Decade's Best: Top Performances & Matches
Plus a few more Decade's Best awards.
First up, a ranking of the best (predominantly slam) singles performances of the decade.
Granted, all of these selections (and many more) were spectacular and memorable in their own right, so any sort of *in order* ranking is difficult, if not impossible, to be *totally* representative of the best -- top to bottom -- the decade had to offer. Essentially, after the first handful of choices that rather noticably float above the rest, it's something of a Pick-up-Stix list in which most selections can be tossed into the air and come down in almost any order.
Nonetheless, I endeavored to compile a list from #1 on down the line. In some cases, due to the lingering career and/or historic significance, many of the performances are instilled with a still-fresh-in-the-memory-after-all-these-years glow that has provided them with a "bump up the line" that often re-ordered even how I'd originally ranked such selections against the top performances that occurred during the same season. Still, I relied heavily on those year-end standings at the conclusion of each season of the 2010's to assist in collecting all the nominees. Thus, more often than not, the recaps largely consist of the words I used at the time (with some selected editing and additions) to describe each excellent tournament result, as well as a few extended periods of brilliance (sometimes over a multi-month stretch) that were so out of the ordinary that they allowed such runs to be collected into a *single* entry on the Top Performances list.
Anyway, here it goes...
Over the span of five months, Serena Williams pulled off a "Serena Golden Summer Slam (Plus)" run that rivaled her "Serena Slam" turn in 2002-03, as she became the first woman since 1988 (Graf) to sweep the Wimbledon, Olympics and U.S. Open title in a single season, and the first *ever* to top off that run by adding a season-ending Championships crown soon after, as well. She also won the doubles at Wimbledon and the Olympic Gold with sister Venus.
At Wimbledon, she defeated the world's #2, #3 and #4 (after twice escaping defeat against Yaroslava Shvedova & Zheng Jie) to claim her fifth career SW19 crown two years after winning her last slam title there in '10. It was her first major crown since she experienced life-threatening medical emergencies off the court. At the U.S. Open, she lost just one set (vs. Azarenka in the final) as she claimed her first title in her home slam since '08.
But if there was a true centerpiece to Williams' dominating summer, it was her rambling, running-roughshod-over-the-field road to the Olympic singles Gold Medal, which made her just the third player -- man or woman -- to achieve a "Career Six Pack," with all four slam titles, an Olympic singles Gold and SEC crown in her win column. In London (the tennis event was held on the grass at the AELTC) Serena never lost a set and dropped serve just once en route to the one major singles crown she'd never claimed. She defeated past and current #1's Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka, then finished things off in the Gold Medal match with an emphatic 6-0/6-1 destruction of another ex-#1, Maria Sharapova. After the final, Serena said she'd never played better. She was probably right.
2. 2016 = #PicaPower For the People
In the biggest Olympic tennis shocker ever, #34-ranked Monica Puig is crowned the Olympic singles champion in Rio, becoming the first person representing Puerto Rico to ever claim Olympic Gold.
Say hello to the first Gold medalist from Puerto Rico -- Monica Puig! #PicaPower pic.twitter.com/YXw6JZvcff
— TennisNow (@Tennis_Now) August 13, 2016
Puerto Rico had won eight medals, but none of them were gold. @MonicaAce93 changed that tonight.https://t.co/ZEkcpXIiW4
— USA TODAY Sports (@USATODAYsports) August 14, 2016
Puig rode her fiery, aggressive game to five straight wins that got progressively more astounding as the week went on. Down went Polona Hercog and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets. Then Puig took out #4-ranked Roland Garris champ Garbine Muguruza -- her first career Top 5 win -- 6-1/6-1. Next up, Laura Siegemund was held to the same two measly games in an all-unseeded QF, followed by two-time slam winner Petra Kvitova being taken out in three sets. Puig, amazingly, had reached the Olympic final as the lowest-ranked woman to ever play for singles Gold. But it HAD to end there, right? Nope... not in Rio. Against #2-ranked Australian Open (and, soon, U.S. Open, too) champ Angelique Kerber, Puig's calm in the face of monumental history being on her racket carried the day. She ended Kerber's spotless Rio set record in the 1st, then pulled away in the 3rd, taking a 5-0 lead and winning 6-4/4-6/6-1.
In all, it was a performance for the tennis ages. Two Top 5 wins, victories over three players who had won a combined four slams (and five by the end of '16), including two reigning major champions and what would be three of 2016's slam champs, was quite the feat for a player who came into the games with just a single tour title (won two years earlier) to her credit.
On the final day of play, Puig earned the title of "Olympic Legend." In Puerto Rico, for sure. For the rest of her life, and for generations thereafter.
#Rio2016 and the world just heard "La Borinqueña" play loud and clear. This moment is priceless #PicaPower #PUR pic.twitter.com/PWh0eEjUwa
— Demon Diva (@wwebloggerdiva) August 13, 2016
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3. 2011 = The Birth of Pojd!
Petra Kvitova grabs the tour by the scruff of the neck and wins Wimbledon in dominating fashion, starring in a coming out party of epic proportions that brought even all-time greats to their feet in amazement, and opponents to their knees. For her final act of grass court brilliance, the 21-year old destroyed Maria Sharapova in the final to become the youngest SW19 champ since '04 (Sharapova herself), the first lefty slam winner since '94 (Seles) and the first Czech since '98 (Novotna).
4. 2018 = The Great Wave of Osaka Arrives
Over two weeks in New York, Naomi Osaka road the wave of her tennis (and cultural) potential to her maiden slam title at the U.S. Open, becoming the first Japanese major champion, and at 20 the youngest winner in New York since 2006. She dropped just a single set, closing out the event with a pair of 6-2/6-4 victories over '17 finalist Madison Keys and seven-time U.S. champion Serena Williams in the final, overcoming the tremendous pressure of her first deep slam run as well as the distraction of all the nonsense stirred up by Williams during the match after the icon was correctly assessed a series of penalties by the chair umpire. Osaka's win completely altered the course of her career (both on and off court, as her win at Flushing Meadows could ultimately prove to be the most lucrative course-correcting match victory in tennis history), and *officially* announced the coming of age of the era of "Generation PDQ" champions on the WTA tour.
5. 2018 = The (long awaited) Triumph of the Resilient Romanian
Simona Halep's longtime career quest for a slam title finally came to an end in her fourth major championship match, and her third in Paris in five years. Naturally, after having previously lost leads during her unsuccessful attempts, just as she had in the QF vs. Angelique Kerber (before taking out Garbine Muguruza in straights in the semis) she dropped the 1st set vs. Sloane Stephens in the Roland Garros final. Halep then staged a comeback from a break down in the 2nd to win in three. Befitting her previously star-crossed journey into the winner's circle, Halep was the first maiden slam winner who was already the reigning #1 player in the world when she finally achieved her breakthrough. The Romanian was the first from her nation in forty years to be crowned a major champion.
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6. 2012 = Sharapova's Clay Court Awakening
Maria Sharapova puts her hard-earned clay court prowess on full display, winning three clay titles and completing a "Career Grand Slam" with her first Roland Garros title. In Stuttgart, she defeated the likes of Petra Kvitova, Sam Stosur and Victoria Azarenka. In Rome, she defended her title, coming back from 6-4/4-0 deficit and MP down against Li Na in the final. Then, in Paris, Kvitova fell once again, along with surprise Roland Garros finalist Sara Errani, as the journey of the former clay court "cow on ice" came full circle as Sharpaova lifted the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen, the only major championship trophy she'd yet to place her hands around.
7. 2011 = Legendary Li
Reaching back-to-back slam finals in Melbourne and Paris in '11, 29-year old Li Na becomes "historic" as the first-ever Asian slam finalist, and then champion, as she thrills hundreds of millions back home in China with her play on the court (defeating four Top 10 players at RG: Kvitova, Azarenka, Sharapova and defending champ Schiavone in consecutive rounds), and charms the rest of the world with her winning sense of humor off it.
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8. 2017 = Suddenly, the Future *Was* Now
After starting the summer hard court season without a win on the season after returning from January foot surgery, Sloane Stephens was suddenly and unexpectedly unleashed upon the WTA landscape during the summer hard court season in the form of "Future Sloane," the greatest and very best version of herself, capable of dominating every level of competition and with the ability to win *any* tournament in which she appears. Unfortunately, *that* Sloane had mostly been a promise and a hope, glimpsed only occasionally, over the years since her early decade breakthrough. As she worked her game into form, Stephens reached back-to-back Premier semis in Toronto and Cincinnati, notched three Top 10 wins, rose from #957 to #17 in the rankings in less than two months and then, having finally taken her full and most lethal form, won her maiden slam title at Flushing Meadows, defeating close friend Madison Keys in an all-Bannerette U.S. Open final. For a brief moment, the Future and the present were one.
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9. 2013 = Serena Does Paris Again... finally
Serena Williams had many "career best" numbers in 2013, but her best moment was one that she'd experienced before -- winning at Roland Garros. She'd kicked off her "Serena Slam" run with a title in Paris in 2002, but had spent the last decade-plus living a "Groundhog Day" like existence in the City of Light, as it was "always something" that got in the way of a second title run there. Blown match points, Henin's wave, Razzano's upset. No matter how much she loved the city, Williams only found heartbreak there each spring. Until 2013. After joining together with French coach Patrick Mouratoglou to refine her focus, game and life, Williams spent much time in Paris over the previous year. At the start of the season, she made no bones about her desire to win a second RG crown, as her only Coupe Suzanne Lenglen replica trophy was "lonely" and had "spider webs" on it. By the time she returned there in late May, she was on an epic run. She arrived in Paris sporting a 16-0 season record on clay (w/ titles in Charleston, Rome and Madrid) and an 18-match winning streak, and proceeded to claim her long-awaited second RG crown while dropping just one set. She lifted Coupe Suzanne Lenglen #2 exactly eleven years to the day after she'd raised her first.
10. 2010 = Lucky #13
Serena Williams defends her Wimbledon title (SW19 win #4), her thirteenth career slam singles crown, without dropping a set (the fourth slam she'd won in such a dominating fashion). After consecutive wins over Maria Sharapova, Li Na and Petra Kvitova, she allowed Vera Zvonareva just two points on her first serve in a 6-3/6-2 final.
11. 2015 = Better Call Bencic
Belinda Bencic claims her biggest career title in Toronto by defeating four Top 10 players, including #1 Serena Williams (SF) and #3 Simona Halep (in the final, before the Romanian moved to #2 in the rankings a day later), becoming the first Swiss woman to win the Rogers Cup since 2000. The 18-year old was the youngest to defeat Williams in a full match since Maria Sharapova at the WTA Championships in 2004. In total, two of Bencic's defeated foes were slam champs (Williams/Ivanovic), three reached #1 (Williams/Ivanovic/Wozniacki) and all six wins came against players who had played in slam finals during their careers (Williams/Ivanovic/Halep/Wozniacki/Lisicki/Bouchard). To add a dash of seasoning to her recipe for success, Bencic also saved a MP in her 3rd Round victory over Lisicki.
2019 = Better Call Bencic (again)
Three and a half years removed from her four Top 10-win Premier 5 title run in Toronto, Belinda Bencic again defeated four Top 10 players on her way to claiming another P5 crown in Dubai, her first tour-level win since that title run in Canada. She saved six MP in defeating #9 Aryna Sabalenka in the 3rd Round, then came back from a set down in the QF to outlast a tiring #2 Simona Halep, her biggest win since 2016 (and biggest in a tour event since upsetting #1 Serena during the Toronto run). In the semis, two-time defending champ and world #6 Elina Svitolina led 5-3 in the 3rd set and served for the match at 5-4 only to squander a big event SF lead for a second straight week. In the final, Bencic took control against an ever-more-erratic #4 Petra Kvitova in three sets to claim career title #3.
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12. 2010 = Viva Francesca!
In unforgettable fashion, Francesca Schiavone kicks the decade in the proverbial butt -- less than six months into the 2010's -- with an improbable title run at Roland Garros. Previewing what would be a string of historic slam champs during the decade, the 29-year old Schiavone is the first Italian to claim a major title. She defeats five seeds en route to the crown, including Li Na, Maria Kirilenko, Caroline Wozniacki, Elena Dementieva and, one year after losing to her in the 1st Round in Paris, Sam Stosur in a 6-4/7-6 final by employing serve-and-volley tactics and forward play that dilute the Aussie's power and allows her to take control of the match. Schiavone would be the first of seven slam winners in the 2010's to become the maiden woman from their nation to win a major title.
13. 2018 = The Day of the Dane
Expelling Jana Fett's name to the annals of slam "What If...?" scenarios, Caroline Wozniacki overcomes 2 MP at 5-1, 40/15 deficit in the 3rd set of the Australian Open 2nd Round, then turns the Croat's squandered lead into her personal moment of destiny, going on to outlast #1 Simona Halep in a three-set final and finally claim her maiden slam title in Melbourne and briefly return to the top ranking after a tour record six-year absence.
