Biggest upsets of 2011 ATP season: Part One – Tennis Special
Some believe that tennis is a game of chance; a player riding his luck on a particular day will prevail. The sport has seen a number of top class stars falling in contests with the players ranked way below them to support the reasoning.
However, it is a player’s own deficiency in the game which causes his downfall, rather than claiming that he was not luckier enough to win the match on that particular day.
Let review some of the matches being played in 2011 ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) season which produced the most surprising results in the end. A number of matches were witnessed this year where an underdog beat all
the odds to take down a top class competitor but we shall be reviewing only a few to revive our memories.
Kei Nishikori vs. Novak Djokovic – Swiss Indoors Basel semi-final
It won’t be wrong to say that 2011 ATP season entirely belong to the reigning world number one, Novak Djokovic of Serbia. The belligerent Serb clinched 10 ATP championship titles in the season (including three all-glorious Grand
Slams as well) to be declared the Player of the Year 2011 by ATP. Djokovic registered memorable triumphs at the Australian Open, Wimbledon Championships and the US Open, along with five other ATP Masters 1000-level events, to be hailed the most successful
player of the season. He took part in 76 singles matches and was successful in 70 of them, suffering setbacks in just six encounters in the entire year.
On the other hand, Japan’s Kei Nishikori earned the achievement of becoming the highest ATP ranked tennis player from his country. He claimed his career best ranking of world number 24 in November this year to become the highest
ranked Japanese tennis player ever. He finished the season as the world number 25 and a 36-22 winning record.
Djokovic was riding a 67-3 winning record when he met the crafty Japanese in the semi-final of the Swiss Indoors Basel, aiming for a berth in his 12th ATP World Tour event of the year. The mighty world number one was
hot favourite against the Japanese underdog, Nishikori. It was anticipated that Djokovic will dispose of 32nd ranked Nishikori in straight sets to ease his way to the final of the tournament but no one expected the dramatic turnaround which was
actually witnessed later in the contest.
Nishikori had beaten the seventh ranked Tomas Berdych in the opening round of the tournament his confidence was extremely high for taking on the top seed Serbian in the semis. As it was already anticipated, the top seed Djokovic
blazed through the opening set, finishing it at 6-2 to get one up early in the contest. Tide turned in the second set when Nishikori came firing at the Serbian and took the second set at 7-6(4) in the tie breaker round to level the match at one all. The 21-year-old
carried on with his winning impetus in the final set as well, wining 80 per cent points on his serve to conclude one of the biggest upsets of the season at 6-0.
“It feels great. I was missing too much in the first set, but at the end of the second set, I started playing well,” said Nishikori after registering the biggest win of his career against a world number one player.
Nishikori was only the sixth player to register a 6-0 set against Djokovic and rocketed away to 24th spot in the ATP World Rankings after his win over the Serbian.
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