By failing to win the title from a set and a break up, Liam Broady is already well versed in grabbing failure from the jaws of victory. However his achievements the last week should be applauded and its good to see some genuinely talented youngsters coming through. However before we get too excited about Broady breaking through, along with Oliver Golding and that guy who won a big tournament in Florida but who I can't remember his name and can't be bothered to google but definitely wasn't Golding or Broady, lets look at previous Wimbledon final runners up and how they have done.
2010
Benjamin Mitchell
Highest Ranking Achieved: 413
At only 19, and having been in the juniors only last year, we can't read too much into Bens (I assume he goes by Ben and not Benjamin (wiki seems to confirm this)) lack of success so far. He had to qualify for the boys singles before his remarkable run to the final, his only other junior grand slam appearance being the Australian Open 2010. He dashed British hopes by defeating Oliver Golding in the semi finals and took out the number 3 and 6 seeds. He lost in straight sets in the final to Marton Fucsovics.
Since joining the big boys, Mitchell has been playing mainly in challengers. He lost the first round of qualifying at the Australian Open, won a futures event in Australia and has slowly improved his ranking by over 200 places since January. It is far too early to say whether or not he will go on to make an impact in the sport, but I predict he won't.
2009
Jordan Cox
Highest Ranking: 449
Despite reaching the final of junior Wimbledon in 2009, Jordan Cox does not have a Wikipedia page, which does not bode well. He had a very unremarkable junior career, never going further than the last 32 before his shock run as a qualifer to the Wimbledon final. He lost against Andrey Kuznetsov having taken the first set.
Since turning pro, Cox has been playing almost exclusively futures events in USA, slowly raising his ranking to the top 500. This year, Cox came over to the UK for the grass season, losing in the first qualifying round at Nottingham and Queens, and the second qualifying round at Eastbourne. His total prize money was €330, which means he lost a large amount of money coming over here. So far this year he has earned €4,429, meaning he would have been better off working any career at all than playing tennis.
2008
Henri Kontinen
Highest Ranking: 220
Henri Kontinen was Finlands great hope and provided a huge shock in the semi finals when he knocked out world number 1 Bernard Tomic. He also beat 14th seed Chase Buchanan, who has a fantastically American name. In the final he was beaten by Gregor Dimitrov, who is only now starting to make an impact as a pro after a lot of "New Federer" chat.
Kontinen has been playing mostly futures events, winning 5 titles so far on hard court and carpet. He reached 220 in the world and began to move into the Challenger circuit. In the first tournament of 2011 he managed to lost to Chris Eaton and it appears his career has entered a downward spiral as a result. He did not play between early February and June, due to a wrist injury. His return to tennis in June was going well before he had to retire injured again. Still hope for him yet though.
2007
Uladizimir Ignatik
Highest Ranking: 176
Uladzimir Ignatik (lets call him Tom to make things easier) reached world number 1 as a junior and won the French Open in 2007. His career was not without controversy, with allegations he changed his date of birth to play overage as a junior, and having to cope with pushy parents. Donald Young was the victor in the Wimbledon final, before going on to live up to exactly none of the hype when he turned pro.
Tom has also failed to live up to expectations as a pro, tending to hack around the future and challenger tournaments, winning a challenger in China this year. He has yet to appear at a Grand Slam. Tom will probably never push on from his current ranking but looks set to make a career from hanging around the world top 200 for a while yet.
2006
Marcin Gawron
Highest Ranking: 275
Marcin was another of those players who made it to junior Wimbledon final without much in the way of pedigree at that level. He never made it higher than 29 in the world, and faced only one unseeded player on the way to the final, where he was beaten by number 1 seed Thiemo De Bakker.
Since turning pro, Marcin has been playing mainly futures events, winning in Poland in May. His career appears to be as uninspiring as you can imagine, just a series of future events in Europe. He has made less than €80,000 since turning pro, and only €7,700 this year. Not a fruitful endeavour.
2005
Robin Haase
Highest Rank: 52
This is the first player on the list to have made it into the top 100. As a junior, he reached number 3 in the world and lost to Jeremy Chardy (who has also gone on to make the top 100) in the final. He turned pro soon after and had some early success, notably knocking out Ljubicic in the Australian Open in 2008. By mid 2008 he was just short of the top 50 before suffering a knee injury that put him out of tennis for nearly a year.
Haase has been slowly working his way back up to the top 50 since then. At Wimbledon 2010 he was leading Nadal two sets to one in the second round, having knocked out James Blake in the first round. He also won five challengers throughout 2010. In 2011 Haase reached the third round of the Australian Open and Wimbledon and the second round of the French. Having got his career back on track it remains to be seen if he can push on from here. Comfortably the most successful player on this list.
2004
Miles Kasiri
Highest Ranking: 504
Miles Kasiri was the expected to be the next British hope after he reached the finals at Wimbledon in 2004. It all went wrong straight after. Andy Murray quickly emerged, winning the 2004 US Open juniors, and Kasiri suffered injury problems straight away. Kasiri was also suspended from the LTA for a perceived lack of effort after it was said he didn't want to practice his serve, only his forehand. Things just never really happened for him after that.
Kasiri hasn't played a tour match since 2008 and can be considered retired. Luckily for helping with this, it was pointed out on BBC Live Text that he is now a fitness trainer. Lets hope Liam Broady does better than Miles Kasiri at least.
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