Last Updated on January 23, 2023
Currently, the shortest player on the WTA tour with 1.57m, but so talented and skilled that have overcome the size limitations and set herself among the very best is the American, Lauren Davis.
Lauren Davis was born on 9th October 1993 in Gates Mills, Ohio in a family of William and Tracy Davis. Her parents both studied medicine. Mother Tracy is from Chardon, Ohio and completed her medical studies at the Ohio State University and is a registered nurse by profession.
Father William graduated at Saint Louis University and is a famous cardiologist currently based in Milwaukee. He also is a health book author noted for his view against modern wheat, whose book Wheat Belly became a New York Times best-seller in 2011.
Lauren grew up with her brother Billy Davis who is a professional photographer. She began playing tennis at age nine and she was also training soccer. Because they were both just so time consuming, she chose tennis, and upon turning sixteen at the beginning of 2010, she moved from her hometown to train at the Evert Academy in Boca Raton, Florida where she currently resides.
The first few months were hard for her since it was not easy choice to leave her family and friends behind and live in a dorm. She missed everything from home.
“I said ‘This is what I want to do and I think I can be really good’ so I wanted to go to the next level and I knew I couldn’t stay in Cleveland to do it. I want to play outside all the time and get a lot of good players to hit with,” Davis said. “It was a no brainer for me to pick the Evert Academy. I would do anything to chase my dream. My mom was really hesitant to let me go. I lived in Cleveland my whole life and it would be a huge change for me but I ended up adapting really well,” she added.
Lauren is known for her aggressive backhand, clay-court strength, footwork and speed for more court coverage, that she improved at the Academy. She turned pro in 2011 and since than she has won two WTA Tour titles and eight titles on the ITF Women’s Circuit.
She reached a career-high ranking of World No.26 in 2017 and currently is 57-th at the WTA list.
Who Is Current Lauren Davis’s Coach?
Edward Elliott
Since mid-2018 Lauren’s coach is former tennis player Edward (Eddie) Elliott.
Eddie (33) was born on 14th March 1989 in the family of Ed and Laurie Elliot. In his youngest age he lived few years in Africa as his parents were missionaries there, traveling from village to village all through Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa and Swaziland, sharing the gospel. When they came back to USA, he went to University High School and grew up playing tennis in Juno beach under the guidance of former world No.7 Brenda Shultz-McCarthy.
Eddie studied at Northwood University and Appalachian State University, was part of their tennis teams and played Division 1 collegiate and NAIA level tennis. He also played Futures and Club Tennis in Europe for several years before settling down to contribute his talents to the tennis community in Palm Beach County.
He was the tennis director at Brenda Shultz tennis camp for three years and during that time he also served as a travel coach of her High-Performance Program, which is ranged from junior tournaments to professional level. Then he spent three years away from tennis, working as a real estate agent at Illustrated Properties.
After being draw back in tennis, he started coaching Lauren and made his debut on WTA Tour. Eddie takes a full approach to his coaching and specializes in nutrition, fitness and technical aspects to the game.
Since the beginning of the collaboration with Elliott, Lauren’s WTA ranking has steadily risen for more than 150 positions. Under his guidance, Davis won ITF Bonita Springs in 2019 and made huge success at the beginning of this year by winning Hobart International, her second WTA title. Currently she is competing at the first major of the year, Australian Open.
Former Lauren Davis’s Coaches
Federico Ricci
After joining Evert Ac ademy in 2010, for nearly six years, Lauren was mentored by Italian, Federico Ricci.
Federico was born in Milan, Italy. He has completed his high school education in Italy and then went to study in UK at the Nottingham Trent University, where he gets his Bachelor degree in international business and sport management.
Ricci started his coaching career in 2002 and for nine years he worked at Evert Academy, where he was leading coach and eventually director of the Academy. During his career he has coached players like Jarkko Nieminen, Henri Kontinen, Harri Heliovaara, Patrik Niklas-Salminen and Seong-chan Hong. After his successful experience in Florida, he returned to Europe where he founded the Jarkko Nieminen Tennis Academy (JNTA) together with Jarkko Nieminen. Currently he is coaching young Finnish tennis player Emil Ruusuvuori.
As for Lauren Davis, during the time spent together, she managed to improve all parts of her game, establishing herself among the best tennis players in the world. At the beginning of their partnership, while still a junior, she won her first professional title at 2010 USTA tournament in Williamsburg.
The same year she won the ITF Bayamon Open in Puerto Rico. The next two years she won two ITF titles each, in 2011 Buffalo and Atlanta Open, in 2012 Plantation and Las Vegas. Her last title under Ricci mentorship was at 2013 Midland Open.
She also managed to reach her first WTA semifinal in 2015 at Auckland Open and her first WTA final in 2016 at Washington Open, while been coached by Federico.
They split in the middle of season 2016.
Mark Schanerman
For a period of almost two years, until their split up in 2018, Lauren’s coach was Mark Schanerman.
Mark Schanerman (32) was born on 22-nd October 1990 in Miami, Florida in a family of Richard and Bari Schanerman and has older sister named Nancy. He attended Dr.Michael Krop Senior Highschool were he played for the tennis team and won the 2008 National Open Championship. He also won the Southeast Region Sportsmanship Award and was honored as an All-Dade first team.
Later he attended Northwestern University with a scholarship in tennis, before he transferred to University of Miami where he gained his Bachelor’s degree in education, sports and administration. After graduation, from November 2013 he started coaching at All Florida Tennis. For eleven months he was private coach of Kayla Rizzolo, accompanying her to futures and challengers on the ITF circuit worldwide.
Short after splitting with Kayla, few months he worked at Nick Saviano Tennis Academy, before he started collaboration with Lauren Davis in September 2016.
They immediately had result since at the beginning of season 2017, Lauren won her first WTA title at Auckland Open. She was also part of the USA National Team that reached the Fed Cup final and that year she reached her career best ranking so far, World no.26.
“Lauren is playing the tennis of her life” noted Steve Tignor of tennis.com
Their partnership ended at the middle of season 2018.
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Lauren Davis’s Achievements With Different Coaches
We have collected in the table the data about the trophies won by Lauren Davis under the guidance of various coaches.
Coaches | Years of Completion | Titles |
Eddie Elliott | July 2018 – ongoing | 2019 ITF Bonita Springs 2023 Hobart International |
Mark Schanerman | September 2016 – June 2018 | 2017 Auckland Open |
Federico Ricci | 2010 – 2016 | 2010 ITF Williamsburg Open2010 ITF Bayamon Open, Puerto Rico2011 ITF Buffalo Open2011 ITF Atlanta Open2012 ITF Plantation Open2012 ITF Las Vegas Open2013 WTA 125 Midland |