ATP Tennis 2014 Review. The 2014 Tennis season was one to remember on the ATP Tour with the stranglehold of the “Big Four” on the Grand Slams broken for the first time; since Murray crashed the party in 2012 and 2013, winning the US Open and Wimbledon titles. Nadal won the French Open, Djokovic won Wimbledon and made the final at the Australian Open and French Open while Federer made the Wimbledon final. However, there were two new names etched on the trophies of the Australian Open and US Open this year. Stan Wawrinka and Marin Cilic finally delivered on their potential, producing some of the best tennis of their careers when it mattered most. Big Three Djokovic produced another consistent season to finish the season as ATP Number one for the third time in four years. He was pushed all the way by the evergreen Roger Federer, who came within a whisker of surpassing the Serb at the Barclays World Tour finals. Djokovic’s foundations this season were built on solid consistency and he posted some of his all-time career best statistics, in particular on serve, winning 88% of all his service games. He continues to be one of the best returners in the game and since 2011 has finished in the top three of all four statistical categories. In the last year overall he has been statistically the best player on the ATP Tour; he won 61 of his 69 matches and landed seven ATP titles including four Masters 1000 at Indian Wells, Miami, Rome and Paris. Not surprisingly he is a short favourite to end the 2015 season as World number one again and with Nadal returning from injury, Federer not seemingly able to win Slams anymore and the others just not consistent enough over a season it would be a big surprise if he didn’t. Roger Federer’s remarkable career continued in 2014 with the Swiss ace bouncing back to finish second in the ATP rankings at the ripe old age of 33. A change of racquet, the addition of Stefan Edberg to his coaching team and his unbelievable fitness and longevity resulted in Federer ending the season as statistically the second best player on tour behind Djokovic. He won 73 of his 85 matches and landed five ATP titles, including two Masters 1000’s at Cincinnati and Shanghai. Federer’s rivalry with Djokovic was one of the highlights of the season. They battled it out five times on three different surfaces alternating wins, and Federer came out on top in the end and still leads their overall head-to-head 19-17. Their most notable and fitting encounter came in the Wimbledon final, which turned out to be another epic five set battle between the two. Federers resolve was on full display in his ninth Wimbledon final, saving a championship point, while reeling off five consecutive games from 2-5 down in the fourth to level the match. However, he was to be denied his seventh Wimbledon title and Djokovic ended the match on a high to win his second Wimbledon crown, returning to World No. 1 in the process. Federer is showing no signs of slowing down and while adding to his 17 Grand Slam titles will prove extremely difficult again, he will no doubt be at the business end of most of them and looks capable of at least extending his number of career titles past 82. Rafael Nadal will return to the ATP Tour in 2015 in attempt to extend his tally of 14 Grand Slam titles, nine of which came at Roland Garros. While Nadal won a record breaking ninth title at Roland Garros in 2014; overall it was a frustrating year for the Spaniard who missed a chunk of time due to a recurring back problem, wrist complaint and most recently appendix surgery. He is hoping the back problem, like his knee issues, will be improved after undergoing stem-cell treatment to aid his back after the same therapy helped improve the state of his knees. Prior to winning the French Open Nadal still managed to win three other titles, two on clay including one Masters 1000 title at Madrid. If Nadal is over the worse of his injury problems he will no doubt be challenging for the major tournaments, most likely aiming towards peaking at Indian Wells and Miami ready for the clay season. However, don’t right him off at the Australian Open as he made the Quarter Finals or better since 2007, won in 2009 and made the final the last two seasons. Rest of Top-10 Stanislav Wawrinka’s 2014 season was one he will never forget winning his first Grand Slam at the Australian Open; where he beat three top-10 players on route, the first time he has achieved this in his career. Wawrinka also won two other titles in 2014; most notably the Monte-Carlo Masters, which was his first Masters title in his career, beating compatriot Federer in the final and ending Nadals dominance of the event. Nadal was going for a record breaking ninth Monte-Carol Masters title, but fell at the semi-final stage losing to compatriot David Ferrer for only the second time in his career on clay. As a result Wawrinka reached a career high ranking of number three, from eight, which was the biggest rankings jump in the top-10 since Agassi and Haas achieved the same feat in 2002. He also helped his country, along with Federer; win their first Davis Cup title, beating France on indoor clay