14. 2016 = Vika's "Sunshine Double"
Victoria Azarenka's return to the eye of the WTA storm was given (seemingly) sturdy sea legs with a coast-to-coast North American run of dominance that included a rare sweep of the titles in Indian Wells and Miami that shot her directly back into the Top 5. After a post-injury 0-8 run vs. the Top 3, Azarenka's "Sunshine Double" (the first since 2005, and just the third ever) notched wins over #1 Serena Williams, #3 Angelique Kerber (who jumped to #2 a few days later), and #4 Garbine Muguruza. The three women claimed all four slams in '16, and seven of the eight berths in the finals. Vika's win over Williams in the Miami decider gave her mores wins in finals (4) over Serena than any other player, while her victory over Kerber ran her career head-to-head over the German to 7-1.
.@Vika7 Azarenka becomes the third player to complete the Sunshine double!
— WTA (@WTA) April 2, 2016
Joins Steffi Graf & @ClijstersKim! #WTA pic.twitter.com/uDkeiRQo5o
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15. 2014 = Petra Takes London (again)
Petra Kvitova puts to rest a box-full of the lingering troubles and doubts that had weighed on her career since winning at the All-England Club in '11, overcoming a stern first week challenge from Venus Williams before ultimately blasting Genie Bouchard 6-3/6-0 in a devastating performance in the final to become the eighth woman in the Open era to win multiple Wimbledon titles. With just three games lost in the 55-minute contest, the Czech's victory in the championship match was the most lopsided Ladies final in twenty-two years.
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16. 2017 = Latvian Thunder Rolls
Alona Ostapenko wins five three-setters over seven matches, firing a total of 299 no-doubt-about-it winners, and charging back from a 6-4/3-0 (and 3 BP for 4-0) deficit in the final vs. a denied-#1 (and her first major, for a while longer) Simona Halep. The Latvian (just two days past her 20th birthday) became the first unseeded RG champ in the Open era, the youngest in Paris since 1997, the youngest women's slam winner since 2006, the youngest maiden slam champ since 2004, and the first woman since 1979 to make her first tour title a major. The last to accomplish the latter feat in pro tennis was Gustavo Kuerten in Paris in 1997. He lifted the trophy on the day that Ostapenko was born in Latvia.
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17. 2017 = Baby on Board
Focused and ready from Day 1, Serena Williams won the third major title (of her Open era record 23, with this win surpassing Graf's 22) of her career without dropping a set, just one fewer than Martina Navratilova's record of four such slam runs. Meanwhile, with this seventh win no one had won more Australian Open titles in the Open era than her, either. Serena's triumph in the final over sister Venus was one more declaration of the historic path the siblings had staked out for the previous two decades, and it said a great deal about the breadth and depth of her career that Williams was barely even aware that she'd reclaimed the #1 ranking she lost in summer '16 with the victory. Afterward, noting that even during the trophy presentation, Margaret Court's all-time major total of 24 titles was already being mentioned, Serena only half-jokingly lamented, "23...24...25. It's never enough."
Of course, Williams, the oldest women's slam winner ever at age 35, *was* holding back some information (Venus knew, though), as she announced three months later that she was pregnant with her first child (daughter Olympia, born in September), and had been two months along when she won in Melbourne, making her the first known expectant mother to win a major title.
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18. 2011 = Slingin' Sammy Shines in the States
Samantha Stosur stretches out a brilliant, record-breaking run of results over a two-week span in New York, capturing the (then) longest U.S. Open women's match ever (1:35 a.m., vs. Dementieva), playing in the longest-ever women's tie-break in a slam (32 points vs. Kirilenko), and then outclassing Serena Williams in the final to become the first Aussie woman to claim a slam since 1981 (and first at the Open since '73), not to mention joining Sharapova as the only woman not also named Williams to defeat Serena in a slam final.
19. 2013 = Bartoli's Stunning SW19 Title Run
Marion Bartoli, known for so long for her on-court ticks and eccentricities, was also always seen as a dangerous lurker on the WTA tour capable of beating anyone on a given day. In 2007, she flashed such fire and skill en route to her only slam final at Wimbledon to produce a career-best moment. Until 2013 at SW19, that is. While La Trufflette knocked off two Top 3 seeds (Henin & Jankovic) six years earlier, the Pastry never faced a Top 16 seed in London six years later, as the tournament experienced an unprecedented string of shocking upsets and injury-related exits. But such calamity did nothing to dampen the #15-seeded Bartoli's title run, which took place without the loss of a single set, made the 28-year old the fifth-oldest first-time slam champ ever and the player who needed the most tries (47) to finally become a major winner, topping the previous mark (45) of former Wimbledon champ Jana Novotna, who'd actually served as Bartoli's coach for a brief period earlier that season. Six weeks after her moment on Centre Court, the dramatic Frenchwoman surprised (and, oddly enough, also didn't) many when she suddenly retired from the game.
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20. 2016 = Angie's Aussie Excellence
Angelique Kerber stuns Serena Williams in the final to win the Australian Open, becoming the first woman to defeat her in a three-set slam final. The win makes her the first German to claim a slam crown since 1999 (Graf at RG), the first to win the AO since '94 and the first lefty champ in Melbourne since '96. After saving MP in her 1st Round match vs. Misaki Doi (she was the first to win a slam after doing that so early in tournament, too), Kerber won thirteen of her next fourteen sets (dropping only the 2nd in the final vs. Serena) on her way to the title.
21. 2019 = Sublime Si-mo-na
Simona Halep loses just one set en route to becoming the first Romanian to win the Wimbledon singles championship, thwarting Serena Williams' attempt to win slam #24 with a brilliant performance (she dubbed it her best match ever) in a 6-2/6-2 victory in the final. Halep's run-up to her second career major -- an (extra sweet) "icing on the cake" title run, following her '18 RG win, if there ever was one -- included straight sets wins over former #1 Victoria Azarenka (3rd Rd.), sudden teen star Coco Gauff (4th) and Elina Svitolina (SF).
22. 2012 = The Verisimilitude of Vika
Victoria Azarenka, dominates the first third of the 2012 season, winning four straight titles and twenty-six consecutive matches, the longest season-opening winning streak since 1997. In Melbourne, donning white shorts and sporting a willingness to put a foot to the neck of an opponent and step down hard, she became the twenty-first world #1 in tour history by defeating Maria Sharapova in the final to win her maiden slam crown, becoming the first woman to jump from #3 directly into the top spot.
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23. 2017 = Garbi Swears off "Mugu-ing" at Wimbledon
Garbine Muguruza hit quite possibly her career peak during the '17 grass court season, going 10-2 and claiming her second career slam crown with a title run at Wimbledon. Coached in the event by Conchita Martinez rather than Sam Sumyk (who was away due to family issues), with whom she's had multiple on-court arguments during changeover visits in recent seasons, Muguruza played with an ease and crispness rarely witnessed even in her previous best moments, and never got caught up in any extended bad stretches. Dropping just one set during the fortnight, she defeated three former slam champs -- Kerber, Kuznetsova, and V.Williams in the final -- en route to the win.
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24. 2019 = Big Apple Bianca
In her tournament debut, Bianca Andreescu caps off her remarkable breakout season by bringing together all aspects of her multi-layered game at the U.S. Open to become the first teenager to win a major since 2006, as well as the first player born in the 2000's and the the first Canadian ever to win a major singles crown. She lost just two sets en route, sweeping through the likes of Caroline Wozniacki, Belinda Bencic and, ultimately, 38-year old Serena Williams in a 6-3/7-5 final that featured the biggest age difference between finalists in a slam in the Open era.
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25. 2016 = Serena Catches Steffi
With a handful of players nipping at her heels, and with her just one title-less Wimbledon away from being shut-out of being the reigning champion at any of the slams for the first time in four years, Serena Williams took the AELTC and threw her own backyard BBQ once more. Over the span of the fortnight, she notched career slam match win #300, reached 300 weeks in the #1 ranking during her career, fired her 800th ace at the All-England Club, held serve in thirty straight games without facing a break point, and finally put away her seventh Wimbledon singles title to tie Steffi Graf's record of 22 slam wins in the Open era. Oh, and then she went out and won the doubles with Venus, too, taking home SW19 title #6 and the Sisters' overall 14th slam championship. And somehow she made it seem like it was "all in a day's work," as only she (still) can.
26. 2015 = Serena Slam II
Serena Williams completes her second "Serena Slam," winning her fourth straight major title, her sixth Wimbledon crown and her 21st slam, surpassing Martina Navratilova as the oldest women's slam champ in the Open era at 33 years, 263 days (she broke her own mark in 2016, and 2017). It was her eighth major title since turning thirty. Only two other woman (Navratilova and Margaret Court) in the Open era have won as many as three. She showed up at the U.S. Open with a chance at her first Grand Slam (the last to accomplish the feat was Steffi Graf in 1988), only to fall in the semifinals to Roberta Vinci in the upset of the year.
27. 2016 = The World According to Garbi
Garbine Muguruza came to Paris with great potential for success, as long as she could keep her head about her (in other words, no "Mugu-ing" was to be allowed). After dropping her opening set in the 1st Round to Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, Muguruza put her head down and ran off fourteen straight sets en route to her first slam title (and just her third overall tour title) at Roland Garros, a run that included wins over former slam champs Svetlana Kuznetsova, Sam Stosur and reigning #1 and defending champ Serena Williams in the final. Defeating Williams for the second time (w/ her '14 2nd Rd. win) in Paris, Muguruza simply outplayed Serena in the championship match, adding her name to the short list of woman who'd beaten the (soon-to-be) 22-time major winner in her (then) twenty-eight (after SW19) career slam finals. The first Spanish woman to win a slam since 1998 (Sanchez), the first to reach a slam final since 2000 (Martinez), the first South American-born (Venezuela) winner since 1990 (Sabatini), and the youngest slam champ since 2012 (Azarenka), 22-year old Muguruza rose to a (then) career-best #2 as she left Paris.
Championship Point! Congrats @Flavia_Pennetta!! #USOpen pic.twitter.com/LI8bVjtWw9
— WTA (@WTA) September 12, 2015
28. 2015 = Flavia!
At 33 and having recovered from career-threatening wrist surgery, Flavia Pennetta becomes the oldest first-time slam champion in tour history at the U.S. Open, getting wins over a former Open Champ (Stosur) and two Top 4 players (Kvitova & Halep) before topping Roberta Vinci in the first-ever all-Italian final at a major. During the post-match ceremony, Pennetta shockingly announced he impending retirement.
"This is the way I would like to say goodbye to tennis." -@Flavia_Pennetta #USOpen pic.twitter.com/0pr5SCRHdT
— WTA (@WTA) September 12, 2015
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29. 2010 = Kim in the City
Kim Clijsters rules in New York City once again. In defending her U.S. Open title, her third overall, the Belgian ran her winning streak in Flushing Meadows to 21 matches, having not lost at the Open since the 2003 final. Her string of victims included Petra Kvitova, Ana Ivanovic, Sam Stosur and Venus Williams before an obliteration of an in-over-her-head Vera Zvonareva, in her second straight major final, in a 6-2/6-1 championship match.
30. 2016 = The Angie of New York's Eye
Angelique Kerber's yellow brick road to never-before-seen success cut yet another brilliant path, this time through New York. By the time the U.S. Open was over, the German had swept through seven matches at a major for the second time in 2016 (dropping just one set, in the final vs. Karolina Pliskova), put behind her her disappointing summer losses in the Wimbledon, Olympic and Cincinnati finals, become the first #1-ranked player from Germany since her idol (and recent confidant) Steffi Graf and, at 28, the oldest woman to ever make her debut in the top spot. Down the stretch in the final, the keys to victory were the same things that have lifted Kerber from the tour pack to the top of the heap: her belief in herself, her commitment to a gameplan and, of course, her greatest preparation for battle -- her fitness.
US OPEN CHAMPION!!! WOW, I DID IT!!! pic.twitter.com/YpWv5A7jaM
— Angelique Kerber (@AngeliqueKerber) September 10, 2016
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HM- 2018 = The Singaporean Song of Svitolina
Still seeking her slam breakthrough even while having racked up many titles and #1 wins on the "regular" tour, Elina Svitolina battled her way into the WTA Finals field down the stretch in 2018. Then, after a career filled with big match collapses in majors, found her gritty groove in the last WTAF held in Singapore, as the Ukrainian went undefeated in five matches while winning a series of three-setters over Caroline Wozniacki, Karolina Pliskova, Kiki Bertens and, in the in the final, Sloane Stephens en route to her biggest career title.
