Previously having written on Jelena Jankovic, new SB Nation contributor Tumaini Carayol is back with his second piece this Wimbledon.  Enjoy.

As Wimbledon moves into the second week, the stakes become increasingly higher and the matches become tougher. In the men's draw, all eyes shift squarely onto tennis' "big four," and the questions surrounding them. Can Nadal win his third Wimbledon in a row? How will Djokovic bounce back from his first loss of the year? Will Federer continue his recent resurgence on his favoured grass? And, of course, can Murray finally make Britain proud?

One elite player, however, has stormed into the second week so far under the radar that English-speaking journalists haven't even bothered to attend his press conferences--Tomas Berdych, the sixth-seed and last year's runner-up.

On the one hand, Berdych is completely deserving of his underdog status. After a consistent but unspectacular year, Berdych completely unraveled at the French Open, falling at the very first hurdle to journeyman Stephane Robert. As hard as it is to remove the image of him squandering match point to Robert, though, it is also tough to forget about the way he bulldozed his way through the Wimbledon draw last year, losing a total of one set in his wins against defending champion Federer in the quarters and third-seeded Djokovic in the semis.

And on that and that alone, Berdych is certainly in with a chance of doing a repeat. Last year's accomplishments weren't simply the product of his form coming together for a "fluke" run. Rather, it was because he knew exactly what to do on the grass.  His big serve and brutal groundstrokes are complemented by his knowledge of how to construct points on the hallowed grass of Wimbledon, as well as his willingness to stride forward to finish points off at the net.

Berdych's form this week has been a far cry from his various calamitous defeats this year. He is the lone player in the fourth round to have not lost more than 4 games in a set.

Berdych's biggest test came on Friday when rain stopped his match only two games from victory against American Alex Bogomolov, Jr. Many players could (and in the past have) unravel in such a circumstance, but not Berdych. He came back on Saturday, banged down a couple of aces and a few winners, and closed out the win in three minutes, without losing a single point.

If that's not a sign that he intends to step up on the hallowed lawns of Wimbledon once again, I don't know what is.

I'm very excited to announce that Tumaini Carayol, previously of Foot Fault (and still tearing it up on Twitter at @FootFault_), is going to be writing for SB Nation as we work to expand and improve our tennis coverage.  This is his first piece here:

This week marked a new low for former WTA No. 1 Jelena Jankovic, as she was ingloriously knocked out of the first round of Wimbledon 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 to Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, her first loss in the opening round of a Grand Slam in five years.

Following her loss, Jankovic was quick to play down her disappointment to Serbian press:

"Before my tennis was a priority, I was 100 percent focused on it, but the older you get, the interest for other things," she said.

"Now I want to spend more time with friends and family.  Of course, this does not mean that my career is over, I would love to be on top again."

Whether this new philosophy of Jankovic's is a cause or result of her recent poor form is unknown, but her lack of motivation is obvious for all to see.  Jankovic was once one of the most expressive and comedic personalities on the WTA Tour--glitter, lip gloss, splits and drama all synonymous with her name.  But recently her attitude on court matches her form, with the extrovert now seeming distant, quiet and often uninterested.

Sadly for Jankovic, in tennis there is no middle ground.  As evidenced by her recent results, it's impossible to compete at the highest level in tennis and not be fully applied to the game.  If she continues on this road, I suspect she will eventually be forced to choose between lounging around in her obscenely large, ten-car garage San Diego mansion and committing herself fully to the game that has made her.

I, for one, hope she chooses the latter.

It's so easy to brush Jankovic into the the same "slamless WTA No. 1" category that many do for Wozniacki and Safina, but during her time on top Jankovic contributed so much more to the WTA.  She was not only an entertaining personality, but her fluid counterpunching always kept her in the very best matches. She is one of the few recent players, (the others being Henin and Clijsters), who could call herself a true rival of the Williams Sisters, boasting a 6-5 record against Venus and a 4-4 mark against Serena.

The WTA would be much less interesting place without Jelena Jankovic.  Any place would.

Rain on Sunday disrupted the finals of the AEGON Championships at Queen's Club in London, pushing the contest between #2 seed Andy Murray and #5 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to Monday.

And for most of the match, it was an incredibly close affair.  Murray came back to win his second title at Queen's Club by the score of 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-4, breaking the Tsonga serve only once during the match. 

As far as thrilling finals go, this one was rather routine, save for a rather gauche bit of showmanship from Murray late in the deciding set:

To complete a hold at love, Murray opts for an absurd straddling tweener, instead of any number of more standard putaway options that presented themselves to him.

