2012..season/player review.

[Goosehead]

so apart from the dc final..thats it for this season..

the majors were shared around the top four, federer surprised by reclaiming no1 and pistol petes wks at no1 record, ferrer wins first ever masters title, del potro climbs back into the top ten,

then theres brian baker, tommy haas comebacks, the jerzy janowizc phenomenon, fererro and roddick retiring...

wjat are your thoughts on the awesome tennis happenings of 2012

[RF20Lennon]

As a fed fan can't complain! way better than last two seasons but the only hitch is I would've liked him to win WTF and Basel but overall I'm very satisfied!!

[batz]

Murray had his best season ever and even won Brisbane - so I'm well satisfied.

Shame about Rafa being out though.

[joeri888]

To be honest, I don't miss Nadal that much. But objectively, I think he's good for the game. He just frustrates me at times. Anyway, Roger had a great year.Winning Wimbledon, reclaiming no. 1 and playing so welll from basel 11 basically up until Cincy 12 was amazing. He has cooled off quite a bit, but still a great season. The biggest disappointments were the Olympic final and the AO semi against Nadal. USO was disappointing too as was WTF, but during USO I did not feel that bad, because his season felt perfect already. The AO and Olympic gold medal amtch hurt a lot though.

For the rest, the season was pretty interesting. A bit too much insane defense rather than insane offense though. Wimbledon with the roof closed was kind of quick tennis, but other than that, those 'classics' at AO and USO I don't like to see at all. That's my biggest disappointment by far.

Haase's bad season was bad for Dutch tennis, but Igor did well and De Bakker is slowly coming back into some form as well.

[AnotherTennisProdigy]

My recaps for the players

Djokovic- Obviously couldn't replicate last year's success (who could), but in my opinion it was still a successful year. Even though there were no breakthroughs in the middle of the year, he managed to defend his Australian open and won his first World Tour Final against Federer, a court where the Swiss thrives in. Although it was close he was able to defend his number one ranking.

Murray- The monkey is finally off the Scott's back, he is officially a slam winner. With Lendl at his side, he gave us a taste of what was to come at the Aussie open Semifinals against Djokovic. Although he lost in the end he showed is that he could compete with the big four. He later gained an emotional win in the Olympics in London, completing his revenge against Federer on the same venue. Finally, his quest for the slam ended at the U.S. Open when he edged Djokovic in 5. At this point Murray has fully established himself as a part of the Big 4. Murray is my personal player of the year.

Federer- I think it is safe to say Federer surprised us all, even his fans. He was under the radar until Indian Wells arrived where he beat his nemesis Rafael Nadal on a slow outdoor court, normally unfavorable for him. Then he ended his slam drought at Wimbledon with a four set win over a determined Murray. He proved to us that he was still a threat at slams. However, another slam win was predicted by many if not the majority. What truly surprised us is his rise back to world #1. Many assumed he would never regain the top spot, that Sampras' record was now out of reach. Roger pulled the rug under Novak when we least expected.

I'll do the rest of the top ten later.

[batz]

Originally Posted by AnotherTennisProdigy

My recaps for the players

Djokovic- Obviously couldn't replicate last year's success (who could), but in my opinion it was still a successful year. Even though there were no breakthroughs in the middle of the year, he managed to defend his Australian open and won his first World Tour Final against Federer, a court where the Swiss thrives in. Although it was close he was able to defend his number one ranking.

Murray- The monkey is finally off the Scott's back, he is officially a slam winner. With Lendl at his side, he gave us a taste of what was to come at the Aussie open Semifinals against Djokovic. Although he lost in the end he showed is that he could compete with the big four. He later gained an emotional win in the Olympics in London, completing his revenge against Federer on the same venue. Finally, his quest for the slam ended at the U.S. Open when he edged Djokovic in 5. At this point Murray has fully established himself as a part of the Big 4. Murray is my personal player of the year.

Federer- I think it is safe to say Federer surprised us all, even his fans. He was under the radar until Indian Wells arrived where he beat his nemesis Rafael Nadal on a slow outdoor court, normally unfavorable for him. Then he ended his slam drought at Wimbledon with a four set win over a determined Murray. He proved to us that he was still a threat at slams. However, another slam win was predicted by many if not the majority. What truly surprised us is his rise back to world #1. Many assumed he would never regain the top spot, that Sampras' record was now out of reach. Roger pulled the rug under Novak when we least expected.

I'll do the rest of the top ten later.

+1 Nice analysis mate (and not just because you said some nice things about Murray). BTW 'Scot' has only one t - thanks.

[tennisenthusiast]

Originally Posted by batz

+1 Nice analysis mate (and not just because you said some nice things about Murray). BTW 'Scot' has only one t - thanks.

really Scott has only one t? I always thought it was double t!

[batz]

Originally Posted by tennisenthusiast

really Scott has only one t? I always thought it was double t!

Scott the name is usually spelt with 2 ts, Scot the nationality is definitely spelt with 1 t (I fell I'm an authority on the subject as I have a 14 year old son named Scott, who is also a Scot)

[NadalAgassi]

Originally Posted by AnotherTennisProdigy

My recaps for the players

Djokovic- Obviously couldn't replicate last year's success (who could), but in my opinion it was still a successful year. Even though there were no breakthroughs in the middle of the year, he managed to defend his Australian open and won his first World Tour Final against Federer, a court where the Swiss thrives in. Although it was close he was able to defend his number one ranking.