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2010 = Getting Things Started Down Under
Serena Williams wins her fifth Australian Open title, but her first in an even-numbered year. As has so often been the case throughout her career, Williams had to come back from the brink of defeat to claim the championship. This time it was after overcoming a 6-4/4-0 deficit against Victoria Azarenka, who twice served for the match in the quarterfinals. Her path to the first slam crown of the 2010's, and Williams' first in a *third* different decade, included three future slam champs (a young Kvitova, Stosur, Azarenka and Li) and a back-from-retirement Waffle (Justine Henin, in her only slam final match-up vs. Williams).
2011 = One More for the Road
Kim Clijsters begins 2011 on fire Down Under, winning her first Australian Open title. It's her fourth straight victory in eight career slam final appearances (after having lost her first four in the first phase of her career), and it follows up on her '10 victories at the U.S. Open and WTA Championships to help push her back to the #1 ranking (for one week) for the first time since 2006. Following her win in Melbourne, KC's post-comeback slam match record stood at an astounding 27-2. She miss three of the next seven majors due to injury, ultimately reting (again) after the 2012 U.S. Open. After more than seven years away, Clijsters has announced a *second* comeback to begin during the 2020 season.
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2012 = The Queen of Blue (??) Clay
Serena Williams wins in the inaugural event on blue clay in Madrid (a gimmick thought up by tournament director Ion Tiriac, and quickly abandoned after one year due to player complaints), defeating #1 Azarenka and #2 Sharapova, and extending her clay court winning streak to thirteen.
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2012 = The Golden Set
In the 3rd Round at Wimbledon, Yaroslava Shvedova completes a rare "Golden Set" (or, as the Russian-born Kazakh said, "Today I laid a golden egg!") -- winning all 24 points in a set -- against Sara Errani in her 6-0/6-4 victory. How rare? Well, she was the first woman to EVER do it in the WTA... and the only man to have done it on the ATP tour was Bill Scanlon in 1983.
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2013 = Azarenka > "Cheaterenka"
Victoria Azarenka weathers a ridiculous "VikaGate" media storm following the controversy surrounding her medical timeout(s) in a semifinal match she'd been dominating vs. Sloane Stephens to defend her Australian Open crown with a tight win in the final over and in-form (but stumbling, literally, and bonking her head on the court surface... yet still managing to laugh about it all) Li Na. It's Vika's third straight appearance in the final of a hard court slam, and she'd make it four with a runner-up result at the U.S. Open during the summer, making her a 26-2 combined AO/US record in 2012-13.
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2013 = Wimbledon's Black Wednesday (aka "The Radwanskian Massacre")
On June 26, the craziest day in the one hundred and twenty seven year history of Wimbledon, and likely at ANY grand slam EVER, "Black Wednesday" in London saw seven former men's/women's #1-ranked players fail to advance out of the 2nd Round, and amidst myriad slips, stumbles and falls, four players awarded walkovers to their opponents, while three more retired mid-match (four if you count doubles). Day 3 witnessed six Top 10 seeds have their Wimbledons unceremoniously come to a close while, as far as the #1's went, ultimately, Victoria Azarenka withdrew, while Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic, Caroline Wozniacki, Roger Federer and Leyton Hewitt all lost on a day of abject mayhem.
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2013 = The Shot
Aga. 360. 'Nuff said.
Are you kidding me! Aga Radwanska wrong-footed by a net cord 360 spin backhand volley winner. Shot of the year? http://t.co/NtB01JAp4I #WTA
— WTA (@WTA) March 27, 2013
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2014 = Li Na being Li Na
Li Na finally wins the Australian Open in her third appearance in the final, battling her way to a career-best #2 in the rankings. The Chinese vet dropped just one set in Melbourne (saving a match point vs. Lucie Safarova in the 3rd Round), though she never had to face a player ranked in the Top 20 during the two weeks. Afterward, Li shined still brighter in an astounding (even by her already-high standards) post-match ceremony performance. But by the end of the summer, thanks to a chronic knee injury, Li had announced her retirement.
2015 = Serena the Scrapper
Serena Williams claims slam #20 at Roland Garros, taking the long way around nearly every match over the two-week event. She played five three-setters, coming back from 0-1 down four times, including in three straight matches for the first time since her very first slam title run in NYC in 1999. Anna-Lena Friedsam pushed her to three sets, Vika Azarenka held a set and 4-2 lead on her in the 3rd Round, and Sloane Stephens was three points from a straights sets victory in the Round of 16. In the semis, Timea Bacsinszky led by a set and a break as a flu-ridden Williams seemed about to collapse. In the final, leading by a set and 4-1 (one point from 5-1), Williams hit a bad stretch as Lucie Safarova turned her game around and Serena had to stage one final comeback (from 2-0 down in the 3rd) before she could confirm what we all already knew: she's was STILL the best.
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2016 = Turkish Delight
Playing in her Istanbul hometown, Cagla Buyukakcay rode the wave of her own tennis momentum and the support of the crowd to her first career tour singles semifinal, final and maiden title, defeating Danka Kovinic in a 3-6/6-2/6-3 final. She was the first Turkish woman to accomplish any of those feats in WTA history, and the 26-year old rose into the Top 100 for the first time. A month later, she qualified in Paris to become the first Turk in a slam MD in the Open era, where she also became the first to get a match victory (though, thanks to the Parisian rain, it took her two days to get the job done).
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2016 = The Eternal Sunshine of the Gavrilovian Mind: Post-Match Edition
Daria Gavrilova tells on-court interviewer “I’m good from behind” in hilarious Aussie Open… https://t.co/PxoQHND1yX pic.twitter.com/n2W9BesZdw
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 22, 2016Daria Gavrilova: "I'm good from behind". Ooops #quoteoftheday
pic.twitter.com/uxbtIlwOW3
— Giorgio Spalluto (@GeorgeSpalluto) January 22, 2016===============================================
2017 = 18 Years a Slam Semifinalist
Coming eighteen years and several lifetimes worth of anxiety and uncertainty after her original slam semifinal performance at Wimbledon in 1999, no one foresaw 34-year old Croat Mirjana Lucic-Baroni rising to such heights once again in Melbourne. Not even her, though she never gave the sources of her by now well-known struggles the satisfaction of ever seeing her give up. Even in a run of remarkable and unexpected seasons of great stories to close out the 2010's, her storybook AO run, while it may have receded into the collective memory by now, was never truly overtaken as the most unexpected and heartwarming occurrence of 2017. Nor, maybe, the entire decade.
Mirjana #LucicBaroni is through to the SF #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/ywsCOXuXpz
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 25, 2017
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2017 = Welcome Back, Petra
Having survived a home invasion experience and a fight with a knife-wielding burglar the previous December, Petra Kvitova returned to the tour after emergency surgery on her left hand and fingers saved her career. After receiving loads of celebratory "welcome back" love at Roland Garros, the Czech returned to her beloved English grass courts with just as much heartwarming support, but a bit less of the fascination involved with her trip to Paris. We knew she could again hold a racket, and we'd soon learn that she couldn't *fully* grip it, but we didn't know how much match play she'd need to regain her old form. As it turned out, the Czech picked up right where she left off. Her Birmingham title run gave her career win #20, and her first singles crown on grass outside the gates of the AELTC, as she reached the final without dropping a set and then won out after being tested by Ash Barty in the final, dropping the 1st set but pulling ahead in the middle of a tight early 3rd to take the crown.
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2018 = Simona the Warrior
Has a player *ever* given so much, or come so close, finding a way to fight and survive until the very bitter end... yet still come away with nothing to show for it, *and* got knocked from her #1-ranking position? While Simona Halep's eleven-match winning streak to start the '18 season, highlighted by her ankle-rolling-and-heart-in-throat start and eventual five-MP-saving-in-two-different-matches (vs. Lauren Davis and Angelique Kerber; aside from other wins over Karolina Pliskova and Naomi Osaka) journey to the Australian Open final left her in the position of being the latest hard-luck, star-crossed Fan Favorite without a slam title, but earned her the ultimate respect of her peers and backing of anyone who enjoyed seeing a good story get the grand ending it deserves.
As it turned out, there was a happy ending. Eventually. She was crowned Roland Garros champion five months later.
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2018 = The
Kiki Bertens, former "clay court specialist," erases any remaining doubts about her hard court bona fides in Cincinnati. The Dutch woman notches four Top 10 victories in all, as defeats of U.S. Open semifinalist CoCo Vandeweghe and Anett Kontaveit were strung together with connective wins in Ohio over AO champ (world #2) Caroline Wozniacki, soon-to-be-WTAF-champ Elina Svitolina and '18 tour title leader Petra Kvitova to reach her first tour-level hard court final. There she faced down a MP in the 2nd set vs. #1 (and RG champ) Simona Halep, found the belief within herself to "go for it," increased her aggression and walked off with the biggest title of her career. Boom. An *all-surface* star was officially born.
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2018 = New York City, by Way of Indian Wells
After an early career filled with promise but weighed down by inconsistency, Naomi Osaka finally "scratches the surface" of her talent by finding her way to her maiden tour title in Indian Wells with a previously unseen level of between-the-lines equilibrium maintained while stacking up victories over the likes of Maria Sharapova, Aga Radwanska, Karolina Pliskova, Simona Halep and Dasha Kasatkina. The youngest I.W. champ in a decade, and the first unseeded winner since Kim Clijsters in '05, Osaka is also the first Japanese player to reach a Premier Mandatory final, and the lowest-ranked (#44) Premier Mandatory champion. She'd go on to win the U.S. Open that season, then become the first player since 2001 to win her *second* major in her next slam appearance (at the '19 AO).
— NaomiOsaka????? (@naomiosaka) March 19, 2018
2019 = "I Want This So Bad!"
A year later, the desert proved to be Bianca Andreescu's first proving ground, as well, as Top 20 (Wang Qiang & Garbine Muguruza) and Top 10 (Elina Svitolina & Angelique Kerber) players were dispatched with an array of in-rally variety and late-match guts that made the 18-year old a maiden tour singles title winner at Indian Wells in her first career Premier Mandatory event appearance. The win made her the tournament's fourth unseeded champ, first wild card winner, fourth youngest titlist (and youngest since a 17-year old Serena Williams in 1999), as well as the tour's lowest-ranked (#60) player to ever win a PM championship. She, like Osaka, would add a U.S. Open title to her column by the end of the year.
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1. 2013 - Serena Williams
...#1 (78-4); won Roland Garros, U.S. Open and WTAF, as well as Miami, Madrid, Rome, Rogers Cup and Beijing; 11-2 in finals; 21 Top 10 wins; runner-up in Cincinnati
2. 2012 - Serena Williams
...#3 (58-4); won Wimbledon, Olympic Gold (London), U.S. Open and WTAF (first woman to win all four in single season); won Madrid singles, and doubles at Wimbedon, Gold at Olympics (w/ Venus); 8-0 in finals; 18 Top 10 wins (4 over #1's)
3. 2015 - Serena Williams
...#1 (53-3); won Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon (completed "Serena Slam II"), as well as Miami and Cincinnati; 5-0 in finals; 6 Top 10 wins
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4. 2012 - Victoria Azarenka
...#1 (69-10); won Australian Open (first BLR slam champ), Olympic Bronze (London); won Qatar, Indian Wells and Beijing; MX doubles Olympic Gold (w/ Mirnyi); 6-3 in finals; 19 Top 10 wins; runner-up at Madrid and U.S. Open
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5. 2011 - Petra Kvitova
...#2 (56-11); won Wimbledon and WTAF, as well as Madrid; Czech Republic Fed Cup title; 6-1 in finals; 13 Top 10 wins (1 #1 win)
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6. 2019 - Ash Barty [Most Versatile Season]
...#1 (57-13); first AUS year-end #1; won Roland Garros and WTA, as well as Miami; won Rome doubles (w/ Azarenka); 4-2 in finals; 12 Top 10 wins (1 over #1); carried Australia to Fed Cup final
7. 2016 - Angelique Kerber
...#1 (63-18); won Australian Open and U.S. Open; 3-5 in finals; 12 Top 10 wins (1 over #1); finals at Wimbledon, Olympics, Cincinnati and WTAF
8. 2010 - Serena Williams
...#4 (25-4); won Australian Open and Wimbledon, as well as Miami and Cincinnati; doubles titles at Australian Open, Roland Garros and Madrid (all w/ Venus); 2-1 in finals; 1 Top 10 win
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9. 2014 - Serena Williams
...#1 (52-8); won U.S. Open and WTAF, plus Miami, Rome and Cincinnati; 7-0 in finals; 15 Top 10 wins
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10. 2010 - Kim Clijsters
...#3 (40-7); won U.S. Open (defended; 3rd con. U.S. since '05) and WTAF; won Miami and Cincinnati; 5-0 in finals; 10 Top 10 wins (1 over #1)
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HM- 2012 - Maria Sharapova
...#2 (60-11); won first Roland Garros to complete Career Slam; won Rome; 3-6 in finals; 14 Top 10 wins (2 over #1); runner-up at Australian Open, Indian Wells, Miami, Olympics, Beijing and WTAF
Simona Halep wasn't the Player of the Decade, even if she did win two majors, spend 64 weeks at #1 (10th all-time) and enters 2020 with the longest active streaks in the Top 10 (309 weeks, nearly twice as long as the next longest active run) and Top 20 (329). But for Backspin, the Romanian evolved into the heart of soul of everything right about women's tennis. And, quite frankly, is a picture perfect example of the very best career-long journeys that we witness through the prism of sports.