in front of a tournament record and ecstatic crowd, the majority of course being Swiss. Wawrinka produced another scintillating run full of power and precision to win the Australian Open. He fully deserved his crown; beating Djokovic in the semis after another five set thriller before he pulverised Nadal in a one sided final. This year’s semi-final match against Djokovic was an almost identical repeat of their 2013 fourth round battle extraordinaire, and as a result was deservedly voted the ATP Best Grand Slam Match of 2014. Wawrinka also won a career-high nine matches against Top 10 opponents in 2014. He began 2013 with a 0-4 record against them; before securing his first win at Monte Carlo and since then is 12-8 against the Top 10 during that stretch defeating every opponent hes played. His season tailed off after reaching the Quarter Finals of the US Open, where he lost a nail biting five set epic against eventual finalist Nishikori. He did hint at what might be to come again in 2015 though, when he just failed to make the Barclays World Tour Finals losing a thrilling semi-final match against Federer. Wawrinka will no doubt compete for some of the biggest tournaments again in 2015, most likely focussing on defending his ranking points at Melbourne and Monte Carlo. The way he dismantled Djokovic and then Nadal in the final of the Australian Open; with a perfect mix of aggressive serving, attacking forehands and backhands down the line (arguably his most potent weapon) and serve and volleying, is testament to his tactical and psychological improvement. He will be a major challenger at Melbourne again this year and odds of 14/1 do seem a bit insulting; given the massive strides he has made over the last two years and his record against top-10 players over the last two seasons. Japan’s top player Kei Nishikori reached a career high ranking in 2014 on the back of winning 54 of his 68 matches and four ATP titles, the joint third best on tour, including two ATP 500 events at Barcelona on clay and Tokyo on hard courts. He also reached his first Slam final at the US Open and Masters 1000 series at Madrid and semi-finals at the World Tour Finals. He is the first Japanese male player ever to make the top-10, a Grand Slam final, the World Tour Finals and joined Andy Murray as the only other player ever to debut in the top-5. He ended 2014 with a great record in the elite events overall winning 25 of his 33 matches and had the fourth best record against top-10 players in 2014 winning 11 of his 18 matches, which included wins against Djokovic and Federer. He also ended the season with the second best record in matches with a deciding set winning 21 of 24. He featured in some of the best matches of 2014, in particular his semi-final win against Ferrer at Madrid and the epic five set quarter final win against Stanislav Wawrinka at the US Open. Nishikori’s success in 2014 was based on his versatility on all surfaces and getting physically stronger. Also the appointment of a new coaching team, including legend Michael Chang, seems to have given him that additional experience and psychological edge that is required to compete at an elite level and against the best players on a regular basis. The numerous injuries he suffered prior to 2014 had continuously held his career back however, If the worse of his problems are now behind him he will definitely be challenging for more of the big tournaments in 2015 and don’t be surprised if he reaches another Grand Slam final. For Andy Murray 2014 was a season to forget compared to 2012 and 2013, when he won seven titles including the Olympic Gold, US Open and Wimbledon. His ranking dropped to six from three in 2014 after not defending ranking points at Wimbledon, Queens, Miami and Brisbane, and while he won three tournaments, they all came at the end of the season when he was trying to qualify for the Barclays World Tour Finals. His seventh successive qualification for the World Tour Finals needed a significant effort; including tournaments in Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Vienna, Valencia and Paris. He won titles at Shenzhen, Valencia and Vienna, but the eventual strain left him glaringly exposed at the World Tour Finals, which was embarrassingly exposed by Federer who beat him 6-0 6-1, Murray’s worse result in seven years. There were some highlights and excuses can be made for some of his shortcomings in 2014; like reaching the quarter finals at the Australian Open losing to Federer, semi-finals at Roland Garros where he lost to eventual winner Nadal and the quarter finals at Miami losing to eventual winner Djokovic. He also lost twice to one of the potential big stars of the future in Grigor Dimitrov, who beat him at Acapulco in the semi-finals and Wimbledon Quarter Finals. However, at this stage of Murray’s career and given his ability it’s disappointing that he lost to up and coming players and players ranked lower than him on a regular basis in 2014, especially as the likes of Djokovic, Federer and Nadal rarely falter like this over a season. The loss of his former coach Ivan Lendl obviously cannot be underestimated and no matter