insideoutforehanders
Professional
Interesting to see the choices some of you come up with. Mine would be.
Women
1978 Navratilova- Even though Navratilova ended the year #1 on the computer I still feel by years end Evert was the best player of the year, something many others obviously agreed, as the ITF picked Evert as Player of the Year (this was when the ITF was actually a legitimate award, not the total meaningless joke it was by the 2000s), and so did Tennis Magazine. I forget who Bud Collins picked, but Tennis Magazine Australia, US, France all picked Evert, as did John Barrett. Lance Tingay picked Navratilova and the WTA gave their own Player of Year to Navratilova (not surprising as they often want to justify their own official rankings and ranking system), but that was about it.
1994 Graf- I strongly feel Sanchez Vicario should have both ended the year #1 on the computer, and was the Player of this year. This was actually one of the first times I strongly questioned the ranking system when Sanchez not only had 2 slam wins to 1 for Graf, but had FAR better slam results overall (W-W-RU-4th round vs W-RU-SF-1st round), and their tournament titles and W-L record were even quite closely. This made it abundantly clear not enough extra points were being allocated to slam wins and slam results in general, as there is nothing that superior about Graf's record that should have made up the gap. I do think Sanchez was super lucky in some senses, and Graf super unlucky, for instance if Graf draws anyone but McNeil 1st round of Wimbledon she cakewalks to the title there (no way she loses even to McNeil herself if she plays her in a late round instead), and if Sanchez winds up playing Pierce in the semis and Graf plays Martinez in the semis at the French their results are flipped there with Graf winning and Sanchez a losing semi finalist, and Graf's back going out in the US Open final, etc...However these can not factor into an objective evaluation on who had the best year, who truly had the best overall results this year, and who was deserving of the #1 ranking that year, which all elements of luck aside, was clearly Sanchez Vicario.
1998 Davenport- This is a relatively minor one but I do think Hingis deserved it slightly more. Both had 1 slam title, but Hingis had slightly better slam results all around, and the main reason I side with her won the Year End Championships, by far the biggest non slam event. The Year End Championships had barely more points awarded than one of the many generic Tier 1 events on the WTA tour, further proof of the super flawed ranking system. And there isn't a big difference in their general tour results otherwise. I think most have the memory of Davenport totally dominating the summer hard court season in spectacular fashion, and dominating Hingis at some of those events, which is why most were fine with this result, but if you look at the year objectively Hingis has the stronger case IMO. This is a closer one so I don't have much issue with this compared to some of the others.
2001 Davenport- This is the biggest crock of balogna ever. Davenport who didn't reach a slam final ending the year #1 over both Capriati and Venus who won 2 slams each. No "other results" could ever justify this, and is again infinite proof way too little points value was awarded to slam wins and slam results in general, but FWIW Venus and Davenport even both won 6 titles too (Capriati was behind with 3, but reached the semis of all 4 slams, and nearly every regular tournament she played this year). Davenport should have retired on the spot out of sheer embarassment for this, but instead she did a p1ssy press conference where she said she would not apologize for her ranking, where I lost a lot of respect for her, and made me happy to see her booed to the point she started crying some after retiring form the final with Serena with a so called injury. I liked her until then, but never really after that.
2008 Jankovic- Pretty obviously should have been Serena.
2011 Wozniacki- Another super ridiculous one. Should have been Kvitova by a country mile. Slam title, YEC title, same number of tournament titles as Wozniacki, actually a better W-L record, Fed Cup title. The WTA should have been humiliated by this to the point they revamped their ranking system on the spot. Every governing body picked Kvitova as Player of the Year, not a single one picked Wozniacki.
These are my female ones. Will do my mens ones later.
Women
1978 Navratilova- Even though Navratilova ended the year #1 on the computer I still feel by years end Evert was the best player of the year, something many others obviously agreed, as the ITF picked Evert as Player of the Year (this was when the ITF was actually a legitimate award, not the total meaningless joke it was by the 2000s), and so did Tennis Magazine. I forget who Bud Collins picked, but Tennis Magazine Australia, US, France all picked Evert, as did John Barrett. Lance Tingay picked Navratilova and the WTA gave their own Player of Year to Navratilova (not surprising as they often want to justify their own official rankings and ranking system), but that was about it.
1994 Graf- I strongly feel Sanchez Vicario should have both ended the year #1 on the computer, and was the Player of this year. This was actually one of the first times I strongly questioned the ranking system when Sanchez not only had 2 slam wins to 1 for Graf, but had FAR better slam results overall (W-W-RU-4th round vs W-RU-SF-1st round), and their tournament titles and W-L record were even quite closely. This made it abundantly clear not enough extra points were being allocated to slam wins and slam results in general, as there is nothing that superior about Graf's record that should have made up the gap. I do think Sanchez was super lucky in some senses, and Graf super unlucky, for instance if Graf draws anyone but McNeil 1st round of Wimbledon she cakewalks to the title there (no way she loses even to McNeil herself if she plays her in a late round instead), and if Sanchez winds up playing Pierce in the semis and Graf plays Martinez in the semis at the French their results are flipped there with Graf winning and Sanchez a losing semi finalist, and Graf's back going out in the US Open final, etc...However these can not factor into an objective evaluation on who had the best year, who truly had the best overall results this year, and who was deserving of the #1 ranking that year, which all elements of luck aside, was clearly Sanchez Vicario.
1998 Davenport- This is a relatively minor one but I do think Hingis deserved it slightly more. Both had 1 slam title, but Hingis had slightly better slam results all around, and the main reason I side with her won the Year End Championships, by far the biggest non slam event. The Year End Championships had barely more points awarded than one of the many generic Tier 1 events on the WTA tour, further proof of the super flawed ranking system. And there isn't a big difference in their general tour results otherwise. I think most have the memory of Davenport totally dominating the summer hard court season in spectacular fashion, and dominating Hingis at some of those events, which is why most were fine with this result, but if you look at the year objectively Hingis has the stronger case IMO. This is a closer one so I don't have much issue with this compared to some of the others.
2001 Davenport- This is the biggest crock of balogna ever. Davenport who didn't reach a slam final ending the year #1 over both Capriati and Venus who won 2 slams each. No "other results" could ever justify this, and is again infinite proof way too little points value was awarded to slam wins and slam results in general, but FWIW Venus and Davenport even both won 6 titles too (Capriati was behind with 3, but reached the semis of all 4 slams, and nearly every regular tournament she played this year). Davenport should have retired on the spot out of sheer embarassment for this, but instead she did a p1ssy press conference where she said she would not apologize for her ranking, where I lost a lot of respect for her, and made me happy to see her booed to the point she started crying some after retiring form the final with Serena with a so called injury. I liked her until then, but never really after that.
2008 Jankovic- Pretty obviously should have been Serena.
2011 Wozniacki- Another super ridiculous one. Should have been Kvitova by a country mile. Slam title, YEC title, same number of tournament titles as Wozniacki, actually a better W-L record, Fed Cup title. The WTA should have been humiliated by this to the point they revamped their ranking system on the spot. Every governing body picked Kvitova as Player of the Year, not a single one picked Wozniacki.
These are my female ones. Will do my mens ones later.