A junior champion at Roland Garros in '08, the Romanian had her breakthrough WTA season in 2013, winning half a dozen titles and rising from around #50 in the world to just outside the Top 10. She crossed *that* divide early in '14 and soon after reached her first slam final in Paris, losing in three tough sets to Maria Sharapova. But even as she maintained a high level of tennis, finishing every season from 2014 forward in the Top 5, the highest level of success -- a slam title -- remained elusive. Largely, the problem resided within Halep herself.
While she hadn't allowed her smallish size to hold her back, much like her childhood idol Justine Henin, and had developed the heart of a warrior, something remained missing. Halep admitted that when she was a little girl she "didn't have the courage to dream," and as she reached her mid-twenties, having been on tour for nearly a decade, her worst enemy continued to be a stubborn lack of belief in herself. Though she had the
In Backspinese, this entire process even earned a moniker: "The Cliffs of Simona," as Halep's inner meltdowns preceded crushing losses in big matches on the biggest stages when her frustrations led her to the edge of failure and sent her hopes and dreams over the side to their proverbial "death."
But she never gave up.
After a short break with Cahill after he'd walked away in the spring of '17, issuing Halep an ultimatum after he believed she'd given up in a match vs. Johanna Konta in Miami, Simona was finally "scared straight" and vowed to right the internal wrongs that only *she* could fix. The moment, and her reaction to it, changed everything.
She finished '17 at #1, and by the time the Australian Open had rolled around the following January, Halep nearly upstaged the *actual* champion of the event (Caroline Wozniacki) with her incredible string of marathon performances -- as she battled out of hugh scoreboard holes and through injury in the intense Melbourne heat -- en route to the final. It was the greatest non-championship performance of the entire decade, and maybe ever. She ended up in the hospital for exhaustion after the event, but her course was set for something great.
At Roland Garros, finally, she wasn't to be denied.
In Halep's third final in five years in Paris, the long distance triumph of the resilient Romanian finally became a reality with her maiden slam crown that somehow made all the heartbreak, anger, injury, blood, sweat, tears and disappointment worth it. Her deserved moment in the sun brought down a crescendo of relief, satisfaction and admiration both from and for Halep, cementing her legacy not only as a national sporting heroine in Romania but as one of the most beloved tennis champions worldwide.
While the many titles and tribulations of Serena Williams were indeed the virtual life force that propelled the tour through another decade, Halep's journey formed the backbone that allowed the tour to stand up straight and maintain the creed of always striving for more, no matter the perceived limiting factors in the effort. Her path to becoming a champion is the sort of thing that makes sport great.
Halep's unexpected victory lap at Wimbledon a year later, coming after many lessons learned had instilled a still-growing confidence in her own abilities brought Simona an extra special bonus that remarkably may have even topped her win in Paris. *That* title run was about proving to herself what she was capable of, while her second major title was about what she had *become* because of that hard-earned knowledge. She'd taught herself to *always* be strong, and her second major win was her first public moment to revel in that accomplishment.
(And, remember, she's talked openly about Olympic Gold being her *ultimate* dream. So, stay tuned to see where her journey takes her in Tokyo in 2020.)
This little corner of women's tennis conversation was born from the early career of Jelena Dokic, then sustained by the triumphs of Henin. This just concluding decade began with the brief return of "La Petit Taureau," and was followed by a period when it appeared as if Victoria Azarenka would be the new "Face of Backspin." For a time, she was. But as the 2010's wore on, time wasn't kind to the Belarusian's tennis dreams, often not of her own accord (still crossing fingers for her *true* rebirth, though). In Vika's long absences, Halep's career journey took center stage.
And what a wonderful journey it's been to witness.
Of course, the WTA is a constantly evolving organism. While Henin's place was ultimately taken by one who looked to the Belgian for inspiration, Halep's Romanian heritage may have already helped spark the aspirations of another who appears to be an apprentice waiting in the wings to assume Backspin's "power position." *Her* name is Bianca, From the North.
But that's for the 2020's to deal with, isn't it?
...6-3/5-7/9-7. Anytime Radwanska stepped onto a tennis court armed with her wand-like racket (and magician's mind), the overwhelming sense would pervade that anything might happen -- including something you may have never seen ever before. Throw Cibulkova, the decade's always-in-motion version of a human spark plug, into the mix and you get the sort of match that graced Court Three on Day 8 of Wimbledon in 2016.
The point of The Championships so far? ?????? @ARadwanska & @Cibulkova #Wimbledonhttps://t.co/UZ1HMkYjvv
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 5, 2016
It was a Round of 16 match that expertly doubled as performance art. A contest permeated with a menagerie of rallies that highlighted both touch and power, as well as unyielding tenacity, stubborn insistence and, naturally, a touch of magic dust (we ARE talking about a Radwanska match, after all). In the latter stages of its three-hour length, this shifting-in-momentum, marathon battle of wills left one of the most fit players on tour often bending over in exhaustion, and sometimes going so far as to roll over flat on her back and wish for it all to end. As long as she was declared the winner.
As it turned out, Cibulkova got her wish. Going into their 4th Round meeting, the two women had already put together a three-match dance in 2016 worthy of its own Tennis Channel marathon, with Cibulkova winning twice, but the two outdid themselves in match #4. Cibulkova's power and aggression seized control early and threatened to subdue the Pole's spellbinding (and casting) tendencies and, at least at this particular Wimbledon, her amazing run of luck, which had already included saving three MP (one on a net cord) against Ana Konjuh in the 2nd Round, then seeing the young Croat be largely denied the upset after stepping on a ball while running for a drop shot, badly rolling her ankle.
The #19-seeded Slovak broke Radwanska for a 3-1 lead, then forced her to save two BP in game #6 just to avoid going down a double break and essentially ceding the opening set. She held for 5-2, but was never able to reach BP on Cibulkova's serve. Cibulkova held for 6-3 to claim the 1st set, then continued to out-hit Radwanska in the 2nd.
In a match filled to the brim with seesawing momentum shifts, Cibulkova's forehand winner broke serve for 5-4, as Radwanska continued to struggle to use her full arsenal of shot variety due to the Slovak's power and pattern of consistently hitting most of her aggressive shots from inside the baseline. Finally, serving for the match, Cibulkova looked ready to put a stake through the heart of the Pole's Wimbledon dreams for yet another year. She went up 30/15 in game #10, only to see Radwanska pass her with a backhand shot. A Cibulkova DF followed and she was BP down. It was saved, but BP #2 arrived after Aga won a point that covered the entire court, from a drop shot at the net to all corners. Still, though, Aga had little margin for error. She netted a forehand return and Cibulkova was at MP.
The Slovak's wide backhand squandered her chance at a carefree afternoon and Radwanska soon reached BP #3. She stealthily moved in to the net to put away a FH volley and broke for 5-5. And away they went. Aga held for 6-5, then hit a forehand winner to go up 15/30 on Cibulkova's serve in game #12. Suddenly, momentum had turned enough to allow Radwanska to join the match midstream and quickly get up to speed. It took her nearly two full sets, but she'd finally broken down Cibulkova's defenses enough to play her OWN game. Flashing her renowned variety and knack for mind games, Aga began to fully utilize her great skills of anticipation, point construction and deft racket work. A backhand down the line winner gave Radwanska a SP, then Cibulkova's own backhand down the line went out and, all of a sudden, the Pole had somehow managed to save a MP and sneak off with a 7-5 set win that had evened the match.
As Radwanska's game blossomed, Cibulkova's confidence began to dip. Her pressure waned just a tad, and her bigger groundstrokes were absorbed by Aga's racket. But the stretch didn't last, as just as quickly as she'd lost them, the Slovak's confidence and swagger were back.
The two would open up the throttle and go full out the rest of the way, with both players consistently grabbing leads on their opponent's serve only to see them then steer the momentum back in their favor and (usually) hold. In game #5, Cibulkova led 15/40 on Radwanska serve, but Aga saved both BP and held for 3-2. A game later, Cibulkova held from love/30. She then further upped her aggression in game #7, going up love/40, this time getting the break for 4-3. But Radwanska chased down a drop shot and flipped things back in her favor again, going up 15/40 in game #8 and breaking back with a backhand winner. From 15/40 down, Aga saved three BP with two Cibulkova errors, her own reflex reaction to a ball that landed at her feet and crosscourt forehand winner. The Pole held for 5-4 two points later when the Slovak netted a backhand return.
At 5-5, Radwanska went up 40/30 on serve, but Cibulkova denied her with a forehand return winner on her second GP. It began a long dance in what would be a six-deuce game. A forehand crosscourt winner gave Cibulkova a BP. Aga fired an ace. Cibulkova's forehand down the line gave her BP #2, but Aga hit a forehand winner as a follow-up to her wide serve. The Slovak's forehand swing volley got her a third BP, but she fired a backhand out. Re-set. Another Cibulkova forehand winner down the line gave her a fourth BP, which Radwanska quickly erased with another big serve. By this point, it was getting ridiculous, as neither player would bend to the desires of the other long enough for it to matter. Cibulkova's backhand down the line gave her BP #5. Radwanska aced her... but a replay challenge overturned the point. So Aga instead fired a serve up the "T" to Cibulkova's forehand and the Slovak netted it. Finally, the Pole got a GP and her forehand skidded off the baseline and produced a Cibulkova error that allowed Radwanska to hold for 6-5.
Whew!
In the next game, Radwanska prevailed in a 20-shot rally to get to 15/15, and soon reached MP when Cibulkova fired a forehand out. But the Slovak saved it with a forehand winner, then held for 6-6. In game #13, Cibulkova's angled forehand from deep in the court allowed her to reach BP. A Radwanska forehand error secured the break for 7-6. The Slovak then served for the match for a second time. But she wouldn't put it away this time, either. She led 30/15, but missed a forehand to knot the game. Radwanska broke her for 7-7 with a forehand winner.
But it was to be Radwanska's final stand.
In game #15, Cibulkova carved out another BP opportunity. She failed to put it away and fired a forehand return long, but her second chance resulted in a Radwanska backhand error that gave Cibulkova the break for 8-7 and a third chance to serve to reach her first Wimbledon QF since 2011.
In the end, the final moments were tense. Cibulkova reached 15/15 with a forehand off a drop shot, rolling over on her back in exhaustion and staring at the sky at the conclusion of the point. But she gave the point back with an error a moment later. At 30/30, Cibulkova received a time violation from the chair umpire (come on... don't become the story, no matter how much the AELTC insists that you should over-officiate matches), setting her off but not so much that she lost her concentration. Radwanska's wide backhand gave Cibulkova her second MP. She missed on a forehand, but she got a another chance. Finally, on her third MP, Cibulkova's forehand winner (her 56th winner of the match, to Aga's own high count of 37) into the corner sealed a 6-3/5-7/9-7 victory... and gave birth to a million stories that will last a lifetime.
"I was really crying, it was emotional"
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 4, 2016
What it means to reach the #Wimbledon quarter-final, featuring@Cibulkovahttps://t.co/FonJyFtYOn
HIGHLIGHTS from @Cibulkova’s EPIC three-set thriller vs Radwanska--> https://t.co/h5JNzcOgKt #Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/jvQgxyBO0T
— WTA (@WTA) July 4, 2016
While Cibulkova celebrated, Radwanska gave little hint of the likely emotional turmoil roiling inside her as, once again, she'd failed to get the most out of a Wimbledon experience and came up short in her career quest for an elusive grand slam title. She warmly hugged the Slovak at the net.
This match linked them together, but only one could keep her dreams alive and survive to the next round.
Cibulkova on her win over Radwanska: "It was the toughest match for me I would say my whole career." #Wimbledon
— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) July 4, 2016
It's a pity, really. But it's the suddenly stark contrast between winning and losing that makes matches like this meaningful, as well as special. As always, it's about the stakes.
As it turned out, the two never faced off again, with Radwanska retiring after '18 and Cibulkova a year later. But this match lives on in the mystical tennis ether... held aloft by a magic all its own.
