2010 Men’s Tennis Year in Review

2010 began as so many recent years, with Roger Federer holding the world number 1 ranking.  Federer started the year by winning another Grand Slam event, the Australian Open.  It was his 16th Grand Slam title, the most by anyone in history.  As in most of the recent years, Rafael Nadal was behind Federer in the 2nd spot.  Nadal, who had briefly overtaken Federer for the top spot in 2009, was still on the mend from late season injuries.  Federer, however, was not the dominant force he once was.  He would not win another title for 7 months.

Rafael Nadal was healthy and determined by the time for clay court season.  Nadal, undisputably the greatest clay court player ever, won every major clay court title of the season.  In the process, he regained the top ranking in the world, and earned his 7th Grand Slam title at Roland Garros.  In the process, Federer’s streak of reaching the semi-finals or better at 23 straight Grand Slams came to an end when he lost to Robin Soderling in the quarter-finals.

Federer’s slide in the slams was not over, as he lost in the quarter-final round to Tomas Berdych at Wimbledon.  Nadal, however, was just getting warmed up.  Winning Wimbledon for the

2nd time, and his 8th Grand Slam title overall, Rafa again showed he is unstoppable when healthy.

Nadal remained healthy through the summer, winning the US Open, his 9th Grand Slam title.  He became the 7th man in history to win all 4 slams.

Federer would not go away, however, and won the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London, denying Nadal the one major title he has yet to claim.

The year was not all about Roger and Rafa, though.  There were some Americans that made news.  Andy Roddick remained among the tennis elite, finishing as the 8th ranked player in the world despite a summer slump.  Sam Queery burst into the top-20 on the strength of 4 title victories.  Big John Isner made news more for a 1st round match at Wimbledon than for his title at Auckland.  Isner and frenchman Nicolas Mahut played a match for a record-setting 3 days.  The match time was over 11 hours before Isner finally prevailed with a 70-68 score in the 5th set.  The 5th set alone was longer than any other match in history.

Serbia won the Davis Cup for the first time ever, in front of the a home crowd in Belgrade.  They defeated the French team in the 5th rubber of the final.

 

 

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