Murray- The monkey is finally off the Scott's back, he is officially a slam winner. With Lendl at his side, he gave us a taste of what was to come at the Aussie open Semifinals against Djokovic. Although he lost in the end he showed is that he could compete with the big four. He later gained an emotional win in the Olympics in London, completing his revenge against Federer on the same venue. Finally, his quest for the slam ended at the U.S. Open when he edged Djokovic in 5. At this point Murray has fully established himself as a part of the Big 4. Murray is my personal player of the year.

Federer- I think it is safe to say Federer surprised us all, even his fans. He was under the radar until Indian Wells arrived where he beat his nemesis Rafael Nadal on a slow outdoor court, normally unfavorable for him. Then he ended his slam drought at Wimbledon with a four set win over a determined Murray. He proved to us that he was still a threat at slams. However, another slam win was predicted by many if not the majority. What truly surprised us is his rise back to world #1. Many assumed he would never regain the top spot, that Sampras' record was now out of reach. Roger pulled the rug under Novak when we least expected.

I'll do the rest of the top ten later.

Agreed with all of those.

[joeri888]

Originally Posted by batz

Scott the name is usually spelt with 2 ts, Scot the nationality is definitely spelt with 1 t (I fell I'm an authority on the subject as I have a 14 year old son named Scott, who is also a Scot)

Is your son NSK?

Or in other words, why's he not on TTW?

[AnotherTennisProdigy]

Haha, my bad. Murray is a "Scot"

Rafael Nadal- If I was to describe this year for Nadal fans it would be like the following. Imagine you're at the park having a lovely walk in the sunshine, when suddenly a stranger randomly slapped you in the face! This pretty much sums up Nadal's year. He began on a strong note, challenging Djokovic at the Australian Final in a five set epic. He then continued to do his usual at the clay season. At the French final he not only broke the record for most French Open titles, he also broke his losing streak against Novak on his home turf. He entered the grass season with his head held high, however he got a nasty surprise when he met Rosol in the 2nd round of Wimbledon. Although he tried his best against a Rosol that was in the zone he fell in 5. He left the tour with an injury and hasn't played since. Only time will tell what will happen next.

David Ferrer- At this point onward there is a lot less to say about the players since the Big 4 nearly all of the important titles. David Ferrer is the exception. This year he has established himself as the clear cut number 5 behind the Big 4 and has the results to show for it. As he has showed, his consistency wins him matches against those below him, however he doesn't have enough game to challenge the top tier player. This payed off when he took Nadal's spot as the 4th seed at the U.S. Open where he made a run to the semifinals, eventually falling to Novak Djokovic. He also reached a career milestone by winning his first Masters 1000 in Paris, surprising since a fast indoor court wouldn't be his first choice of surface. Like Murray, Ferrer has made 2012 a career year.

Tomas Berdych- Federer has had plenty of players he does badly against, guys like Nadal and Nalbandian earlier in his career. As of recent times Tomas Berdych has taken that role. Most of the year he has been under the radar. He was winning a lot, hence his #6 ranking, but he wasn't having any breakthroughs. As the U.S. open rolled along he upset Roger Federer, stopping any momentum he gained from Cincinnati. His run lasted until the semifinals where he lost to eventual champion Andy Murray.

[AnotherTennisProdigy]

Juan Martin del Potro- One of my favorite players on tour, Juan Martin del Potro is best known for his fantastic win at the 2009 U.S. Open, becoming one of only two men to beat both Nadal and Federer in the same tournament. However, his momentum evaporated when a wrist injury forced him out of the game. Last year he came back and made a tremendous comeback to the top of the rankings, but fell short of the elite eight that qualify for the World Tour Final. This year, although he didn't make much noise at the slams, he raised his ranking to #7 and qualified for the World Tour Final. I believe this symbolizes the end of his comeback and the second beginning of his career at the top.

(The rest might be brief because nothing special really happened)

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga- One of, if not the most dynamic player in the top ten. He has an aggressive, great touch at the net, and plenty of power to spare. Not to mention he uses both a one-handed and two-handed backhand. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga definitely breaks the typical player mold of today. However, this year he has had decent results at best, his only tournament win coming from the Qatar open at the beginning of the year. He has hired a new coach, Rasheed, and displayed interesting tactics at the World Tour Final. Hopefully this new pairing will translate into success.

Janko Tipseravic- The other Serbian in the top ten, Janko Tipseravic has won three titles this year. He also managed to qualify for the World Tour Finals where he beat Ferrer and erased his chance of advancing to the semifinals.

Richard Gasquet- He's french.

Thank You everybody for reading and thank you to the OP for giving me something to kill time with on this boring day!

[tacou]

It was a pretty balanced, exciting year. It suffered though without Nadal for the last half. I was psyched to see Murray win Olympics and USO, but any one of the top 4 missing that much time is bad entertainment.

As always the Australian Open produced most of the best matches, although as a Roddick fan the Tomic beat down was particularly enjoyable.

The biggest downer of the year, though, is no real breakouts. JJ snuck in at the end of the year and Raonic didn't fall of the face of the earth. Tipsy and possibly Nadal will fade this season but otherwise the top 10 (and probably top 5) looks like it will stay the same.