Andy Roddick predicts which player will be best in the future out of Joao Fonseca, Jack Draper and Jakub Mensik

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The young stars of tennis have impressed so far in 2025, with three players in particular taking their games to the next level.

At the Australian Open, Joao Fonseca shocked Andrey Rublev in the first round, making waves in the world of tennis with a huge win.

Fonseca won the Argentina Open shortly after, picking up his first tour-level title, with a 6-4, 7-6 victory over Francisco Cerundolo.

At the year’s first Masters 1000 tournament, Jack Draper beat Holger Rune at Indian Wells, breaking into the top ten with the biggest title of his career.

Heading to Florida, Jakub Mensik won the Miami Open, producing one of the upsets of the year when he beat Novak Djokovic in the final.

All three players look to have bright futures ahead of them, as one ATP legend now picks which star he thinks will have the most success.

Andy Roddick thinks ‘star’ Joao Fonseca will have more success than Jakub Mensik and Jack Draper

On his Served with Andy Roddick podcast, former world number one Andy Roddick was asked to pick the player whose tennis future he would rather have.

“I would probably take [Joao] Fonseca. He is a star,” said Roddick.

“I think there is going to be a lot of opportunity. He doesn’t seem to mind the pressure.

“He already has thousands of people showing up to his matches, whatever city he is in. It seems like he likes it.”

Roddick does, however, think that the Brazilian’s success is dependant on him making improvements to his fitness levels.

“He is going to have to find that physicality,” he said.

“Against Demon [Alex de Minaur] in Miami, that was a huge stress test. Apples to apples matching up tennis-wise, he is going to think I might be behind this kid, but I am going to make it painful.

“That was a lesson.”

The American then looked ahead to the French Open, questioning whether the 18-year-old will be able to perform at his best in Paris.

“I want to know how nasty Fonseca is going to be on clay,” said Roddick.

“I want to know if Fonseca is the guy, he already has a title on clay; is he the guy who is going to win two French Opens? 

“We are not going to be used to parity at the French Open, it used to be that you got the most outlier results at the French Open.

“[Gaston] Gaudio winning and different players having success there, are we going to return to that?”

Roddick was less convinced of Mensik’s potential, as he was unsure of whether the Czech’s performances would translate on grass and clay courts.

“I don’t think clay is going to be the best surface for [Jakub] Mensik,” he said.

“I don’t think you can just assume Mensik is going to win every breaker he plays for the rest of time, and that specific surface was great for him.

“I think he can improve his second serve, and I still think, can he just take pop shots and land them on other surfaces?

“I want to see him on grass.

“You would think it would be good, but grass is a weird specific surface; a lot of it has to do with movement.”

The 2003 US Open champion isn’t sure clay will be Draper’s best surface either, but he made it clear just how impressed he has been with the Brit’s recent improvements.

“Draper has come a long way,” he said.

“I have so much respect for what Jack Draper has done, he has improved so much in the areas where he needed improvement over the last year.

“You can’t teach lefty.”

When will Jack Draper, Joao Fonseca, and Jakub Mensik return to ATP Tour action?

Only one of the three players Roddick mentioned is scheduled to play at this week’s Monte-Carlo Masters tournament.

World number seven, Draper, will play America’s Marcus Giron in the second round on Tuesday, April 8.

Mensik and Fonseca both opted to skip the year’s only non-mandatory Masters 1000 event and will instead return later in the month.

The Czech star will return for qualifying at the Munich Open, with Fonseca joining his fellow youngsters at the Madrid Open, which begins on April 21.

Only time will tell which of the three players will enjoy more success in tennis, but it will certainly be interesting to see how they perform during the 2025 clay-court season.