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2. 2011 Australian Open 4th Rd - Francesca Schiavone def. Svetlana Kuznetsova
...6-4/1-6/16-14. You want drama? Then call on Francesca. In an Open era slam record 4:44 match, Schiavone saved six match points in the 3:00 3rd set. Ultimately, she won on her own third MP after having overcome a groin injury and a 4-2 deciding set deficit against Kuznetsova, who, for her part, was dealing with blisters on her feet. One year after winning Roland Garros, Schiavone didn't have the sort of career year that she experienced in 2010. But in the slams, she was a marvel, producing great moments (and matches) at all four of the season's biggest events. None could ever live up to the theatrics of this one, though.
Coach to Vinci "you're not physically tired, you are mental destroyed. Stop complain!" Roberta"did you see what shots she played?"
— Angelica Fratini (@angelikf) February 25, 2016
3. 2016 Doha QF - Aga Radwanska def. Roberta Vinci
...3-6/6-2/6-3. Radwanska may have ultimately come up well short of winning the Doha title, but before her run ended she delivered a brilliant performance in a crazy-good QF match vs. Vinci. In a contest that was either a criminally short 1:51 or a perfectly condensed masterpiece, the quality of the tennis was in no way evident in the deceiving final scoreline. With their somewhat similar, variety-loving styles perfectly complementing one another, Radwanska and Vinci alternated flashes of aggression and trick shot artistry for three complete, crowd-pleasing and awe-inspiring sets of competition that left not only the fans on the sidelines having to pick their jaws off the floor, but the players (well, at least Roberta, who was heard to loudly mutter "Not fair!" at one point), as well.
Same. ?? pic.twitter.com/I0UZuSE8wj
— WTA (@WTA) February 25, 2016
An on-fire Vinci dominated the 1st, but Radwanska slowly but surely began to seize control of the match's momentum soon afterward, pulling off roughly (and conservatively) a dozen to twenty shots (including three in a single game, if memory serves correctly) that would be in the running for Shot of the Month/Year if, you know, Aga was a regular mortal and the rules of shotmaking that apply to everyone else were something by which her particularly magical skills were even slightly constrained. Setting Twitter aflame, leaving an in-form Vinci nonetheless shaking her head and then admitting afterward that even she is occasionally surprised when some of her shots land in, this was a case of Aga at her Radwanskian best. So much so that you almost forgive her having nothing left to give a day later in the SF. Vinci's final surge to turn a 4-1 3rd set deficit into a not-a-runaway final stanza secured the goods that ensured this match would be included on the short list for, at the very least, the "Most Enjoyable Match" of not only 2016, but, really the *entire* decade.
Hope you enjoyed that one as much as me ??
— Aga Radwanska (@ARadwanska) February 25, 2016
Yep, Aga. We did.
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4. 2013 Cincinnati Final - Victoria Azarenka def. Serena Williams
...2-6/6-2/7-6(6). Matching the accomplishment of her three-set win over Serena in the Doha final, Azarenka pushes Williams to three and emerges with a win. After the first two sets' scoreline read the same as the '12 U.S. Open final, Azarenka breaks for 4-2 in the 3rd but fails to convert a game point for 5-2. The match is decided by a tie-break, where Serena overcomes a 4-2 deficit and takes a 5-4 lead. With the match on her racket, Williams loses back-to-back service points, missing long on an open court shot and then double-faulting. Azarenka gives herself a second match point in the TB with a low-angled volley off a hard Williams forehand passing attempt, then wins when Serena nets a forehand. Later, Williams credited the loss with renewing her focus for Flushing Meadows. Speaking of...
2013 U.S. Open Final - Serena Williams def. Victoria Azarenka
...7-5/6-7(6)/6-1. A great championship-level performance by Serena in the second straight three-set Open final between the two. Even with Williams' victory, this one is most highlighted by Azarenka, who came within two points of taking the 1st set, and her remarkable 2nd set comeback. Down a double-break at 4-1, Azarenka twice saw Serena serve for the title (a year after Vika had failed to do the same against her in the '12 final) and come as close as two points from locking away the match before a tie-break was needed to decide the set. There, Azarenka overcame another disadvantage -- a mini-break deficit at 3-1 -- and won 8-6 to forced a deciding 3rd. In the end, Serena's experience came to the forefront, but BOTH players emerged as "winners," having done something for which they could be proud.
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This match.
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 20, 2018
The tug of war continues with Halep holding to square it up 13-13.#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/0WS17fgBgV
5. 2018 Australian Open 3rd Rd. - Simona Halep def. Lauren Davis
...4-6/6-2/15-13. Halep did not ultimately win the Australian Open. But she definitely left in her wake a few spray-painted "Simona was Here" tags strategically placed all over Melbourne Park. Another example came on the middle Saturday -- nearly ALL that Saturday, in fact -- when she and Davis spent their time coating Rod Laver Arena with a blood-and-sweat (but no tears) masterpiece in The Match That Ate Day 6.
In 3:44, the third-longest AO women's match ever (tied for the most ever in total games) and tied for the longest of the 2018 season, Halep won her Warrior masterpiece against a game Davis in a battle that, quite literally, was decided by a toenail. In the 2:22 3rd set, Halep faced triple MP at love/40, escaping with a combination of her own guile and Davis' toenail coming off at just about the WORST MOMENT EVER ("Atta boy!," said the ball that rolled under Ana Konjuh's feet vs. Aga Radwanska at Wimbledon in 2016, from it's current home at the end of a dangling string in a garage outside London). On her fourth attempt to serve out the match, Halep finally prevailed. Afterward, she said, "I'm almost dead."
"I'm almost dead."@Simona_Halep = warrior ??#AusOPen pic.twitter.com/5OWxzfvNCk
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 20, 2018
2018 Australian Open SF - Simona Halep def. Angelique Kerber
...6-3/4-6/9-7. Two warriors, brought to their knees by the never-say-die competitiveness of the other. Halep served at 5-3 in the 3rd set, but Kerber saved two MP. Then it was Simona's turn, saving two Kerber MP. Nearly half an hour after she'd had a chance to finish off the match the first time around, Halep won on her fourth MP of the day to reach her third career slam final. Credited with 50 winners in the match, the Romanian admitted to being proud of herself for persevering beyond reason for what seemed to be just about the millionth time over the span of two weeks in Melbourne.
Incredible @Simona_Halep ??#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/Bs9ykQh9bE
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 25, 2018
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6. 2014 Wimbledon 3rd Rd. - Petra Kvitova def. Venus Williams
...5-7/7-6(2)/7-5. In 2:30, a fitting "Cool Classic" that was the first match-up on grass between two woman who, by the end of the tournament, would have won the title at SW19 a combined seven times in fifteen years, and five in ten. Only three break points were carved out in the match: Venus saved one to hold in the first game of the match, then converted the second to take the 1st set before Kvitova finished things off with a break to win the match. Williams came within two points of the match in the 2nd set, but five errors in the tie-break prevented what could have been a story for the ages. Instead, it would be Kvitova who'd go on to claim her second championship at the All-England club.
7. 2015 Roland Garros 2nd Rd. - Francesca Schiavone def. Svetlana Kuznetsova
...6-7(11)/7-5/10-8. As expected, Francesca and Sveta teamed up for another memorable slam "instant classic." At the 2011 Australian Open, they faced off in a slam record 4:44 marathon, while this "short" 3:50 affair was "only" the third-longest women's match in RG history. But that just condensed the drama into a shorter window. Schiavone held a set point in the 1st, but Kuznetsova took the lead on the fourth SP of her own. The Italian won the 2nd after being down an early break. In the 3rd, the Russian led 4-2 and served for the match four times, holding a match point, but the '10 RG champ refused to give in, outlasting the '09 winner as the match ended with ten breaks of serve in the final eleven games.
So many emotions from 2010 champion @Schiavone_Fra after grinding out a 2R victory over #Kuznetsova. #RG15
https://t.co/e7Q9ECzvum
— Roland Garros (@rolandgarros) May 28, 2015Vi siete divertiti?
Did you enjoy it?
@rolandgarros pic.twitter.com/mQBfFPBVib
— Francesca Schiavone (@Schiavone_Fra) May 28, 2015This classic French Open moment is brought to you by Francesca Schiavone. pic.twitter.com/a4j6CBuL0w
— Chris Oddo (@TheFanChild) May 28, 2015===============================================
8. 2010 Brisbane Final - Kim Clijsters def. Justine Henin
...6-3/4-6/7-6(6). At the time, in Week 1, it was easy to wonder if we might had already seen the best that the new decade had to offer before we'd even had time to take a breath. As it turned out, we DID. At least as far as 2010 was concerned. Clijsters began the match in walking-on-air form, grabbing a 6-3/4-1 lead. Every shot was working, while Henin's serve and forehand were inconsistent in her first tournament back in her comeback after a 20-month retirement. But Henin managed to hold serve in the sixth game of the 2nd set, then broke Clijsters at love. Suddenly, the "old Kim" was back. Henin won eight straight games, knotting the match and going up 3-0 in the 3rd. She served at 5-3, and held two match points at 5-4, the first a mediocre Clijsters serve on which Henin committed a forehand error when she unsuccessfully tried to smash the return for a winner that would have given her the title. The match should have ended right there, but the two Belgians played on. In the 3rd set tie-break, Clijsters led 4-0, then 6-3. But Henin saved three match points to battle back to 6-6, only to see her eleventh double-fault of the match give Clijsters match point #4. Clijsters finally won 8-6, coming back from match point down to defeat Henin for the first time in their long series, and doing so in the pair's first on-court meeting since the 2006 Wimbledon SF.
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9. 2014 Roland Garros Final - Maria Sharapova def. Simona Halep
...6-4/6-7(5)/6-4. In her third straight RG final, Sharapova wins her second title against the first Romanian to reach a major final since 1980. In the first three-set final in Paris since 2001, Sharapova's forehand ruled the day as she locked away her 20th consecutive three-set match win on clay in 3:00. Afterward, the Russian said it was the most competitive and "best" grand slam final in which she'd ever played.
10. 2019 Indian Wells Final - Bianca Andreescu def. Angelique Kerber
...6-4/3-6/6-4. This one came down to a fabulous 3rd set, as both brought out the best in one other (as it should be) and the teenager proved her mettle, desire and ability to lift her game amid a maelstrom of difficulties that might have ushered those of lesser grit off the stage. Down a break a 3-2, Andreescu's "I want this so bad!" declaration to coach Sylvain Bruneau set the stage for back-to-back games won with a handful of gigantic shots off the Canadian's racket as she immediately broke back, then held at love. Cramping, she nonetheless continued to pound the ball at Kerber. She broke the veteran's serve for a 5-3 lead. Serving for the match, Andreescu continued to fire winners and reached double MP. Kerber saved both, and on #3 raced to one of the teenager's expert drop shots and scooted it cleanly into the corner, then turned around and walked back to the baseline with a wry smile and shake of her head at the audacity of it all. When Andreescu finally failed to convert on a drop shot attempt, Kerber got the break to close to 5-4. But rather than look for a way to escape, or reasons to give up the moment, the Canadian dug down once more and brought it home. A huge forehand winner made it 30/40 on Kerber's serve. On Andreescu's fourth MP, Kerber netted a backhand and Indian Wells had yet *another* unexpected champion, creating an instant new star in the teenager, who'd reach even *greater* heights at the U.S. Open six months later.
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11. 2012 Miami 4th Rd. - Victoria Azarenka def. Dominika Cibulkova
...1-6/7-6(7)/7-5. An ultra-aggressive Cibulkova dominated the early going, blasting winners and taking a 6-1/4-0 lead. She served at 5-2, but blinked just enough to allow Azarenka to begin to climb back into the match without ever having to resort to the energy-sapping, crowd-testing histrionics that often accompanied her push-backs in the past. Cibulkova never collapsed, coming within two points of the win on five different occasions, and fighting until the match's closing moments (narrowly missing on a blazing passing shot attempt on the final point). But Azarenka got win #26 in a row, the hard way.
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12. 2010 U.S. Open 4th Rd. - Samantha Stosur def. Elena Dementieva
...6-3/2-6/7-6(2). After winning the opening set, Stosur went 0-for-4 on her own serve in the 2nd, and was broken for a fifth straight time early in the 3rd. Dementieva led 3-0, and served at 5-3, holding a match point on her own serve, then three more on Stosur's. Stosur served for the match at 6-5, and failed to convert her own match point. In the 3rd set tie-break, the Aussie grabbed a quick 3-0 lead and coasted to 7-2. The match ended at 1:35 a.m., at the time (before Madison Keys broke the mark *twice* in 2016-17) the latest-ending women's match in U.S. Open history.
