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.

Players to Watch in 2012: Cedrik-Marcel Stebe (’90)

The 21-year old German had his breakthrough at the end of 2011 winning the first-ever ATP Challenger Tour Finals, catapulting him to the top 100 to close the year. It may not come as a surprise, given the fact that Stebe was ranked as high as 6^th in the world in ITF, but the way he caught fire in the second half of the season was very remarkable.

Stebe hit the ground running, winning his first 17 matches of the year (consecutive futures titles in Turkey, and a run to a Korean challenger final coming from the qualy). He ended the season at 48-17, and improved 297 spots from 378 to 81 in the world. Stebe won the aforementioned 2 Turkey future events (F5 and F6), plus 2 more Challengers events and the year-end tourney.

Stating that his rise was meteoric might even be an understatement. Stebe proved early on that the futures were too easy for him, and by the end of the year he showed that the Challengers were too. Rui Machado, Lucas Lacko, Andre Begemann, Mathias Bachinger, Paul Capdeville, Guillaume Rufin and Go Soeda, all warriors of the Challenger tour were dismissed by this 6’0 German who only seems to be getting started.

Ranked right outside the top 80, Stebe will now focus entirely on proving himself at the ATP level in 2012. However, he already has a head start. Playing at home in Stuttgart and Hamburg on clay in mid-July, Stebe defeated Fabio Fognini, Nikolai Davydenko (twice) and Juan Carlos Ferrero, masters of the surface.  He also defeated Ryan Harrison in 5 sets to qualify into the main draw at Wimbledon, where he lost to Grigor Dimitrov in R1.

Judging by his ease at burning through the different levels of professional tennis, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Stebe crack the top 32 by year’s end. He gathered most of his points playing second-tier Challengers in Asia but proved he can play and beat the better players in clay at the highest level. Keep an eye on Germany’s newest star.

Players to Watch in 2012: Agustin Velotti (’92)

This former junior Roland Garros champion has been showing steady progress throughout his short pro career. Standing at 1.64 he lacks the physical characteristics to win short points and therefore quicker matches. However, this wonder kid keeps finding ways to improve as reflected by his ranking.

Velotti had a record of 36-15 in 2011 and improved his ranking by more than 200 spots, jumping from 558 to 338. For being a full time pro, 51 matches in a year seems like on the lazy side for such a young player. However, it is common for South American players to lack the funds to travel, even within their own continent. Velotti’s only trip to Europe was to Paris, where he was granted a wild card into the French Open qualy due to being the previous year’s junior champion.

The diminutive Argentinean played mainly at home for the first half of the year with modest results. However, he exploded into the scene in Peru, where he won back to back futures events in mid-August. After that, he ventured into the world of the Challengers. There he also had modest results, with a quarter-final showing at the Cali challenger being his best result.

Velotti defeated some interesting players in 2011. He defeated Wayne Odesnik, Rogerio Dutra da Silva, Victor Estrella, Alexander Folie and Facundo Arguello among others.

I expect Velotti to play at the Challenger level more often in 2011 now that his ranking allows it. He will likely venture to Europe for the first time, which will give him the experience needed to defeat more experienced rivals. Depending on how well funded his 2012 season is, I expect Velotti to crack the top 200 by year’s end.

Players to Watch in 2012: Javier Marti (’92)

The young Spaniard has been steadily improving his ranking since he entered the pro ranks. He finished 857 in 2008, 688 in 2009 and 322 in 2010. This year, he reached a career high of 181 early November before finishing the year at 184. It was a very impressive season by Marti, who started the year playing futures and closed it giving Jo-Wilfred Tsonga all he could handle at ATP Valencia’s first round.

Marti, who much like Nadal went straight to the pros without playing at the ITF level, finished the year with a 44-26 record. That included 3 futures titles (Spain F1, Poland F7 and Croatia F13). He also took part in another 2 future finals. He started featuring regularly at the Challenger level and even qualified for some ATP main draws. The highlight of his year was defeating American Ryan Harrison (’92), who finished the year at 79 in the world, to make the main draw at Roland Garros. Playing on his maiden Grand Slam match, Marti went down fighting as he lost a 5-setter to fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos.

The 5’9 wonder kid lodged significant victories over players considered to be better and more experienced than him at this point of his career. Besides taking out Harrison in Paris, Marti defeated former top 100 Eduardo Schwank (Argentina), and compatriot Daniel Gimeno-Traver (at an ATP in grass nonetheless) among others. Moreover, like I mentioned before, he took a set out of Tsonga before losing 46 75 62 in what would be the last match of his season.

I expect Marti to never step foot on a futures tournament again, while becoming a terror at the countless clay court Challenger tournaments around the world. I would be shocked if he didn’t crack the top 100 by the end of the year. I see Marti winning his first Challenger title and his first Grand Slam match. Moreover, now that Nadal, Verdasco, Ferrer and Lopez decided to skip Davis Cup duties in 2012, I expect Marti to make the team if Spain makes it deep into the draw.