Andy Murray. The Argentine has played sparingly this season, and been something of a hit and a miss, with ten wins and five losses, but his talent is undeniable and you would hardly rule out the chance of getting on a hot streak. Faces his countryman and Davis Cup team-mate Guido Pella first up.
Kyle Edmund
Country: Great Britain
Age: 22
Rank: 50
Britain's next big hope is a tidy clay court player with a booming forehand who took a set off Rafael Nadal on his favoured surface in Monte Carlo recently. Has lost a few close ones, most recently to Gilles Simon in Lyon this week, but could be primed for a break-out performance in Paris - where he faces Gastao Elias of Portugal up first.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here