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13. 2010 Roland Garros QF - Samantha Stosur def. Serena Williams
...6-2/6-7(2)/8-6. Against Williams, Stosur "pulled a Serena." Employing her clay court game to perfection, the Aussie used her slice often, waiting patiently for an opportunity to rip a forehand for a winner. From the end of the 1st set and into the 2nd, Stosur won seventeen consecutive points, leaving Williams visibly frustrated and discombobulated. With Stosur serving for the match at 5-3 in the 2nd, Williams rose up to get the break, then held at love and won the tie-break to knot the match. Serena held a match point at 5-4 in the 3rd, but just missed raising her arms in triumph when her forehand lob sailed beyond the baseline. Stosur held serve to knot the score at 5-5, then proceeded to win four of the five games that occurred after Williams had held match point. Displaying her hard-learned ability to stay calm under pressure, Stosur passed Serena twice at the net and broke Williams' serve, then served out the match to become the first Australian-born woman to defeat a world #1 in a slam since 1993.
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14. 2015 U.S. Open 3rd Rd. - Victoria Azarenka def. Angelique Kerber
...7-5/2-6/6-4. In the women's match of the tournament, Voracious Vika battled Angie Excellent in a high-quality affair that lived up to the advance billing that their potential early round encounter (at a second straight slam) kicked up on the day the draw was made. Vika flashed much of her aggressive game of old (she was 37/51 on net points), while Kerber often held her in check with get-to-everything defense and winners down the line. Azarenka made a set of things after falling behind 5-2 in the 1st, winning it 7-5. After Kerber held onto her early 3-1 lead in the 2nd, Azarenka pulled away in the 3rd with a break for 3-2. Still, Kerber saved six MP and held for 5-4, forcing Vika to hold her nerve and serve things out. And she did, following coach Sascha Baijin's words to a "T" by finding a way to "pinish" (finish + punish).
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15. 2012 Rome Final - Maria Sharapova def. Li Na
...4-6/6-4/7-6(5). It wasn't a masterpiece, but it was certainly memorable. The crazy rematch of 2011's RG semifinal between Li, the '11 winner in Paris, and Sharapova, the eventual '12 champ, included fireworks, helicopters, planes, sirens, cheering soccer fans and rain delays. But what was actually happening ON the court, though, was even nuttier. Li led 6-4/4-0, winning 21 of 27 points during one stretch. But she double-faulted to break herself and the battle for survival was on. After an animated courtside session with her husband/coach Jiang Shan (Dennis), Li saw Sharapova follow up Li's six-game run with an eight-game streak of her own. Sharapova led 4-1 in the 3rd, and held a point for 5-1. Then it was the Russian's turn to suffer through a case of nerves and iffy play. She was clearly rattled as her play slipped and the rain became more and more steady. Soon, Li led 6-5 and Sharapova was forced to save a match point. Sharapova held serve on the slippery court to force a title-deciding tie-break, which didn't take place until after a two-hour rain delay. Sharapova quickly grabbed a 3-0 tie-break advantage, but Li bounced back to get back on serve at 4-3. Finally, after 2:52 of action over a five-hour stretch, Sharapova defended her Rome title when Li fired a shot wide. The constantly-shifting nature of the contest was evident in the final stats, as the pair combined for 41 winners, but 115 errors.
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HM- 2017 Madrid 2nd Rd. - Genie Bouchard def. Maria Sharapova
...7-5/2-6/6-4. As it was, at least for one day (perhaps demonizing her adversary helped, as the Canadian had employed a fact-deficient argument to speak out against Sharapova's return to the sport after serving out her Meldonium suspension, ironically casting herself as a "woman of the WTA people" after having previously virtually bathed in righteous "trash talk" about not being friends with any of her competitors), Bouchard turned back the clock to 2014 -- when she was a Sharapova wannabe and one-time fangirl who was managing to walk in the Russian's well-placed footsteps in terms of on-court mindset, success and off-court endorsement contracts -- with winning big point construction, hustle and great shotmaking, proving that her mostly lacking play for most of the last few years of the 2010's was even more puzzling than the neverending USTA lawsuit story.
But the other truth here was that Sharapova's lack of match play in her second tournament back showed, as the Russian failed to take advantage of her own opportunities against an opponent who, while far from being perfect in the practice herself, managed to squander fewer big moments than Sharapova did during the match. Sharapova led 4-2 in the 1st set, but saw Bouchard surge back and serve for the set at 5-4, only to be broken. But the Russian couldn't back up the break and the Canadian served out the 7-5 set in 1:10. It proved to be a, if not *the*, key moment in the match.
In the 2nd, two consecutive DF from Bouchard gave Sharapova another 4-2 lead, which she finally held onto by claiming the final four games of the set. In the deciding 3rd, the momentum shifted wildly. Sharapova held from love/40 for 2-1, then Bouchard did the same a game later, and Sharapova did it again the game after that (saving 5 BP). Bouchard then proceeded to take a break lead at 4-3, only to give it back a game later. In game #9, Sharapova served up 40/15, but was broken to fall behind 4-5.
With Bouchard serving for the match, Sharapova then missed an open down the line backhand on BP that would have gotten things back on serve. She staved off a MP with the help of a wild net cord bounce, but Bouchard put away MP #2 with a big forehand winner to end the 2:51 match and get her first win in five meetings with Sharapova. On the final scoresheet, Sharapova won more total points (112-107), and held a 44-20 edge in winners. But 49 UE's to Bouchard's 27, and a one-more-would-have-made-all-the-difference 5-of-15 performance on BP just wasn't enough to nip Bouchard's equally scratchy 5-of-21 numbers at the finish.
.@GenieBouchard stuns Sharapova 7-5, 2-6, 6-4!
— WTA (@WTA) May 8, 2017
Sets @MutuaMadridOpen Round of 16 vs @AngeliqueKerber! pic.twitter.com/v4SXDAk2nP
So sweet of Genie to perfectly sum up an example of Maria's classiness and her lack of in one tweet. https://t.co/4wcv5GLKmd
— The Drive Volley (@thedrivevolley) May 9, 2017
After the match, neither reclaimed the sort of the success they continued to desire for the remainder of the decade. But, on this one day in Spain, their fascinating struggle to reclaim what they'd both lost produced one of the best (if now largely forgotten) matches of the decade.
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2011 Wimbledon 3rd Rd - Marion Bartoli def. Flavia Pennetta
...5-7/6-4/9-7. Anger rules. Bartoli argues with umpire Mariana Alves and her father/coach Walter in the stands (ever ordering her parents to leave their seats!), but charges back from a break down in the 3rd to win on her fourth match point -- a Pennetta double-fault that ended the 3:09 "brawl." In the end, the pair combined for 110 winners. Just two years later, Bartoli reached her second career Wimbledon final and walked away from the All-England Club (and soon after, the WTA tour altogether) with her first and only slam crown.
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2011 U.S. Open 3rd Rd. - Serena Williams def. Victoria Azarenka
...6-1/7-6(5). Azarenka served down 1-6/3-5, love/40 against Serena Williams in their 3rd Round U.S. Open match. She saved three match points in the game, then a fourth on Williams' serve. She then broke Serena's serve with a block-back winner to become the first to break the Williams serve in the tournament. After saving break points in game #12, Azarenka pushed the set to a tie-break. Serena won it 7-5, but the 22-year old Azarenka proved herself worthy of the day's stage... as well as making it clear that she was worthy of being a future grand slam champion. Right on schedule, she won the next major played in Melbourne in 2012 and reached #1, defended her title a year later, and played in the finals of four straight hard court slams in 2012-13.
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2013 Wimbledon SF - Sabine Lisicki def. Aga Radwanska
...6-4/2-6/9-7. After splitting the first two sets, Radwanska seemed to grab a commanding 3-0 lead in the 3rd in her third straight three-set match. But, as she had against Serena Williams two rounds earlier, the German's game caught fire and she was soon serving for the match at 5-4. Radwanska got the break and came within two points of the final at 6-5, only to see Lisicki escape with a hold of serve. A-Rad wouldn't get any closer to victory, as Lisicki broke for 8-7 and served her way into her first slam final, eliminating the '12 Wimbledon runner-up and ending what was her last best chance to win a major during her career. Of course, this one's best known for Aga's post-match handshake with Lisicki.
2014 Indian Wells QF - Aga Radwanska def. Jelena Jankovic
...7-5/2-6/6-4. Aga led 3-0 in the 1st, JJ 4-0 in the 2nd and Aga 4-0 in the 3rd. Jankovic calls for a replay challenge while sitting in the splits position behind the baseline, and then becomes a wildlife advocate by rescuing a gigantic moth. Yep, it was a typical Queen Chaos match... and, from both sides of the court, probably the most entertaining match of the entire '14 season.
2014 Indian Wells 4th Rd. - Li Na def. Aleksandra Wozniak
...6-1/6-4. Disaster finally caught up to Li in the IW semifinals vs. Pennetta, but her battle with her forever-lingering tennis demons was a crazy one in the final game of this match. The contest lasted just 1:33, but twenty minutes were taken up by the final game alone. Li took a 40/love lead on serve and it seemed as if it would be a breeze, but she ended up having to save two break points, survive a bad call from the umpire on a shot that Wozniak couldn't reach and four MP blown via double-faults before she finally put things away with the ELEVENTH MP of the game. Afterward, Li, in typical charming fashion, said, "I only can say, welcome to the crazy women's tennis tour."
Of course, Li (and Backspin) had a particular affinity for the phrase. She also said it after her 6-2/1-6/6-0 2nd Round win over Simona Halep at Wimbledon in 2013.
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2016 Wimbledon Girls Final - Anastasia Potapova def. Dayana Yastremska
...6-4/6-3. In the junior final, #4-seeded Russian Potapova, 15, squared off with #7-seeded Ukrainian Yastremska, 16. With Potapova serving for the match at 5-3, things got wild in one of the craziest games of the decade, in junior *or* tour-level action.
At 30/30, Potapova hit a DF. Yastremska failed to convert the BP, then had to save a MP. She put away a shot at the net and got her second BP chance. She didn't get that one, either. MP #2 came and went, and so did MP #3 when Yastremska blasted a forehand winner dead into the corner. On MP #4, Yastremska's long return seemed to end the match. A "victorious" Potapova sat down on the court, in tears. But wait. Yastremska had challenged the serve, and the replay showed Potapova's serve was out.
POTAPOVA, after "converting" the first MP
Now serving a second serve, Potapova returned to the baseline. She fired a shot out on the point and Yastremska had life. On MP #5, another Yastremska wide return precipitated another celebration from the Russian as she emphatically slammed down the ball with her racket. But wait, again. The Ukrainian challenged that serve, too, and it was ALSO out. Potapova threw up her hands, quickly got over it and demanded another ball to serve with, and then went back to play some more. She hit a long forehand to end a rally and Yastremka was STILL alive. On MP #6, Potapova double-faulted. Finally, on MP #7, Yastremska netted a forehand to end a rally and it was all over. No, really.
Potapova won 6-4/6-3, despite having just 4 winners to Yastremska's 21. The Ukrainian had 42 errors to the Hordette's 31. The two shared a hug at the net.
A wonderful embrace at the net as Potapova beats Yastremska to become the 2016 girls' singles champion #Wimbledon https://t.co/CZWPaiPcHX
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 9, 2016
Here are all 7 MP and the 2 challenges:
If you missed the drama in the junior girls #Wimbledon F then the 7 match points are here https://t.co/WCyWMY9ryJ #Potapova
— Eggy (@TheBoiledEgg) July 9, 2016
The most dramatic finish to a match ever?
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 10, 2016
The end of the #Wimbledon Girls' Final had it all...https://t.co/rU27dPgE5n
A year later, Potapova and Yastremska won an $80K ITF challenger doubles crown together.
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2017 U.S. Open 1st Round - Maria Sharapova def. Simona Halep
...6-4/4-6/6-3. In the (best ever) Night 1 1st Rounder on Ashe, the prize fight-like atmosphere was thick prior to the meeting between the Russian wild card and the #2 seeded Romanian. Dressed in crystals and black lace, Sharapova notched her first slam win since the '16 AO, and her first in NYC since 2014 (and just second since '12) to improve to 7-0 vs. Halep. But as is usually the case when these two meet, Halep battled Sharapova. The Russian led 6-4/4-1, and held a BP for 5-1. But Halep's defense and unwillingness to give up or give produced a five-game winning streak (Sharapova was 1-of-11 on BP in the set), and held a BP in the 3rd when Sharapova served for the match at 5-3. After securing the win, an emotional Sharapova fell to her knees at the conclusion of the 2:44 affair that completed her re-introduction to "big-time tennis." Echoing the sentiment of all involved in the event, she concluded her post match interview with a joyous, "It's primetime, baby! I love it!"
