Association of Tennis Professionals: Greatest Players of 2010 Part IV
The fourth instalment of this five-part series will discuss the achievements of Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic in the year 2010. This article serves to pay homage to tennis pros who have put up great performances and completed noteworthy feats within the
year. Players discussed prior to these include Nenad Zimonjic and Daniel Nestor, Mardy Fish, Bob and Mike Bryan, David Ferrer, Tomas Berdych and Robin Soderling.
Number 4: Andy Murray
British Number 1 player Andy Murray definitely deserves a spot on the list of best players in 2010. He has never had as successful a Grand Slam run in his career as he did in 2010.
At the beginning of the year, Andy Murray fought a magnificent Australian Open campaign and beat out his competition, including Rafael Nadal, to reach the finals of the event. However, upon reaching the event’s title match against Roger Federer, he lost
his nerve and suffered a defeat which gave the Swiss Maestro his sixteenth Grand Slam title. Andy Murray then reached the semi finals of the Wimbledon Championships, where eventual champion Rafael Nadal defeated him as revenge for the Australian Open knock-out.
At Flushing Meadows, Murray broke his streak of long runs at the Grand Slams and lost early.
Andy Murray finished the 2010 season as World Number 4 on the Association of Tennis Professionals rankings. He qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour finals, and also managed to reach the semi finals of the event with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Robin
Soderling. He lost the semi final to Nadal, who admitted that he had been forced to play some of the best tennis of his career in order to defeat Murray.
Number 3: Novak Djokovic
Like Andy Murray, Serbian tennis pro Novak “Nole” Djokovic had a year filled with ups and downs. Djokovic’s greatest accomplishment in 2010 was his US Open semi finals performance against World Number 2 Roger “the Maestro” Federer. Nole managed to defeat
the player by saving two match points against him. He then made it to the US Open final against World Number 1 Rafael Nadal, who ousted him to win his first US Open and complete a career Grand Slam. In addition to these achievements, the Serbian Number 1 also
made it to the semi-finals of the Wimbledon Championships in London, and the quarterfinals of the French Open at Roland Garros, where he was forced to let go of a two-set lead.
Djokovic also qualified for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, where he reached the semi finals before losing to eventual champion World Number 2 Roger Federer. To add to this impressive list, Djokovic helped his country win the Davis Cup title last weekend.
He knocked out French Number 1 Gael Monfils to set the tie at 2-all, after which Viktor Troicki shattered Llodra to clinch the maiden title for Serbia.
For the fourth year in a row, Djokovic has finished the year as World Number 3. This cements his status as the next big challenger in tennis. Although he could not win a Grand Slam, he did enjoy a brief stint as World Number 2 during 2010.
The next and last instalment of the series features the top two players in the world, Rafael “Rafa” Nadal and Roger “the Swiss Maestro” Federer.
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