Tennis: 2015 In NUMBERS

Published 12/31/2015, 8:43 AM EST

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2015 has been a record breaking season in many aspects. Dominated by Djokovic and Serena, it has seen the game’s mightiest champion Rafa Nadal, end the year without a Slam and the mettle of rising stars like Muguruza and Theim.

It has witnessed a veteran Swiss legend in the form of Martina Hingis, rise again to the pinnacle of Doubles game and has celebrated the comeback of the elder Williams.

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We have tried to wrap up the year for you in the form of numbers, starting from 10 to 1.

The streak of winning at least one Grand Slam every year, for 10 consecutive years, finally perished when Rafael Nadal failed to bite any of the major’s trophy in 2015. The Spanish beast began conquering the tennis world way back in 2005, when he won the Roland Garros in his maiden attempt. Since then he made Philippe Chatrier a fortress of his own, thus ensuring a minimum of one major every year, well at least till Robin Soderling did the impossible!

In 2009, Rafa won the Australian Open, and hence his first defeat at the crushed bricks of Paris didn’t break his streak. Injuries have been a huge obstacle in Nadal’s career and his return to the courts this year, after quite a long break didn’t begin all so well. He failed to win any clay court tournament in his tune up to the French Open and ended the year with just three titles. Also, with a mediocre 61-20 W/L record and without any Grand Slam to his name, this was the lowest season of Nadal’s illustrious career.

Rafa has slipped to number five in the ranking and has trouble dealing with the big guns at the big tournaments. He may have recovered physically, but his mental fortress has definitely been breached.

Will we witness Nadal at the peak of his powers ever again? 2016 holds all the cards.

Leander Paes, Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza were the biggest names this year in the Doubles format.The veteran Swiss, Hingis, paired with the Indian tennis legend Leander Paes and scripted history in 2015, grabbing 3 of the 4 majors.

Paes became the format’s most successful male players in the Open Era, by clinching his 9th mixed Doubles GS title, just one behind the all time leader and his former partner Martina Navratilova. Paes-Hingis became the first team to win three majors in an year since 1969. It was Paes’s 17th GS title overall, while Hingis notched up her tally to 20 after winning the doubles event too, with Indian sensation Sania Mirza.

Martina and Sania too had a magnificent season, and were named as Women’s Doubles World Champions by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).

Hingis became an ITF World Champion 15 years after last being named World Champion in singles in 2000.The Wimbledon and US Open winners are on an unbeaten run of 22 matches, a streak that stretches back to the start of US Open and ended the year with a formidable 55-7 (Win-Loss) record.

Both these pairs are the ones to beat in 2016 too, and Martina Hingis’s vital contribution to both the Indian’s game has led them to peerless success.

Hingis will also pair with Roger Federer in Rio 2016! Something we can hardly wait for.

Also check out the best matches of these two pairs!

Serena won pretty much everything this year. And she registered a record breaking 8 Miami title by drubbing Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2 6-0 in the final. She became the fourth player in the history of women’s tennis to win an event at least eight times.

It is also her career best performance at any event. She joined the likes of Steffi Graf, Chris Evert and the great Martina Navratilova- who won Chicago 12 times.This was also her 12 consecutive final win.

“I’d like to believe the older I get, the better I get,” said Williams, 33.

Serena carried this invincible form throughout the year, and almost pulled off the Calendar Slam. But we know that Roberta Vinci had different plans!

After her career went tumbling down in 2011 due to persisting injuries and serious health issues, the former world number 1 Venus Williams came back in picture in 2014, reinvigorated her A-game to revive her career in 2015. She earned the WTA Comeback of the year award and became the oldest player, at 35, to be ranked inside the top 10 for two consecutive years. Her achievements may not top that of her younger sister this year, but her resurgence to the top form is highly respectable. According to the WTA’s website, Williams was the 10th most popular player of 2015.

Venus started off the season by winning her 46 career singles title at the 2015 ASB Classic in Auckland by defeating Caroline Wozniacki in three sets. She next made it to the last eight at the Australian Open, marking the first time getting at a quarterfinal stage at a Grand Slam event after the 2010 US Open. She also made it to the quarterfinals of Miami Open.

After a brief stint at Wimbledon, Williams started off well at the Wuhan Open, defeating Agnieszka Radwańska in the first round and Julia Görges in the second round to bring about her 700th career win and becoming only the ninth woman in the Open Era to do so. She finally beat the world no. 8 Garbiñe Muguruza to seal her most important victory of the year.

