24-year-old American Jack Sock picked up his second ATP singles title in Auckland on Saturday by beating João Sousa 6-3, 5-7, 6-3, putting himself in the top 20 for the first time.
Sock’s string of good results going back to the U.S. Open—plus his stated desire to get to the top of the game—suggests that this year’s Australian Open might be his first real opportunity to compete in the business end of a Slam.
Of course, a 250-level tuneup tournament isn’t a perfect predictor of Grand Slam success. Roberto Bautista Agut made the round of 16 in Melbourne after winning Auckland last year, but Jiří Veselý and John Isner have both won the tournament only to make first-round AO exits the following week (Isner retired with a foot injury.). David Ferrer, however, three-peated in Auckland from 2011 to 2013, making two Happy Slam semis and one quarter over that same period.
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Sock knows how it feels to win big in almost every discipline. His resume includes a U.S. Open boy’s singles championship, a U.S. Open mixed doubles title, a Wimbledon men’s doubles trophy, and a men’s doubles bronze and mixed double’s gold at the Rio Olympics. The only category missing is men’s singles. For that reason, Sock is putting doubles on the back burner of his career.
“It’s no more Slams, for sure. That’s a definite . . . Singles is my focus and my priority. I think I can get to that elite level in singles, so all my energy and focus has to go into that,” Sock told Jon Wertheim on the “Beyond The Baseline” podcast.
Looking at Sock’s draw, his first round is against Pierre-Hugues Herbert, whom he beat in four sets at Wimbledon in their only previous meeting. In Round 2, neither of his potential opponents is ranked in the top 50, so a top player like the one Sock hopes to be shouldn’t have too hard of a time there.
Round 3 is where Sock would really need to prove himself, as he’d probably play Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who gave him a tough fourth-round loss at last year’s U.S. Open. But if he can manage to get through that, the highest seed standing between him and his first Grand Slam quarterfinal is Marin Cilic. Sock is 2-0 against Cilic, with best-of-five wins in last year’s Davis Cup and U.S. Open.
Sock’s slow and steady climb to the top is exactly what we should expect of this younger generation of players. Gone are the days of 17-year-old first-time Slam winners. The players who end the reign of the Big 4 probably aren’t going to be teenagers who come out of nowhere. They’ll more likely be players who, like Wawrinka and Cilic, spent years grinding it out on the tour, waiting for just the right moment to have a breakout Slam. Perhaps this January, Sock can get just a little bit closer.
