The top German talent can look back on a strong season, and now the 18-year-old is being rewarded for his efforts.
Reward for top tennis talent Justin Engel: After a strong season, the 18-year-old from Nuremberg will compete in the ATP Next Gen Finals. Engel is benefiting from the withdrawal of Czech player Jakub Mensik, who canceled his participation in the event from December 17 to 21 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, citing “medical reasons.”
Engel is the youngest of eight participants in the tournament, for which the best players of the season under the age of 20 qualify. At the same time, the world number 187 is the first German professional to compete in the Next Gen Finals. The format was created in 2017. Engel, who announced early on that he wanted to become world number one, can look back on a strong development this year. At the end of 2024, he was still ranked 396th in the ATP rankings, but now his sights are increasingly set on the top 100. With his victory in the first round of the grass court tournament, then aged 17 years and eight months, he became the second youngest player after Rafael Nadal to celebrate a tour-level success on all three playing surfaces since statistics began in 1990. In October, Engel also won his first Challenger title in Hamburg.