The Opening Ceremonies of the 2015 Pan-American Games are tomorrow and signal the start of the event. However, tennis will begin before the Opening Ceremonies to allow men's players to participate in both the Davis Cup and the Pan-Am Games. The field is not star-ridden at all but still has some quality players within the draw. We now take a breakdown on some of the top and potential breakout players who decided to partake in the Games.
United States
Dennis Novikov- The 21-year-old UCLA standout is one of two American men representing the United States. Novikov played in the 2012 US Open gaining an entry via a wild card after winning the USTA 18s National Championships in both singles and doubles. He defeated 2013 Wimbledon semifinalist, Jerzy Janowicz, in the first round before bowing out to 31st-seeded Frenchman Julien Benneteau.
He'll be the States' top ranked player on the ATP and has the best shot amongst the American men to get to the podium. With the tournament being played on hard courts, he has a significant advantage over 90 percent of the competition with most of these players likely having their best success on clay as that is the popular surface of choice in Latin and South America.
Lauren Davis- The miniscule American is one of the favorites coming in despite standing at 5'2''. The 21-year-old is currently ranked 75th in the world, the highest amongst her fellow competitors. What she lacks in height, she makes up for in speed and her fighting spirit. She's coming off a second round appearance at Wimbledon, crashing out to fellow American Sloane Stephens in straight sets.
Argentina
Facundo Bagnis- The highest ranked player from the ATP World Tour is the favorite for the gold medal despite seeing most of his success come on the clay courts. The Argentine is currently inside the top 100 in the ATP World Tour rankings, and should he stay there, he'll get an automatic qualifier spot into the US Open this summer. He has one hard court title to his name which he won in the Barranquilla Challenger in 2011.
Brazil
Orlando Luz- Brazil has decided to go with a young contingency at the Pan-Am Games with their two top representatives as teenagers. Luz could make some noise in Toronto as an outsider and at only 17 years old, this could be a terrific learning experience for him and a shot to get his name out there as one of the best young players to watch for in years to come.
He was a junior Wimbledon doubles champion last year and won two medals at the Nanjing Youth Games. He won a gold medal in doubles with countryman Marcelo Zormann and took silver in singles.
Beatriz Haddad Maia- Maia is the second of the Brazil's teenage duo and is the elder of the two. At 19, she's ranked 148th on the WTA with most, if not all of her ranking points coming from Challengers. She's won a few Challenger hard court titles with the most recent coming in December 2014.
Canada
Peter Polansky- The man who was one of Canada's top singles players throughout the late 2000s and early 2010s makes a special appearance back into the spotlight, albeit one that's not so bright, to try and lead his country to tennis glory.
The 27-year-old from York, Canada has been completely irrelevant from the tennis scene over the last year with one of his last significant main draw appearances being at the 2014 French Open.
Despite being ranked 411 in the world, he'll definitely be using the crowd support and his experience on the hard courts (all but two of his career titles have come on hard courts) to try and will himself to a deep run.
Sharon Fichman- Just like Polansky, Fichman was carrying the torch for Canadian women's tennis until, Eugenie Bouchard took over. Currently ranked 384 in the world, she'll also be using to the help of the crowd support to try and bring her country a medal.
In some of her most recent Challenger events in which she has made a final in, she's gone up against women who are now plying their trade on the WTA such as Timea Bacsinszky, Johanna Konta, and the aforementioned countrywoman of Fichman... Eugenie Bouchard.
Fichman has been relatively quiet in terms of being impactful in the world of tennis over the past few years. Despite that, she'll hope she can conjure up some magic in Toronto.
Puerto Rico
Monica Puig- After describing Lauren Davis as one of the favorites for the gold medal, Puig has to be the favorite to take home the gold. At 21 years old, she still has massive potential which she can fulfill despite having a significant dropoff since her 2013 fourth round appearance at Wimbledon and her victory at the WTA Year-End Championships for WTA Rising Stars.
Her game is predicated on her powerful serve and groundstrokes but those shots are inconsistent at times. She's also known to have a short fuse meaning she could get extremely frustrated at herself easily and can lose the plot in the middle of the match.
The Pan-Am Games offer Puig a relief from WTA Tour events where she's constantly falling short of expectations. As the favorite, the worry that she'll continue that downward trend is obviously there, but the impact that a victory here at this event could do her wonders in terms of confidence and finally heading back into the right direction.