Here are some important bits of excitement in the 2014 tennis season.
Part of the fun of watching anything is diffuse what we watch with urgency, and, whether real or imagined, that sense of urgency can be addictive. Which is why it’s occasionally been frustrating to be a fan of tennis over the past decade or so.
The likes of Serena Williams, Marin Cilic, Caroline Wozniacki, Kei Nishikori and Rodger Federer all had an amazing season in 2014.
Well, 2014 blew in winds of actual change. The Second Line – as Cilic refers to the group long expected to succeed the incumbent tennis royals – finally cashed in on its promise, and has massed in force at the gates.
Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic both played in the Wimbledon semis, Ernests Gulbis cracked the final four at the French Open, and of course Cilic and Kei Nishikori played in a historic US Open final. And that’s to say nothing of the flashes of brilliance we saw from even younger up-and-comers like Nick Kyrgios and Dominic Thiem.
We’ve been waiting a long time, but 2015 should be the year this group emerges from the wings and takes centre stage.
Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki amazing forms.
Wozniacki’s resurgence was one of the feel-good story-lines of the season, and those warm feelings are at least partially bound up in her budding friendship with Serena Williams.
When everything was going wrong for Wozniacki, when nobody could talk about her as a tennis player – both because of her much-publicised break-up with erstwhile fiancé Rory McIlroy and the fact that on the tennis court, she had given people very little to talk about – it was Williams that helped shift the focus.
Williams – who’d apparently been planning Wozniacki’s bachelorette party – suddenly started popping up all over Wozniacki’s social media accounts, supporting her through the break-up, vacationing with her in Miami, and even waiting for Wozniacki at the finish line of the New York City marathon.
“She’s like my little baby sister from a different mother and father and different country,” Williams explained.
Williams won all four of their 2014 matches – even though Wozniacki won the first set in three of them – and turned Wozniacki’s triumphant return to the US Open final into an utter dismantling. But the on-court disparity never seemed to strain their off-court bond.
In 2013 Federer had mostly failed the eye test, and there wasn’t any certainty that he will bounce back considering his age after been down for years.
Although, Federer has been bucking precedent his whole career.
Federer in year 2014 astonished everyone by winning more matches than any other player, while amassing the second-best winning percentage and the second-most tournament victories. These outstanding performances shoot him to him to No. 2 in the world and ended up the speculative favourite at the US Open.
He didn’t end up winning a Grand Slam this season. But at 33, Federer still carries the same aura of legend he did during his peak. If anything, crowds get behind him more vehemently now, for all the roiling vulnerability he emits every time he steps on the court. With his time ostensibly running out, the stakes have never been higher.
Cilic’s demolition of Federer in the US Open semis was one of the saddest matches of the year. Less for Federer – gazillionaire, international brand, 17-time Slam champ, consensus G.O.A.T. – than for the crowd at Arthur Ashe, who realised they could do nothing to will him to victory, but could only watch and wait.
Still, if Federer proved anything in 2014 it’s that his window hasn’t closed. Underdog or favourite, we’ll be hearing plenty from him in 2015.
@AnthonyNlebem
Anthony Nlebem
