2012 WTA Season Review

In this Christmas Eve I realized I still didn't write in Uspeti about women's tennis season, so here it goes my brief review - that'll be quite extended, as it always ends up going.

January started with Caroline Wozniacki  in the top-ranking for the second year in a row, and many tennis experts were predicting the nearly unavoidable rising of Petra Kvitova to the #1. 

However, Wozniacki did lose the first place but for the Belorussian Victoria Azarenka; by starting the year winning in Sidney, Vika moved next week to Melbourne where she clinched her first Grand Slam title and her move for the top-ranking for the first time by crashing Maria Sharapova 6-3 6-0 in the finals. The 23 year-old would continue her winning streak taking Doha and Indian Wells title in the following weeks, right before falling to Marion Bartoli in Sony Ericsson Open, on late March.

On clay court season, the season's GOAT remained in Eastern Europe but it was time for an ex top-ranked to be back on great titles. Maria Sharapova started the mini-season by defeating the #1 Victoria Azarenka in Stuttgart's final, and then lost in Madrid's blue clay for the eventual champion Serena Williams before taking the Internazionali BNL D'Italia in Rome next week, on red clay again.

Masha would reach Roland Garros with zero losses on "common" clay and with Serena's astonishing loss in Paris' first round, the only player who defeated the Russian in 2012 clay season, Sharapova had her way open for reaching her first final of the French Open. There, she defeated the surprisingly Italian Sara Errani to complete her Career Slam - becoming the first player in Open Era to have a Career Slam with only 4 Major titles - and being back to #1 four years later.

Next week in Wimbledon, both Azarenka and Sharapova had high expectations for winning their second Grand Slam title of the season but it was said Serena Williams was working hard after her loss in French Open 1st round four weeks later; it was time to check her out, and we can in this season review define a 2012 season before and after Serena.

It wasn't easy for Serena to win her seventh title in All England Club. She had to turn up her 3rd round match versus the Chinese Jie Zheng after losing the first set in tie-break and then finally taking the third one only after sixteen games. She'd lose another set on next round vs Shevdova, and after defeating Azarenka in two sets nearly nobody doubted Serena would really be back to great tournaments and it became clearer with Sharapova's loss vs Sabine Lisiciki in 3rd round.
In the final, Serena would have to face one of the toughest players on the circuit when at its best: Agnieszka Radwanska. The Polish have reached Wimbledon with only four matches lost for players not named Victoria Azarenka, and she was able to win a set in Wimby's final. However, in the decisive, Serena proved her shape improvement by losing only two games (after dropping one in the opening set and seven in the following one) and won her 7th Wimbledon title, exactly two years after her last Slam title. For Radwanska, it meant her rising for the 2nd place - a victory would have put her in the top-ranking. And after Sharapova's loss, Azarenka was back for the first place and she would not lose it again in 2012.

In late July, three weeks after Wimbledon's tournament, it was time for the Olympics. The tennis world already knew Serena was close of her best shape, but I don't think anyone predicted what happened in London'2012: the North-american defeated four ex/current world top-ranked players - Jankovic, Wozniacki, Azarenka, Sharapova lost to Serena, joining Urszula Radwanska and the ex-number 2 Vera Zvonareva -, dropping only 17 games in the whole tournament (less than 3 per match!) to win her first Gold medal in singles and becoming the first player ever to complete the Golden Slam in both singles and doubles. Sharapova left London with the Silver Medal after winning just one game(!) in the final match, completing her Silver Slam, and Azarenka won the Bronze after taking the Gold in mixed pairs.

On August, we were back to the United States for the US Open Series. The Rogers Cup was won by Petra Kvitova and next week on Cincinnati it was Li Na's time for winning her first WTA title since last year's victory in Paris. Kvitova would win her second title of a disappointing season in New Haven the week before US Open, and then it was time for the last Major of the season.
Some people were asking themselves about Serena's shape after the Olympics; she didn't compete in many tours and in Cincinnati she had lost to Angelique Kerber in quarter-finals, her first loss since Roland Garros (and also her last till the end of 2012). Once again, the younger of Williams' sisters proved the world wrong again.
On her road to the final, she just dropped 19 games in six matches, defeating Ana Ivanovic in quarter-finals and then Sara Errani in the semis. The final would be played versus Victoria Azarenka, the world top-ranked; the best possible final, in many's opinions.

