Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), Greatest players of 2010 (Part V)
The final instalment of this five-part series discusses the 2010 runs of world number one, Rafael Nadal, and world number two, Roger Federer, the top two players in the world.
Number 2 Roger Federer
While Roger Federer’s best season is still his 2006 run, this season was also quite successful even by his standards. He began the year with a victory at the Australian Open, defeating Russian Nikolay Davydenko, and Andy Murray on his way to the crown.
At the French Open, he was forced to let go of his world number one position, as Robin Soderling slaughtered him on the clay courts. This ended his consecutive streak of 23 Grand Slam semi finals, and eight title matches.
He suffered yet another defeat at Halle, this time to Australian number one, Lleyton Hewitt. At the next Majors event at Wimbledon, Roger Federer was defeated by Czech Number one, Tomas Berdych. This series of losses seemed to jolt Federer’s confidence.
But he returned to form after the All-England Club defeat. He participated in the Toronto Masters, losing to Andy Murray in the finals, after which he bounced back to form in Cincinnati by beating Mardy Fish.
At the 2010 US Open, Federer lost two match points against his rival Novak “Nole” Djokovic in the semi finals. Although, he lost the Grand Slam, he returned in spectacular form to win the IF Stockholm Open. He then travelled to Basel, where he got his start as a ball boy and defeated Novak Djokovic in three sets to win the title.
His crowning achievement this year is the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London. Federer finished the tournament with a perfect 5-0 win-loss record and only dropped one set on his way to claiming the title. He defeated Djokovic, David Ferrer and Andy Murray in the round robin matches and ousted Djokovic in the semi finals. He crushed Nadal in the finals of the event to win the title.
Federer finished the year as world number two. One of the greatest stories of New Year will be, whether or not Federer will be able to oust Nadal out of the top spot for a second time.
Number 1 Rafael Nadal
The greatest player of the year is, of course, world number one, Rafael Nadal. The twenty-four-year-old began 2010 on a bad note, falling out of the Australian Open due to a quarterfinal defeat to Andy Murray.
Rafael Nadal has been considered the greatest clay court competitor of all-time and his 2010 clay run was a testament to this fact. After an 11-month draught, Nadal won the Monte Carlo tournament. After that victory, the tennis season was dominated by him.
He won every clay tournament he entered, stacking up victories at Rome, Madrid and Roland Garros. He also managed to win Wimbledon for the second time, after which he seized the US Open cup to complete his career Grand Slam. He is the seventh and youngest man to accomplish this.
On the way to the year-ending championships, Rafael Nadal picked up the Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships title. He qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals and made it to the semi finals, where he defeated Andy Murray in a stunning tie breaker.
He then lost the title match to Roger Federer. Nadal has professed the ATP World Tour Finals surface to be his “worst nightmare” – keeping this in mind, his run at the event is indeed astonishing.
Nadal ended the year as world number one for the first time in his career. He is indeed, the most victorious player at the end of this season.
Tags: