Players to Watch in 2012: Vasek Pospisil (’90)

This is one of the most unpredictable young players in the tour. His 2011 campaign has moments of brilliance, overachievement, disappointment and anything and everything in between.

His junior career was good but not great. He did nothing of significance in the Grand Slams, yet his career high was in the top 25. He started 2011 ranked at 336 in the world after a 2010 season where he made little progress. After a roller-coaster year, Pospisil closed 2011 at the doorstep of the top 100 and being one of the early favorites to become the Newcomer of the Year in 2012.

Breaking down his 2011 season, one can find that the Canadian giant played all over the world with some mind boggling results. Pospisil lost early in several futures tournaments while completely dominating others.  At the same time, he reached the semi-finals twice and the quarter-finals 7 times at the Challenger level. Moreover, he qualified for the U.S.Open and advanced to R2 after defeating Lukas Rosol. He also qualified into the St.Petersburg and Valencia ATP tournaments at the end of the season. The cherry on top was his performance in Davis Cup, where he won both of his rubbers to get Canada into the World Group.

Pospisil defeated players like Dudi Sela, John Isner and Juan Ignacio Chela. He also played Roger Federer and Feliciano Lopez very tough. Although he closed the year with early losses at the Challenger level, those wins previously mentioned show that he belongs at the top. I see Pospisil cracking the top 60 by the end of the year. I don’t predict a meteoric rise like that of fellow Canadian Milos Raonic, but Pospisil and his 6’4 frame will be very dangerous in the tour in 2012.

Players to Watch in 2012: Taro Daniel (’93)

This is one of the most interesting up and coming players in the tour. He was born in New York, trains in Valencia (Spain) but represents Japan in the tour. On top of that, he stands at 1.88 meters, an anomaly for a Japanese player. He started 2011 as the 20^th best player in ITF and at 978 in the ATP ranking. He focused almost entirely on his professional career, playing just a single ITF tournament all year.

Daniel did not choose the easy route towards the top. To begin with, he played most of his tournaments in Spain. The Spanish futures are considered the harshest in the world because of the local talent and because many players from around the world choose Spain for their development. On top of that, these tournaments have 128-player qualyfing draws, meaning that a player must win 4 matches just to make it into the main draw, and advance at least 1 round to earn ATP points.

  

This guy can be considered a warrior of the futures. He only received 1 wild card all year, so he had to build his ranking the hard way. He went 30-0 in qualifiers, never failing to make the main draw. On top of that he went 41-27 in main draw action, therefore driving his total number of matches in 2011 passed the 100 mark. Daniel advanced all the way to the 467^th spot in the ranking, thanks in part to 2 finals appearances.

In 2012, Daniel will have direct access to futures main draws, allowing him to virtually play more matches and use his fitness towards shooting up the rankings. I see him cracking the top 300 by the end of this upcoming season.

Players to Watch in 2012: Damir Dzumhur (’92)

This is a very interesting player to keep an eye on because of the amount of success that he had in 2011. The Bosnian started the year playing qualys in Israel and ended up inside of the top 350 players in the world. He improved his ranking by over 600 spots, showing that his junior career wasn’t a fluke.

Dzumhur lacked a signature performance in a junior Grand Slam, but won several titles and beat most of the best players of his class. He was ranked as high as 3 in ITF in 2010 and was ready to show in the pros that he belonged. He amassed an amazing 46-18 in his first full year on the tour, which included 4 titles and an additional finals appearance. They weren’t easy titles either, as he played in Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and Turkey, all hotbeds of young talent.

Throughout the year he managed upset victories over Mirza Basic, Andrea Arnaboldi, Axel Michon and Aldin Sektic among others. It is surprising that he did not attempt to play any Challenger tournaments. However, he was called up by Bosnia to play Davis Cup against Denmark. He lost to Martin Pedersen in 4 sets but it was likely an experience that will aid in his development.

Because of his lack of evidence against older players and in higher stakes tournament it’s hard to predict where he will end up at the end of next year. However, if his rapid development and junior pedigree are an indication, he should be able to continue rising in the rankings. I see Dzumhur ending up 2012 fully immersed in the Challenger tour and sitting right outside the top 200.

Players to Watch in 2012: Kevin Krawietz (’92)

This young German started the year playing futures qualys and finished it right outside the top 300. Krawietz was a very good junior’s player, reaching an ITF rank of 8 in 2010. Although his results at the Slams weren’t the best, he had impressive victories over players of his age (’92-born). With 2011 being his first full year as a pro, he took full advantage of it and played an impressive amount of tournaments.

Krawietz ended with a 48-23 record while jumping from 795 to 322 in the ranking. He won 1 futures tournament while reaching another 4 finals. He was good at not staying too comfortable, which was shown by him playing tournaments all over the European continent. He even went into the Challengers were he logged a couple of interesting victories.