Serena started winning the first set by 6-2, right before being surprised by a over-motivated Azarenka who won the next one by the same result. In the decisive, with the crowd on fire cheering for both women, Serena felt the pressure of taking the trophy after last season disappointing loss versus Samantha Stosur in that same stadium; Vika did served it out, but the North-american screamed louder (which is tough as hell!) and clinched her second Major title of the season!

Serena would not compete until Istanbul Championships, two months after. In the meantime, Nadia Petrova would win her first title in season in Tokyo and Azarenka was back on victories by taking Beijing and Linz titles on the following weeks.

In the last week of October, it was time for WTA Championships in Turkey's most important city in Europe. Once again, Serena reached the tournament with many doubts upon her head; she was only seen few days before the tournament and didn't play an official match since Flushing Meadows.
Yup, you guessed it right; the North-american won again the title, this time losing more games than in US Open but without a single set lost. After defeating Azarenka in the first Round Robin match, she'd defeat Maria Sharapova in the final by 6-4 6-3 for elevating her 7th trophy in 2012. For Masha, it meant her third final lost in the past five tournaments, and for Vika the fact she did the semi-finals assured her the top-ranking in the end of the season.

On the next weeks, Czech Republic would win the Fed Cup for the second time in a row and Nadia Petrova won in Sofia the "Masters B", defeating the former #1 Caroline Wozniacki.

That's all. Merry Christmas!
Pedro Mendes

2012 ATP Season Review

It's time for reviewing last season's top moments in ATP World Tour. Once again I write these posts in English hoping to get more views, specially on Twitter.

Well, the season started with Novak Djokovic as world's top ranked and the Serbian didn't disappoint in Melbourne on the first Major of the season. By defeating Andy Murray in a five-setter outstanding tennis match in semis and then clashing Rafael Nadal in their third Slam final in a row - this time in five sets, which meant Nole had played 10 sets in about three days to get his second consecutive AO title and third in his career -, Novak "Nole" Djokovic started the year in the best possible shape.

Next, the World Tour moved to USA where the first two Masters 1000 events of the season took place in California (Indian Wells) and Miami. It would be time for players like John Isner to confirm their potential - and eventually reaching the top-10 -, thus reaching the final in the BNP Paribas Open where he'd lose to Roger Federer.
Next week in Miami, the Sony Ericsson Open took place and Djokovic - who had lost his first match of the season in Dubai semis, vs Andy Murray - successfully defended his 2011 title by defeating the British in the final match. Hard-court season was nearly ended and we were back to European clay courts.

Starting in Monte Carlo, Rafael Nadal won this first M1000 event on clay and history was written. The King on Clay became the first player ever winning the same tournament for eight times in a row; personally, it also meant his first win versus Djokovic after seven matches lost in a row. This victory would psychologically mean a lot, as long as it led Nadal to another great clay court season (after losing in Madrid and Rome last year against the world number one). Rafa won again in Barcelona and then in Mutua Madrid Open an awkward tournament took place; the event manager decided to try a different surface, the blue clay, and many players such as Nadal and Djokovic lost early in the draw and created huge controversy about the surface. Roger Federer didn't give a shit about it and ended up defeating Tomas Berdych in the final, winning his second M1000 of the season and the second in Spain's capital after 2009 victory.
Next week, it was time for the Internazionali BNL D'Italia in Rome. The final match was once again between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, the two top-ranked, and as I mentioned earlier the Spaniard was now a lot more confident than the previous year and defeated Nole to win his third title on clay. Bring us the French Open!

Roland Garros started in late May, and just like in the previous season tennis world was expecting to see if Novak Djokovic already had what's needed to win in Paris.
The point is, he may have. But when you have Rafael Nadal competing in the biggest clay event of the season, you can barely have a chance - Roger Federer won in 2009 not specially due to his clay abilities, although he's also a good clay-court player, but due to Robin Soderling's epic win in 4th round versus an injured Nadal. This year, Nole have finally reached the final but Nadal was on the other side, so... Although I believe that if the rain wouldn't come up to delay the final Djokovic could have done better, the Serb had his chance last year when he was mentally stronger than everyone in every surface but had never challenged Rafa in Paris because Roger Federer showed up in the semis to put Djokovic out of the tournament. That's it, Nadal ends clay court season with four titles, one more than in the previous season, and Djokovic goes to grass with no titles since Miami.