She did it! @MariaSharapova wins mega @usopen R1 against Simona Halep pic.twitter.com/N4MaZfiEpj
— Jimmie48 Photography (@JJlovesTennis) August 29, 2017
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2019 Indian Wells 2nd Rd. - Serena Williams def. Victoria Azarenka
...7-5/6-3. In their first meeting since the '16 Indian Wells final, Serena and Vika managed to turn back the clock to the beginning of the decade, when *both* were facing off on big stages for major titles. Needless to day, the nostalgia *and* quality levels were high in this one.
In her first match since losing a serving up 5-1 with the first of 4 MP lead vs. Karolina Pliskova in Melbourne, Williams served up 5-3, 30/love in the 1st here, only to see a DF start her down to the path to a temporary setback. Azarenka leveled things at 5-5, and forced Serena to hold in an eight-minute game #11 in which she saved four BP. Naturally, Serena ended the game with back-to-back-to-back big serves, the last of which was an ace. She then got the break to take the 1st. In the 2nd, Williams again served at 5-3, but was BP down after having held two MP. Again, she held, this time to close out the match.
What a way to celebrate #InternationalWomansDay
— Jimmie48 Photography (@JJlovesTennis) March 9, 2019
Super-Moms @serenawilliams & @vika7 deliver incredible @BNPPARIBASOPEN R2 match. pic.twitter.com/j2v1wm0LUp
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2019 Beijing QF - Naomi Osaka def. Bianca Andreescu
...5-7/6-3/6-4. While the expectations were high for meeting #1, it's safe to say these two met them in a seesaw affair that whetted the appetite for more (even if a tired Osaka jokingly said after the match she was just fine with a one-and-done head-to-head history between the winners of the decade's last two Indian Wells titles, the last two U.S. Opens and and final three hard court majors).
Showing that she has the same sort of turn-it-around gene present within the Canadian, Osaka overcame 3-1 deficits in both the 2nd and 3rd sets to battle back after dropping the 1st, ending Andreescu's '19 tour-best winning streak (16 straight wins, but 17 matches w/o a loss) and her string of 13 three-set victories, handing Andreescu her first career loss in nine matches vs. Top 10 players *and* first defeat in a *completed* match since falling vs. Sofia Kenin in Acapulco in the opening days of March, seven months earlier.
We could see several versions of this one over the course of the 2020's... if we're lucky.
What an amazing match!
— WTA (@WTA) October 4, 2019
The first chapter of what will be a storied rivalry ends with a win for @naomi_Osaka_ over Andreescu, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4!#ChinaOpen#????? pic.twitter.com/znSJFwgTkN
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...4-6/6-3/6-0. Forever to be known as Serena's "flu match," this one was the "bizarro" side of Williams' all-time career in a nutshell. She'll go down as one of the greatest players of all time, capable of laying waste to the field en route to around two dozen major titles. But unless they've witnessed certain aspects of "the Williams oeuvre," future tennis generations will have a hard time truly understanding the part of Serena's career that makes matches like this possible on what have seemed like a regular basis. But even in a career full of "flipped switches" signaled by a well-placed roar or a thundering shot, Williams' win over the Swiss stands alone. Battling a severe flu, coughing and often lumbering around the court in deliberate fashion for a set and a half, Williams seemed ready to be sent packing. Trailing 6-4, and a break down at 3-2 in the 2nd, Williams hacked up something into a towel during the changeover... and then came off her chair and never lost another game. As Williams charged toward her fourth win of the tournament after dropping the 1st set, Bacsinszky couldn't help but be chewed up by the gears of "Serenativity" in full production mode. Near the end, Serena chased down a wide ball, sliding across the backcourt and firing a forehand passing shot winner from behind the baseline. While still stretched out on the terre battue, she clenched her fist and stared into the face of the invisible enemy that once again had failed to get the best of her. A classic image to cement a classic win into the memory bank of history. She went on to win RG, then followed up with a fourth straight slam title with another run in London, completing "Serena Slam II."
And here is Serena Williams being sick and half-throwing up, tho it goes into the towel pic.twitter.com/pKgq9jiamW
— Andrew Jerell Jones (@sluggahjells) June 4, 2015
One of the #tennis photos and poses of the year. http://t.co/iFyAHoduD6 pic.twitter.com/Z4DCU8jf8a
— Christopher Clarey (@christophclarey) June 4, 2015
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2. 2016 Australian 1st Rd. - Angelique Kerber def. Misaki Doi
...6-7(4)/7-6(6)/6-3. The match that was overlooked by most at the start of the tournament turned out to be the most important one of the fortnight by the time it was over as Kerber went on to become the first slam winner to go on to win the title after having faced a match point in the opening round of the event. After racing out to a 4-0 lead in the 1st, and maybe mistakenly feeling like she had the match in the bag, the German saw her Japanese opponent grab the momentum as Kerber's level of play dropped, erasing the two-break deficit and taking the 1st set in a tie-break. In the 2nd, Kerber went about trying to get it right a second time. She took a 4-1 lead, and soon found herself serving up 5-3, 30/love only to see Doi suddenly surge again, leaving Kerber grumbling and looking for answers to all the proverbial tennis questions that go though a player's mind at such moments. Smacking lefty forehand winners from all over, the diminutive-but-deceptively-powerful Doi (Justine Henin was her idol, so you get the idea) won four straight points to break to get back on serve at 5-4. Things again went to a tie-break, where Kerber's well-timed winner put her up 2-1, only to see her then give the lead back with a double-fault. Doi's put-away at the net gave her a match point, but her long return allowed Kerber to stay alive, even as the German was having a devil of a time avoiding (and catching up with) Doi's whipping, aggressive forehand shots. At 6-6, a long Doi backhand mercifully gave Kerber a set point, and she converted it when Doi finally netted a forehand rather than plant it into the corner, ending the 1:01 2nd set and sending things to a 3rd. In the deciding set, Kerber finally began to go on the attack once again. Saving a break point, she managed to barely hold for 4-2, then saved three more two games later. With Doi serving to stay alive, Kerber grabbed a 40/love lead then won it with a clean forehand return winner. She let out a roar, winning in 2:41 despite Doi's fifty-nine winners and 20/26 net points won. Just less than two weeks later, Kerber claimed her maiden slam crown and took off on what would be her career year.
3. 2018 Australian Open 2nd Rd. - Caroline Wozniacki def. Jana Fett
...3-6/6-2/7-5. The escape that made her eventual maiden slam title run possible. Early on, 2014 AO girls finalist Fett (in just her second career slam MD match) controlled the flow and direction of the match, dictating play with her power, and serving big while Wozniacki was seemingly forgetting about her new, more forward, aggressive style of play. The Dane's 2nd set moment of truth presented her with the chance to show that she *could* diagnose her difficulties and change course. In the aftermath of dropping the 1st, she began to move forward and take balls earlier, knotting the match. But rather than go away herself, Fett stood up. Not holding back, she regained control of the match in the 3rd. Hitting and serving big, she pressured the once-again-off-message Wozniacki into more producing more errors. The frustrated Dane's fifth double-fault of the match broke her own serve and she was down 5-1.
You can't take your ?? off of @RodLaverArena!
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 17, 2018
Wozniacki feeling the pressure as Fett takes a 4-1 lead in the decisive third set... #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/GylUw8mpkS
Fett took a 40/15 lead on serve and held double match point. And then she finally started to show her nerves. Fett continued to go for big first serves, but started missing them. Her deep groundstrokes started landing shorter in the court, and Wozniacki began to take advantage, allowing her experience advantage to take hold. With the Croat starting to resemble the big stage newcomer she was, Wozniacki knew what she needed to do: hit the ball deep in the court to prevent Fett's power from bailing her out of a rally, and try to never fire a ball outside the lines. Luckily for Wozniacki, she's always been expert at both. Refusing to miss, Wozniacki saw the match come right back to her, and served out the win to produce a result that turned out to be the biggest Houdini-esque escape of the entire women's competition.
1-5 down and facing two match points. @CaroWozniacki did not give up. #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/f6BHNDFfue
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 17, 2018
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4. 2017 Roland Garros QF - Simona Halep def. Elina Svitolina
...3-6/7-6(6)/6-0. For a while, it appeared that this would be a mismatch, as the 22-year old Ukrainian walked her slam dreams up to the edge of reality, only to see her Romanian opponent come up from behind her and shove her over the Cliffs of Simona.
The 1st set began with Svitolina playing as if she was still in the Elina-dubbed "Svitolina mode." She held at love in game #1, and claimed the first six points. Relentless, she hounded Halep from all over the court, firing huge and clean forehand blasts whenever and wherever she so desired. Flashing big, accurate groundstrokes that served to pull Halep from side to side as if on a string, she expertly constructed well thought out points while also displaying an urgency that naturally brought her forward to succinctly end rallies whenever she knew the time was right. The Ukrainian won her tenth consecutive game over two matches to take a 5-0 lead just twenty-four minutes into the action, and won the set 6-3.
Svitolina set off on a similar path in the 2nd, taking double-break advantage at 4-1. Halep got game #6 to deuce, but Svitolina held for 5-1. In the past, before her brief split with coach Darren Cahill after her got fed up with her negative on-court attitude after a loss in Miami in March, Halep might have looked for an escape hatch and as quick an exit from this match as possible. But after touting her transformation into a "2.0" version of herself since she righted her personal ship, coaxed Cahill to return and immediately attacked the clay season with positivity, confidence and, ultimately, sustained success, Halep didn't do such a thing this day. While she admitted later that she *did* indeed feel that the match was lost, she nonetheless kept on trying. Eventually, it worked.
Svitolina served for the match at 5-2, but failed to put it away. She took a love/30 lead on Halep's serve a game later, but wasn't able to get the break for the win. While a proud smile began to creep onto Cahill's face in the stands, with Svitolina again serving for the match, Halep broke her with a crosscourt forehand winner to knot the set at 5-5. Halep won her fifth straight game, forcing Svitolina to hold to stay in the set after having been two points from the win only minutes earlier. Svitolina quickly fell behind love/40 but, after having seen Halep suddenly seize control of the set, the Ukrainian managed to find a way to catch her previous lightning in a bottle once more. She saved the three SP, getting the game to deuce with great defense and a Halep mid-court miss. Halep's volley put-away gave her SP #4, but Svitolina saved it from the baseline with a passing shot to the corner, ending a 23-shot rally. She held to force a TB.
With the momentum now trading hands, it seemed to be all about the matter of which woman would surge last. Svitolina led the TB 4-2, but an ill-timed backhand error turned a possible 5-2 bulge into a razor-thin 4-3 lead. She winced, recognizing the lost opportunity to put a (near) strangle-hold on the breaker. What followed were two more backhand errors that handed Halep a 5-4 lead. But Svitolina had another push-back in her. A backhand down the line knotted the score, and she moved forward for a forehand put-away to reach match point for the first time. But when she couldn't end the match a point later, after having played like a house afire earlier in the day, Svitolina saw the house come down on her head. On Halep's fifth SP, the Romanian's forehand smacked into the net cord, popped up and dribbled over onto Svitolina's side of the court.
The match was going three, but it was already over. While Svitolina couldn't let go of the chance that had slipped from her grasp, a fully confident Halep cruised. She broke Svitolina to open the set and, in the "last line of defense" in game #3, the Ukrainian recovered from a love/40 hole to hold a game point, only to drop serve anyway. A few minutes later, Halep was holding serve at love to end a 6-0 set that had lasted just twenty minutes.
#SpicyHalepeño???
— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) June 7, 2017
[3]????@Simona_Halep def. [5]????@ElinaSvitolina - Q/F 2017 @RolandGarros
3-6 7-6 6-0
She faces [2]????@KaPliskova in S/F#RG17?? pic.twitter.com/YzFTEqk2Cv
Halep went on to reach her second RG final, and a year later claimed her maiden slam crown in Paris.
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5. 2015 Wimbledon 3rd Rd. - Serena Williams def. Heather Watson
...6-2/4-6/7-5. As she often does, Serena had to wobble on the edge of defeat before she turned her nose toward the finish line in a slam. This time, though, she really DID look doomed as Watson's expert defense and smart, big-point play put her on the verge of pulling off what may have been the biggest win by a British woman at Wimbledon in nearly forty years (the last time a Brit defeated a world #1 was in 1979). Watson was up a double-break at 3-0 in the 3rd, and Williams needed six BP chances to win the 18-point game #4 to begin her climb back. Still, after Williams got back on serve, Watson broke her at love (in an error-strewn game by Serena) and served for the match at 5-4, coming within two points of victory. Williams finally got the break on her fourth BP try and bulled her way to the win. The rest was history. Literally, as she completed her second "Serena Slam" at the end of the fortnight.
