American and Canadian Women to Watch on the WTA Tour for 2011 - Jamie Hampton

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.

Jamie Hampton

This Alabama native has quietly worked her way up to #133 in the WTA world rankings.  You don't know the name Jamie Hampton, well maybe you should.

In 2010, she logged wins over such names as Julia Cohen, Lilia Osterloh, Varvara Lepchenko, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Kimiko Date-Krumm, and Chanelle Scheepers twice.  Not a bad list of victims while playing mostly on the ITF  Circuit.  Hampton admires the way Roger Federer plays and goes about his business on the court, and tries to model her own all-court game after his.

She has set a goal of making it to the top 70 or 75 by the end of 2011, and she knows its going to be tough.  "I'm an athletic player, and many times, my serve determines how my game is going that day," states the soon to be 21-year old Hampton.  As for what she needs to work on, Hampton says the mental side of the game.  "All the players are such great athletes, belief in yourself and your attitude can make the difference in close match, added Hampton. 

Hampton is heading to Australia early this year to try an qualify for the Australian Open.  After that she will be stateside playing in WTA and ITF events in North America.  Jamie Hampton is a player we all should be rooting for.