General / Sean Calvert / 27 December 2011 /

The new tennis season begins again next week and ahead of the 2012 campaign, Sean Calvert takes a look at the players to watch in the coming year.

This time last year, Cedrik-Marcel Stebe was ranked at number 375 in the world, but the 21-year-old German has made huge strides this year and currently sits at number 81 in the rankings.

The promising leftie ended the 2011 season by winning the ATP Challenger Tour Finals in Sao Paulo on indoor hard-courts and he has defeated both Juan Carlos Ferrero and Nikolay Davydenko (twice) on clay this year too.

Stebe took out another young prospect, Ryan Harrison, on grass at Wimbledon, so he can be effective on all surfaces.

And while the vast majority of his wins came on the Challenger Tour, he is one to keep an eye out for at odds-against versus some of the bigger names early on in tournaments in 2012 when he focuses on the main ATP Tour events for the first time.

Another young gun who might make a move in 2012 is Bernard Tomic.

The 19-year-old Aussie has been touted as his country's next big thing for a few years now, but having cracked the top-50 for the first time in his career in October 2011, it will be fascinating to see how he performs this coming season.

Having hit the headlines recently for driving offences in a high-speed sports car, you would have to say that perhaps he's not totally focused on tennis, but he is still a teenager and even the great Roger Federer wasn't an angel in his youth.

As you would expect of a player of his relative inexperience, results were patchy in 2011, with a Wimbledon quarter final and a 6-2, 6-2 loss to the powder puff Flavio Cipolla examples of his inconsistency, but with a little more maturity, he could be a decent player. He is currently around [100] for Australian Open glory.

One from slightly leftfield that I think could surprise a few people in 2012 is Canada's Vasek Pospisil.

Currently at a career high of 119 in the world rankings, the 21-year-old had a breakthrough season in 2011 from a start point of number 339.

The 6'4" prospect from British Columbia scored wins over John Isner and Juan Ignacio Chela in 2011 and showed his character when he won both of his singles and the doubles for Canada against Israel to help his country to a place in the Davis Cup World Group for 2012.

There are areas of his game that he needs to improve - namely the return of serve - but I like what I've seen of him so far and he could potentially crack the top-50 in the next year or two.

Fellow Canadian, Milos Raonic, burst onto the scene in 2011 with a last-16 appearance at the Australian Open as a qualifier, before winning San Jose and making the finals in Memphis.

Injury prevented the 20-year-old from progressing much further, but now fully recovered, Milos has the game to take out some big names in Melbourne in 2012 and beyond.

His serve has excellent variety, as his stats show, with the world number 31 leading the way in first serve points won on the ATP Tour in 2011.

Raonic was also ranked third in percentage of service games won (behind Roger Federer and John Isner), fourth in break points saved and fifth in total aces, so this is a guy who is not going to be broken often this season. He is available to back at around [280] to win the Australian Open.

Another of the new breed of huge youngsters emerging upon the scene is Dutchman Thomas Schoorel who struggled towards the end of the season with a foot injury, but who before that showed good form on the clay.

The 6'7" 22-year-old leftie won back-to-back Challengers on the red dirt in Rome and Napoli in 2011 and put up creditable performances against some of the bigger names on the Tour, cracking the top-100 before bowing out of the season early with that injury.

Highly rated in the Netherlands and with a game that could be very awkward for a lot of players on the tour, Schoorel could be one to keep an eye on in what is set to be fascinating season of tennis in 2012.

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