The Last Word returns, and each weekday, starting on Monday, December 5, we'll give you our year-end thoughts about tennis' best players—this time focusing on the ATP and WTA Top 10. We'll alternate tours each day; here's who we've looked at so far.
Best of 2011
So many options here. . . but the event that was most emblematic of Djokovic’s historic year was the Rome Masters. Up to 2011, Rafael Nadal had simply owned the big European clay events; everyone else was playing for second-place money.
But after stunning Rafa—and the world—in the Madrid Masters final, Djokovic backed it up just days later in the Italian Open final with conviction, 6-4, 6-4. And en route to the final, Djokovic beat, in succession, Stanislas Wawrinka, Robin Soderling, and Andy Murray—the latter in stunning fashion.
Worst of 2011
It’s difficult to characterize a Grand Slam semifinal loss to the greatest Grand Slam titlist in history as a “worst” anything. So let’s call that streak-ending loss to Roger Federer at Roland Garros Djokovic’s most “costly” loss. Nobody else even beat him in a completed match until after Djokovic won his third major of the year at the U.S. Open.
Year in Review
He lost just one set at the Australian Open. He took both the title—and No. 1 ranking—from Nadal at Wimbledon. He rolled into the U.S. Open with just two losses (one due to retirement) on his record for the entire year, and beat Federer and Nadal in back-to-back matches to claim the trophy. Thus, Djokovic ended the year 70-6, and only four of those losses were in completed matches. In the other two, Djokovic retired with injury. He also compiled a 43-match winning streak (starting in December 2010)—the third-best of the Open era.
Perhaps the most impressive segment of Djokovic’s spectacular 2011 run came in the spring. Djokovic tore it up on the hard courts in Australia and the U.S., winning a Grand Slam title (d. Murray in Melbourne) and two Masters titles, Indian Wells and Miami (d. Nadal in both). Djokovic then hounded Nadal on the Euroclay, taking back-to-back Masters titles at Madrid and Rome—tournaments where Nadal’s record up to 2011 was a combined 36-2 (counting Madrid results only when the tournament was moved to clay, in 2009).
By that time, a theme had emerged: Djokovic was dogging Nadal, bent on snatching his No. 1 ranking. Federer took some of the pressure off Nadal by ending Djokovic’s winning streak in the semis of the French Open, and going into Wimbledon, Rafa might have felt a measure of security, given his stellar record there; after all, he was a two-time (and defending) champ. Djokovic had never even reached the final at the All England Club. But Djokovic came through. In the course of a few days he overtook Nadal in the rankings and hammered him in a four-set final, losing just 14 games.
Djokovic then took a month-long break and returned to win Montreal, but showed the first signs of the fatigue and injuries that would plague him the rest of the year at Cincinnati, where he retired in the final against Murray. But Djokovic had one more big shot left in his gun, literally and figuratively.
In the semifinals of the U.S. Open, Djokovic was down two match points with Federer serving. But Djokovic hit a rocketing forehand cross-court service winner to dispel the first, and he wiped away the second one as well, albeit in less spectacular fashion. He then improved his 2011 record against Nadal to 6-0 in a bitter, hard-fought, often breathtaking final that was only four sets (with just one tiebreaker) but lasted four hours and 10 minutes.
At that point, Djokovic was finished. His next match was a Davis Cup rubber against Juan Martin del Potro, and the Serb had to retire with a back injury. He was never the same in 2011. Weeks later, he lost to Kei Nishikori in Basel, gave Jo-Wilfried Tsonga a walkover in their quarterfinal in Paris, and limped to the finish line at the World Tour Finals, losing two round-robin matches that kept him out of the final weekend.
See for Yourself
How can someone take the formerly invincible Nadal to the woodshed on clay in back-to-back Masters finals? Try this: With the best service return in the game, a second-nature commitment to moving forward behind aggressive and relatively flat groundstrokes, and a pile-driving backhand that feeds on what is usually an enormous advantage for a lefty.