American and Canadian Women to Watch on the WTA Tour for 2011 - Lauren Davis

The tennis calendar has turned to a new year. Another year of players hopping from continent to continent, tournament to tournament, trying to reach their goals and live up to lofty expectations. While some players are hanging on to their career, hoping for wildcards and playing their way through qualifying events, there is a whole new crop of players from North America that have been working for years, inching their way up the rankings with hopes of making a huge breakthrough, and becoming one of the elite players in the world. The WTA Tour is stacked with young players looking to make that breakthrough in 2011. Some are on the cusp, some are still a year or two away. In a multi-part series, we'll look one by one at some of the "young guns" of the WTA Tour from Canada and the United States. Let's see who is poised to make that move in 2011.

Lauren Davis

You may not know who was one of the hottest tennis players on the planet this fall.  Well if you couldn't guess, it was Ohio teenager Lauren Davis.  Davis is small in size, but makes up for it with a ton of desire and some magical shot-making that reminds me of a slight of hand magician. 

Winning 27 consecutive matches and 36 out of 37 including two Pro Circuit events, the Dunlop Junior Orange Bowl and the always tough Eddie Herr Junior Championships is quite a magic trick, but the crown jewel of the fall season was winning the USTA's Australian Open Wildcard Playoffs in Atlanta. 

Davis is ranked in the 400's, but she defeated Jamie Hampton, and CoCo Vandeweghe on her way to the title.  As Davis prepares for her Australian Open debut, she has turned pro this week and will test the waters of professional tennis this spring and summer. 

As for Australia, she will face tough opposition in #5 seed Samantha Stosur.  The 17-year old won't be intimidated by the accomplished Stosur.  Davis said she likes to stick to her game and use her legs to get into position to win points. 

Davis stands 5'3", so she is among the shorter players on the WTA Tour.  For a player of her size, she has a good amount of variety in her game and is not afraid to take the net.  Still it's her consistency from the baseline that wins her points. 

America and the rest of the tennis world will get their introduction to Lauren Davis when she plays Sam Stosur on television and a show court at the Australian Open.  Expect her to pull a few surprises out of her hat.

Good luck to Lauren.