At the end of the clip, the commentator describes Murray's action as "a bit cheeky," which I prefer to mishear as "bitchy."  Because...really.  There's no need for that whatsoever, Andy.  The absurdly arrogant shot selection goes well beyond showmanship--it completely disrespects Tsonga, especially to do it in the most crucial junctures of a still-competitive final. 

In a sport that prides itself on its stodginess, for better or for worse, this sort of hotdogging would hardly have been well received by a crowd most anywhere else in the world.  But because it's Murray in Britain (and since he's British, not Scottish while he's winning), the fans seemed to eat it up.

With his win convincing run to the Queen's Club title (particularly his absolute dismantling of Andy Roddick in the semifinal), the Murray hype machine will be blaring at perhaps unprecedented levels this week and throughout Wimbledon, until the British hope again becomes the Scottish also-ran.  The British media loves winners and tears down losers, and is fickle like no press corps outside of Philadelphia. 

So for now Andy Murray is their winner, their favorite son.  But as soon as he does fall short of the title during the Wimbledon fortnight, expect The Sun, The Mirror, and all the other unfit to print tabloids to blow far smaller Murray mistakes wildly out of proportion.  And while it's tough not to feel sorry for him sometimes with the annual unfair press coverage, this year I'll tell myself that he had it coming.

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.

Krista Hardebeck

All of a sudden, 17-year old Californian Krista Hardebeck is now showing up on the radar for those looking at the future of American tennis.

Now with a ranking of #393, and a whole year ahead of her to improve that ranking, Krista could break the top 200 in no time.

The righthander is not an overpowering player, she uses her quick feet and flexible body to hot deep angles groundstrokes and is patient waiting for her opportunity to finish off points. Krista told me she needs to improve her serve to compete with the big hitting girls and move forward on points to show she is being aggressive.

She will play mainly ITF events in 2011, and she is currently making her way through the main draw of a 25K event in Rancho Santa Fe, CA.

She has career wins over top-200 players Yurika Sema of Japan and American Julia Cohen. Krista really made people take notice when she outlasted a player with a rising ranking in Irina Falconi at the USTA Australian Open Wildcard Playoffs back in December.

Remember the name Krista Hardebeck.  She should make another big move in 2011, and she might be ready for a top 100 breakthrough in 2012.

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.

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.

Madison Keys

If Madison Keys was a stock on the NYSE you would want to buy now and hold for long-term investment.  The 16-year old has been showing improvement every year, but the real payoff might be 2-3 years from now. 

Madison is currently ranked #484 on the WTA computer in very limited action.  Her best 2010 results included a win over Florencia Molinero, a top-200 player from Argentina at an ITF event in Puerto Rico and a 3-set loss to Maria Elena Camerin in qualifying at the U.S. Open. 

Madison plans to play more in 2011 and that should help her ranking move up.  Her lanky frame has been compared to Venus Williams and Madison has tried to model her game after the oldest Williams' sister.  She plays to work on her fitness and remain injury-free in 2011.  When not playing tennis Madison enjoys going to the movies and hanging out with her friends.

If you are an investor, now might be the time to buy low on Madison Keys as she is a young American tennis player on the rise.

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.

CoCo Vandeweghe

There may not be many players in the world with more potential than 20-year old American CoCo Vandeweghe. She has the athletic genes in being the daughter of an Olympic swimmer and having a grandfather and uncle who starred as NBA basketball players. She also has the prototypical body type of today's female tennis players, standing 6'1" with a solid build. Add that to her huge serve and dominating forehand, and we might have America's next great tennis player.

What she needs to work on according to her coach Tom Gullickson is her mental game and seeing more of the "Good Coco" and less of the Bad Coco."

Vandeweghe is coming off a 2010 where there were more positives than negatives. On the positive side, she netted wins over Alison Riske, Gisela Dulko, Vera Zvonareva, Jarmila Groth, Aravane Rezai and Alla Kudryavtseva. Her negatives included the 6-1, 6-0 thrashing he took courtesy of Sabine Lisicki in the first round of the U.S. Open and the 12 first round defeats she suffered in 2010 events.

CoCo has all the tools to get into the top-50 by the close of 2011. She should get into many WTA events, but she will have to play in some qualifying draws. She lost out on the USTA's Australian Open wildcard by losing to Lauren Davis in the playoffs in December, but she will be in Australia hoping to cause some damage "Down Under."

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.