She wrapped up the year by capturing the WTA Elite Trophy by beating Karolina Pliskova 7-5 7-6, taking the toll to 48 singles career titles and her year end ranking to 7.

 

2015 has been the year of new talents. The likes of Dominic Thein, David Goffin and Muguruza have showcased their exceptional talent in fine style this year.

ATP had 6 first time title winners on the circuit this season. Jiri Vesely, at 21, won the title at Auckland, followed by a lot more common names like Jack Sock, at Houston and Benoit Paire, winning Bastad. The brightest of the lot has definitely been Dominic Thiem, reaching the top 20, and beating Nick Kyrgios , Gulbis and Isner en route to his first ATP title, in France.

Here is the list of all the 6 new entrants to the ATP winners’ list :

In 2015, Novak Djokovic became the first player in open era to win 5 Australian Open titles, surpassing Roger Federer and Andre Agassi at 4. This means that he now has a total of 50 wins in this slam, falling behind only Federer at 75 and Edberg at 56. He made it to the semi-final without dropping a set and beat Andy Murray in 4 sets in the final to take home the trophy. His win-loss percentage equals 89.29, second only to 90.57 of Agassi.

On the other hand, Serena Williams won five titles to finish the year at the top spot for the fifth time in her career. She won three Grand Slams and made it to the semi-finals at US Open. Her other wins came at Miami and Cincinnati. This exceptional performance earned her the eminent WTA Player of the year award.

 

Winning a World Tour Final title is not an easy task. With 8 of the world’s best players competing, WTF is one the most fiercely competitive tournaments in tennis calendar. To win a WTF title is an achievement but to win 4 of these titles in a row, is something unbelievable.

World number 1, Novak Djokovic has capped off his 2012-15 campaigns in perfect fashion clinching the WTF title each year. In 2012 it was Federer on the losing side as Novak won in straight sets. In 2013 it was Nadal’s turn to face a straight sets thrashing from the hands of unstoppable Serbian. Novak won the trophy this year as well beating Roger Federer in straight sets after having a walkover victory over him last year.

The Serb has posted some outrageous numbers throughout the year, and 4 WTF titles is just one of them.

The seemingly ageless Roger Federer, became only the 3 man in the open era, to win 8 titles at a single event, after he clinched number 8 at Halle. Federer joined Rafael Nadal and Guillermo Vilas, the other two who have eight or more titles at a single event. Nadal has 9 French open titles and 8 titles at Monte Carlo. While Vilas has eight Buenos Aires.

Winning Halle, was the highlight of Federer’s season, a season that almost ended his three years drought of majors. Federer just couldn’t seal the deal against Novak Djokovic, and finished runner-up at Wimbledon and US Open.

Federer also bid goodbye to his idol and coach Edberg and welcomed Ivan Ljubicic to his team.

Stanislas WAWRINKA. French Open 2015 Champion. Only player to beat Novak Djokovic at a major this year! Sounds like a dream to this rusty Swiss’ fans. Against all the odds, Wawrinka muscled Novak Djokovic at Philippe Chatrier to claim his 2 Grand Slam title. The first one was at Melbourne Park, in 2014.

The French Open final, looked pretty much one sided on paper, but Stanimal managed to pull off a great upset and wrapped up the match in four sets. Yet again, the man who beat Rafa Nadal at Paris, failed to lift the trophy.

It was another brilliant year for Stan, following his dream 2014 season. He toppled Roger Federer to claim the Swiss sportsman of the year award. Stan finished the year with four calendar titles and an year end fourth ranking.

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2015 belonged to just two names, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams. Dominating everything and everyone who came in their way, both ended up winning 3 Grand Slams. Serena completed the ‘Serena Slam’ , the second of her career, at the green lawns of London. Although she missed out on a major milestone- The Calendar Slam – after falling victim to Roberta Vinci’s spirited play at the Flushing Meadows.

Novak Djokovic too had a similar year, dominating throughout but falling shy of achieving a calendar slam, as he lost the French Open final to Stanislas Wawrinka. He also ended the year with the highest ranking points ever in the history of ATP – just another one of his records this year!

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Djokovic and Serena both look strong heading into the next season, and it’d be no shocker if they end up replicating their heroics next season.

Check out all the records broken by Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams in 2015

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Written by:

Sameer Bharti

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Watches tennis, cricket and football. Mostly tennis.
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