how much Murray professes otherwise; his replacement Amelie Mauresmo clearly does not carry the same weight of respect or strength of character that Lendl does. For Murray’s sake and his fans; let’s just hope he does not revert back to the type of player he was pre Lendl, as this would be a travesty and also painfully frustrating to watch. Marin Cilic provided the biggest surprise of 2014 winning his first Grand Slam at the US Open and he also won three ATP 250 titles including two indoors, which lifted him to ninth in the world rankings. In terms of tournaments won in 2014 Cilic was joint third on the list behind Federer and Djokovic. He became the first player ranked outside the top-10 to win a Slam in the open era since 1968 and the first Croatian to win one since Ivanisevic at Wimbledon in 2001. He also became the fifth player in the Open Era to win his first Grand Slam title without dropping a set in the last three rounds since Federer at Wimbledon in 2003. The appointment of legend Goran Ivanisevic as his new Coach in 2014 had an immediate impact, a lot like Andy Murray’s appointment of legend Ivan Lendl did. He won two tournaments in February, made the final of one other, made the Quarter Finals of Wimbledon, losing to eventual winner Djokovic in five sets, and won the US Open only dropping three sets. Cilic’s best form came on hard courts, outdoors and indoors in 2014, and if he’s recovered from the arm injury that affected him towards the end of the 2014 season it’s highly likely he will challenge for more tournaments again in 2015. Cilic always had the talent to challenge for the big tournaments but his lack of belief, mental approach to the game and physical conditioning up to 2014 had always held him back. If the Cilic team have managed to improve on these issues further, his chances of challenging for more Masters 1000 and Grand Slams in 2015 could improve significantly. Nearing the Top Elsewhere some of the well known potential stars of the future have been steadily improving and plying their trade on the tour for a few years now, while some young up and coming players made names for themselves in 2014 and hinted at their possible future top-10 potential. Milos Raonic has steadily climbed the ATP rankings since breaking in to the top-100 back in 2011 and ended 2014 at number eight, after peaking at six. He has won six ATP titles in this time, including the Washington ATP 500 this year and finals at the Paris Masters 1000 where he lost to Djokovic and Tokyo ATP 500 losing to Nishikori. He made big strides early in the season reaching the Quarter Finals at Indian Wells, Miami and the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 events; losing to Nadal 6-4 in the third set at Indian Wells, after beating Murray in the third round, Dolgopolov at Miami and eventual winner Wawrinka at Monte Carlo. He continued this good form through the clay court and grass court seasons reaching the quarter finals at Rome, Roland Garros and Wimbledon losing to Djokovic at Rome and Roland Garros and Federer at Wimbledon. As expected he lead the ATP tour for Aces served in 2014, won 90% of all his service games and 39 of the 52 tiebreak’s he played. He also had a great match record in the big tournaments winning 14 of his 18 Slam and 21 of his 30 Masters 1000 series matches and 9 of his 13 defeats came against top-5 players. Raonic will no doubt continue to improve again in 2015 and don’t be surprised to see him win his first Masters 1000 event and start making Slam semi-finals or even a final, most likely at Wimbledon or the US Open. Like Raonic Grigor Dimitrov has steadily rose the rankings in recent years and is beginning to fulfil his true potential after being unfairly touted as the mini Federer by the media. His ranking peaked at eight this year on the back of winning three ATP titles, two of them 500 events and he ended the season just outside the top-10 at 11 after a quiet end to the season. He started 2014 in great fashion reaching the quarter finals at the Australian Open losing to Nadal in a tight four setter, won titles at the ATP Acapulco 500 and at Bucharest on clay. He made the semi-finals at the Rome Masters 1000 event losing to Nadal, won Queens beating Wawrinka on route and made the semi-finals at Wimbledon beating Murray again on route and losing to eventual winner Djokovic. He also made the semi-finals at Toronto Masters 1000 event where he lost to Tsonga. Dimitrov, like Raonic, is proving to be a versatile player and can compete at the top level on all surfaces, which is a sign of a great Champion. His best surfaces seem to be grass and clay as he’s a dynamic player who likes to slide and make the most use of his athleticism and reach, a style not always best suited to hard courts. If he continues to improve at his current rate it’s fair to say he will soon be winning Masters 1000 events and come closer to winning a Grand Slam over the next few years, most likely the Australian Open or Wimbledon. Coming soon, a look ahead to the 2015 season!
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 08:16:30 +0000
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