Throughout the year he defeated players like Michael Lammer, Ilja Bozoljac, Igor Sijsling, Gerald 

Melzer, Brydan Klein and Arnau Brugues-Davi. He was granted a wild card into the ATP at Halle but lost in R1 to Ivan Navarro.

I expect Krawietz to keep rising in the ranking but at a steady pace. I see him cracking the top 180 and becoming a fixture at the Challenger level by the end of the year. Because of his results I don’t see him getting any further this year, unless he is granted a mountain of wild cards into Challengers (sort of likely) and ATPs (unlikely) and capitalizes very well on them.

Players to Watch in 2012: Alessandro Giannessi (’90)

Since turning pro, Italian Alessandro Giannessi had been having a steady, yet unspectacular rise through the rankings. Although never being close to winning a junior grand slam, he was an ITF top 40 player who went toe to toe against the best players of his generation, defeating several of them. He seemed to be relegated behind the fresher faces of Italian tennis. However, one decision changed the course of his career. He trained at the beginning of 2011 in Tandil, Argentina. This small town is known for generating guys like Juan Martin Del Potro, Juan Monaco and Mariano Zabaleta.

Because of that, he started the year in early February, with a Buenos Aires ATP QR1 loss. He then moved back to Europe and he exploded into the scene. He reached 2 futures finals within a month and never looked back. Giannessi ended up winning 2 titles in 5 final appearances, while ending up with a 56-25 record. That also led to a gigantic leap of 360 spots in the ranking that found him sitting at 135 at the end of the year.

Giannessi not only put the futures events behind, he also showed very promising results at the Challenger level, where he reached the final at Napoli and the semis at Cordenons. Moreover, the cherry on top was qualifying into his first ATP main draw at Bucharest, where he advanced to the QFs after victories over clay court specialists Albert Montanes and Frederico Gil. Throughout the year he also defeated the likes of Joao Souza, Dustin Brown, Maximo Gonzalez and Daniel Gimeno-Traver.

I expect Giannessi to make some noise during the South American clay ATPs at the beginning of the year and to play himself into the French Open. His clay court abilities will surely land him inside the top 100 before the end of the year, especially if one takes into account that he’s scheduled to train in Tandil once again in the Argentinean 2012 summer.

Players to Watch in 2012: James Duckworth (’92)

Duckworth is another Aussie with junior pedigree and an amazing 2011 season under his belt. The former ITF No.7 and junior French Open semi-finalist compiled a 40-14 record while winning 4 futures titles and reaching 2 other finals. Duckworth improved his ranking by nearly 500 spots, jumping all the way to 274 to close the year.

What distinguishes Duckworth from fellow Aussie Ben Mitchell is that Duckworth went outside of his comfort zone and played the second half of the year in Europe and South America. Duckworth terrorized his opponents while playing in some of the most competitive fields in Italy, Poland and Great Britain. He won 15K + H tournaments and defeated players like Joshua Goodall (GBR), Jerzy Janowicz (POL) and Pavol Cervenak (SVK), who have talent and experience at the Challenger level.

It’s also worth mentioning that Duckworth wrapped up the year by playing Challengers and Challenger qualys in the South American clay. When taking into account that grass is his favorite surface, this shows that he is willing to diversify his game and be exposed to different types of competition. His results weren’t great, but the experience is sure to pay off.

Look for him to quickly establish himself at the Challenger level. He has already been handed a wild card into the Australian Open main draw and could easily upset a foreigner while playing in his backyard. I envision him cracking the top 150 with an outside shot of being in the top 100.  

Players to Watch in 2012: Benjamin Mitchell (’92)

This young Aussie is a former junior Wimbledon runner-up who’s been flying under the radar mainly due to playing most of his tournaments at home. Mitchell reached an ITF career high of 20 in 2010 despite not having an extensive juniors career. His run to the grass mecca final wasn’t a fluke, as he defeated some of his generations best prospects like Krawietz (GER), Golding (GBR), Fernandes (BRA) and Dzumhur (BIH). 2011 was his first full year as a professional and, for lack of a better metaphor, he lit the futures tour.

Mitchell had a 50-15 record, winning 4 futures titles and losing in the final of another 5. 9 finals in all, including ones in Great Britain and Spain, usual hotbeds of talent that make for tougher draws. 

Mitchell played some challengers too, with modest yet promising results. It is clear that the futures tour is beneath him and it may be the case that the people coaching him are trying to let him ease into the harder competition. Mitchell jumped from 710 to 214 to close 2011. His ranking allows him to get into nearly all challengers, meaning that he should be able to prove himself against better competition from the beginning.

It’s hard to tell whether Mitchell’s rise is due to talent/effort or just simply playing the same Aussie players that have been stuck at the futures level for years. Because of his impressive Wimbledon run in the juniors and the fact that he destroyed the competition, I’m going to assume that it is the former. I am not sure that Mitchell will be an ATP player by season’s end, but my guess is that he will win his first challenger tournament, get his first taste of ATP and crack the top 150 by this time next year.