In mini-grass court season, it started with David Nalbandian kicking an umpire's leg to lose a Queen's Club final he was actually taking the lead. At the same time in Halle, Federer reached once again the final but this time Tommy Haas wanted to show the world he was not done yet and defeated the former five-times champ. David Ferrer would also win a tournament during the preparation for Wimbledon, in Den Bosch, his first ever on grass that would make him the ATP player with more singles titles in 2012.
Wimbledon started with a huge upset; in the 2nd round, the two-times champion Rafael Nadal lost in five-sets to Lukas Rosol, exiting a Major tour in the second round for the first time since 2006. This would also mean the last time Nadal would step on a tennis court in 2012, as long as he got injured in his misfortunated knee - the diagnosis would conclude he suffered from Hoffa's Syndrome.
The tournament would obviously go on, providing Andy Murray a great chance for finally reaching the final match in his country's Slam event, and the British did reach the decisive match where he found the six-times former champion Roger Federer that had defeated Djokovic previously in the semis. Murray started to win the first set, his first one in four Major finals, but couldn't avoid Federer's seventh title on Holy Grass. This title, Roger's first Slam since Melbourne'2010, would also mean his comeback to the top-ranking and eventually becoming the player with more weeks spent as #1 ever.

As long as we are in 2012, Olympic Games tennis tournament was a reality and it would take place in the same Wimbledon grass. The final was a rematch of previous month one - Federer reached it by defeating Del Potro in an epic battle with 36 games in the decisive set, and Murray defeated Djokovic by a double 7-5. But this time, Murray gave no chance to the best tennis player ever and just lost seven games to win his most important title ever; for Federer, the chance of getting a Golden Slam ended there - although he says he's thinking in Rio'2016. The Bronze medal came to Del Potro, that was so close of reaching the final but did put his hard feelings away to defeating Djokovic, 2008 Bronze's medallist.

Afterwards, it was time to go back to USA. Toronto and Cincinnati hosted the next two Masters 1000 events of 2012 and as in 2011, Nole reached the final match on both - winning the Rogers Cup, his first title since March, but losing again in the decisive of Western and Southern versus the now and again world number one Roger Federer.

Late August came, and the 2012 US Open edition as well! With Rafael Nadal out of the way, Murray knew he needed to reach the final in order to move to the third place of the ranking. The problem: Roger Federer, five-times champion, was in Murray's half too.
Or at least I thought it was a problem. In the quarters, Federer played Berdych in the quarters on night season where he had never lose a single match but this time it was different and Berdych scheduled a clash versus the Great-Britain #1. Murray defeated the Czech and met the current champion Djokovic in order for fighting for his first Major title after four lost finals.
I wasn't rooting for anyone specially; Nole is my fave but Murray deserved a Slam so bad. He started taking the first two sets, then Nole woke up to tie the clash at 2-2 but a physically clever Andy Murray was ready for playing a decisive set and taking his first Grand Slam tournament ever.

With no more Majors to play, it was time for Asian hard-court season. Many players won titles in the biggest continent in the world but Nole was probably the best one, by winning in Tokyo and then the Masters 1000 of Shanghai - in an epic final where he needed to save 5 match-points versus Andy Murray. The top-ranking was very close of returning again to the Serbian, and it virtually became a reality when Roger Federer didn't successfully defended his home town title - Juan Martin del Potro revenged his loss in the Olympics - and then withdrew from Paris.
Paris, the place of BNP Paribas Masters, the last M1000 event of 2012. With Nadal out of the courts and Federer resting for World Tour Finals, both Djokovic and Murray had her chances of taking the trophy but surprisingly lost in the 1st and 2nd round, respectively - Nole won the first 8 games of his match versus Sam Querrey but then ended up losing, and then Muzz didn't convert match-points versus the qualifier Jerzy Janowicz who would eventually reach the final. In the decisive match, however, David Ferrer wanted to end Janowicz fairytale in the City of Lights and the veteran Spaniard finally won his first Masters 1000 event.

It was the time of ATP World Tour Finals. The top-3 and Juan Martin del Potro naturally reached the semis, and poetically the last match of the ATP World Tour was played by the only two players who have occupied the top-ranking in 2011. Novak Djokovic spent a lot of time in the final trying to turn the set up to his side, but after another lesson of mental strength he defeated Roger Federer by 7-6 7-5 to win the last title of the season and confirm his status of world number one for the second year in a row.

The season couldn't end without the Davis Cup final. In Prague, the Czechs could defeat Spain by 3-2 - and Radek Stepanek became the national hero after so many years - and became the first National Team ever winning Hopman, Fed and Davis Cup in the same season. Also the ATP Challenger Tour Finals were once again played in São Paulo, giving the Italian Guido Pella his most important title of his career.

And that's all. Soon I'll also talk about WTA 2012 season, if you're still able to read such a extended text.
Cheers,
Pedro Mendes