6. 2014 Australian Open 3rd Rd. - Li Na def. Lucie Safarova
...1-6/7-6/6-3. At match point at 6-5 in the 2nd, Safarova had an open shot down the line for a winner. Li was thinking about her plane reservations for a flight out of Melbourne. But the Czech missed the shot. The rest is history, as Li became the first woman to come back from match point to win a slam since Serena Williams at Wimbledon in 2009 (SF vs. Dementieva).
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7. 2010 Australian Open QF - Serena Williams def. Victoria Azarenka
...4-6/7-6/6-2. A year after succumbing to the Melbourne heat after being seemingly on her way to upsetting eventual champ Williams at the AO, Azarenka led here by a 6-4/4-0 score and served at 5-2 and 5-4. She couldn't close things out again, though, and Serena went on to hold sixteen of twenty points on serve in the 3rd. Two rounds later, Serena won another Australian Open title.
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8. 2019 Australian Open QF - Karolina Pliskova def. Serena Williams
...6-4/4-6/7-5. Williams serves up 5-1 with a MP in the 3rd. But after rolling her ankle, she never wins another game. Pliskova saves four MP in all, sweeping the final six games in the arguably (injury or no injury) most shocking loss (sorry, Virginie Razzano... and don't even suggest Roberta Vinci) in Williams' career.
?????? She's done it!@KaPliskova saves four match points en route to a 6-4 4-6 7-5 victory over #Serena Williams. She's into the final 4!#GameSetMatch #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/txzmOmDggc
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 23, 2019
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9. 2010 Wimbledon QF - Petra Kvitova def. Kaia Kanepi
...4-6/7-6/8-6. Kanepi held two match points in the 2nd set tie-break, and three more in the 3rd after having taken a 4-0 lead. Kvitova didn't get her first break of serve in the match until she broke the Estonian to avoid falling behind 5-0. Still with a chance to avoid a total collapse, Kanepi served for the match at 5-3, narrowly missing advancing to the SF when a Kvitova return on match point bounced off the net tape and barely landed in to keep the Czech alive in the contest. Kvitova ultimately edged out Kanepi 8-6 in the final set, then had a hard time scratching out a tour match win over the next few months. Kanepi notched her first career tour title not long afterward, while Kvitova returned to SW19 a year later and took home the Ladies title.
10. 2012 U.S. Open Final - Serena Williams def. Victoria Azarenka
...6-2/2-6/7-5. In seven of her first fifteen grand slam title runs, Serena either faced match point or saw an opponent serve for a match en route to the title. Here, it was Azarenka serving up 5-4 in the final set of the first three-set Open final since 1995.
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11. 2011 Wimbledon 2nd Rd - Sabine Lisicki def. Li Na
...3-6/6-4/8-6. Lisicki served for the set in the 2nd, only to be broken. She then broke back to take the set in a nine and a half minute game. But it was in the 3rd, from match point down at 3-5, that Lisicki had her "moment" by booming four consecutive 120-mph+ serves -- two for aces -- to hold. Li still served for the match at 5-4 and 6-5, but the just-minted Roland Garros champion couldn't close things out. Lisicki won, then rode the wave of momentum to new career heights by reaching the Wimbledon semis.
12. 2012 's-Hertogenbosch 2nd Rd. - Francesca Schiavone def. Irina-Camelia Begu
...6-2/2-6/7-6. Down 6-0 in the 3rd set tie-break, Schiavone won six straight points to save five MP, then staved off two more later in the TB. She ultimately won 10-8, showing that, even in a mostly-lackluster season, there was still some drama left inside the feisty Italian's heart.
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13. 2012 Sydney SF - Li Na def. Petra Kvitova
...1-6/7-5/6-2. Dredging up memories of her blown lead to Li a year earlier at Roland Garros (a loss that essentially prevented the Czech from finishing '11 at #1), then-world #2 Kvitova goes off the rails after taking a 6-1/3-1 lead, then sees Li take control again. If Kvitova had won the title in Sydney, she'd moved into the #1 spot. She'd finish an inconsistent season at #8.
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14. 2016 Australian Open 4th Rd. - Aga Radwanska def. Anna-Lena Friedsam
...6-7(6)/6-1/7-5. Radwanska trailed 4-1 in the 1st, but won four straight games and held a set point. Friedsam pushed things to a TB and won it 8-6. In the 3rd, once again, Friedsam grabbed the lead, coming back from 0-2 down to lead 5-2 and serve for the match at 5-3. But severe cramping did her in down the stretch, as A-Rad took advantage of her compromised opponent by mercilessly moving her around the court. Friedsam often served through tears as her pain increased. Trying to stretch out her hamstring, Friedsam was given a time violation before serving the first point in game #11 then, unable to push off without pain, she tried to serve underhanded. It didn't work (not everyone can be Michael Chang). Dragging her legs, she was called for a foot fault, and was soon down a break point after chasing down a short ball but being unable to get it back. She doubled over and nearly went down in pain in front of the changeover area as she grabbed the back of her UNwrapped leg. Delaying and slowly walking back to the baseline, she was given another time violation, which resulted in a lost point that handed Radwanska the break for a 6-5 lead.
Teary finish: Radwanska holds off cramping Friedsam at #AusOpen.
— TENNIS (@Tennis) January 24, 2016
Recap: https://t.co/DmLJH1tQYG pic.twitter.com/jsKNPw0ZqQ
Ten minutes after dangling over the edge of an Australian Open cliff, Radwanska was suddenly serving for the match. Securing the hold, she served out the match and eventually reached her second AO semifinal in three years.
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15. 2013 Australian Open Doubles 3rd Rd. - Errani/Vinci def. Williams/Williams
...3-6/7-6/7-5. Both Venus and Serena served for the match in the 2nd set, and the Sisters led 3-0 in the 3rd. The Italians went on to win their third slam title. Hard to say they didn't deserve it.
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2011 U.S. Open 4th Round - Flavia Pennetta def. Peng Shuai
...6-4/7-6(6). Italian Flavia Pennetta (#26) reached the QF for the third time in four years, following up a win over #3 Maria Sharapova with another in the Round of 16 over #13 Peng Shuai. Against Peng, Pennetta battled sickness in the humid conditions and nearly vomited on court.
After failing to close out the match when serving up 6-4/6-5, 30/love Pennetta fell behind 5-0 and 6-2 in the 2nd set TB, but saved four SP and won 8-6 to close out the match in two sets when Peng committed a volley error. Pennetta lost in the quarters to Angelique Kerber, but would carry her New York momentum through the rest of her playing career during the decade. From 2008-15, she went 30-6 in U.S. Open play, posting six of her seven career QF+ results in majors, and ended her slam career by winning the women's title in 2015.
$25K Sunderland ENG 1st Rd. - Tara Moore def. Jessika Ponchet
...0-6/7-6(7)/6-3. Not on the WTA level, but surely worth noting.
Moore's historic escape brought to mind Chanda Rubin's 1995 Roland Garros win over Jana Novotna after having trailed 5-0, 40/love in the 3rd set and facing nine MP. The Brit's week didn't have a fairy tale ending, as she didn't build upon her win from 0-6/0-5, 30/40 down (saving two MP) to win the title. She reached the SF, as well as the doubles final.
Tara Moore hadn't won a single game and was one point away from losing the match.
— Religion of Sports (@religionofsport) April 9, 2019
Then she completed a (the?) comeback of the century.
ABSOLUTE NAILS. pic.twitter.com/O8xutCDheK
Never give up, never give in!
— ITF (@ITF_Tennis) April 10, 2019
One point away from being beaten 0-6 0-6, @TaraMoore92 produced the comeback of all comebacks at @the_LTA GB Pro-Series Sunderland Ladies $25K Event on the #ITFWorldTennisTour
?? @Sportradar pic.twitter.com/DYsEMy41do
Thankyou everyone for the kind messages the support has been overwhelming! Hope I can just inspire all the young boys and girls (and adults) to never give up and keep on fighting #neverindoubt if you have any media requests please email: Media@lta.org.uk Ty!x
— Tara Moore (@TaraMoore92) April 10, 2019
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1. 2015 U.S. Open SF - Roberta Vinci def. Serena Williams
...2-6/6-4/6-4. Is a loss to a fighting world #43-ranked player who climbed as high as #11 two years earlier and had been doubles #1 REALLY a "greatest upset ever in sports" contender, as some who couldn't name more than four current Top 20 players would have had you believe in 2015? Umm, no... at least I don't think so. But under the circumstances, it was HUGE as, as the victory more than holds its own vs. the other "shockers" of the 2010's. With an eye on an all-Italian final following countrywoman Flavia Pennetta's win in the first semifinal, Vinci wielded her racket vs. Serena as if it was a magic wand. With an array of drop shots, slices and angles the Italian vet kept Williams off-balance while ALSO keeping her nerve in the clutch after Williams took a break lead early in the 3rd set, only to never be able to right her error-prone game as she had while running off thirty-three straight slam wins and getting within one victory of playing in the final with a chance at a Grand Slam. Vinci had never taken a set off Williams in four previous meetings (one a few weeks earlier in Toronto), and this was just the fifth loss by Serena in twenty-nine career slam semifinals. Solidifying the moment as an all-time memory, Vinci then followed up by stealing the show with a crazy-honest post-match interview that brought to mind the very best of Li Na... with an Italian accent.
The unseeded #Vinci pulls off the unthinkable upset of #Serena 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 to reach the final. @MBUSA #usopen http://t.co/FSglQ5AAUm
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 11, 2015
2. 2012 Roland Garros 1st Rd. - Virginie Razzano def. Serena Williams
...4-6/7-6(5)/6-3. When it comes to Serena and Paris, it was often always something. Williams entered having won 17 straight clay matches in the spring, and was 46-0 in 1st Round slam matches in her career. Razzano, one year after playing in Paris a week after the death of her fiance/coach, was barely into her comeback from a hip injury. After taking the 1st set, Serena led 4-0 and 5-1 in the 2nd set tie-break. And then the figurative roof caved in. Serena stopped play two points from the win to have chair umpire Eva Asderaki check a mark on the baseline, only to have the call go Razzano's way. Then things really got crazy. Soon afterward, Asderaki called for a re-play of a point that seemed to be set to be won by Serena and give her a match point, saying that a linesperson had obviously missed a call. Actually, the linesperson hadn't, and play should never have been stopped. Serena's errors in the face of Razzano's aggression ended up leading to six straight points won by the Frenchwoman to knot the match, then, after a fit of crying by Williams during the changeover, seven more points to open the 3rd. Razzano soon led the set 4-0. Then things got even crazier. Asderaki, who famously enforced the "hindrance rule" on Williams at the 2011 U.S. Open, began using it to re-play and then take away points from Razzano for gasping in pain from cramps after hitting shots, including one nearly-farcical moment when she awarded a point to Serena with the Pastry serving for the match up 5-3, 30/30 to give Williams a break point to get back on serve. It didn't matter. In a 25-minute, 12-deuce game that included five break points and eight match points, Razzano (and the partisan crowd) pulled out the game to take the 2:47 match... and maybe inadvertently provide Williams with what seemed at the time to be an almost-too-good-to-be-true vengeful mindset for her upcoming trip to London. And it was just that... in London (not once, but twice), then Flushing Meadows and Istanbul, too, as Williams rebounded with the greatest summer-to-autumn run in WTA history.
3. 2010 Wimbledon QF - Tsvetana Pironkova def. Venus Williams
...6-2/6-3. Four and a half years after making a name for herself by upsetting Venus in the Australian Open 1st Round, Pironkova upset Venus and made a name for herself once again in London. Apparently, Tsvetana found that time machine that Williams had earlier been lamenting that SHE didn't have. The Bulgarian coaxed Williams in to 29 UE with a series of forehand slices, while breaking Venus in five of her last six service games.
2011 Wimbledon 4th Rd. - Tsvetana Pironkova def. Venus Williams
...6-2/6-3. A year later, it happened *again*.
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4. 2013 U.S. Open 1st Rd. - Vicky Duval def. Samantha Stosur
...5-7/6-4/6-4. In just her second career main draw slam match, 17-year old qualifier Duval served for all three sets, but narrowly avoided a straights loss to the '11 U.S. Open champ when she trailed 4-2 in the 2nd. Stosur's DF to hand a break to Duval lit the fire of the young Bannerette and she broke the #11-seeded Aussie again two games later. After breaking Stosur for 4-3, world #296 Duval expertly held her nerve (and her serve) in the closing games of the 3rd, smacking a winner on her fourth match point.
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5. 2014 Wimbledon 3rd Rd. - Alize Cornet def. Serena Williams
...1-6/6-3/6-4. After winning five straight games to take the 1st set after a rain delay, Williams' game went awry as Cornet's came into focus. The Pastry won the first five games of the 2nd and, on her second attempt in the 3rd, served out the match with a love game... just how her win over Williams in Dubai earlier in the year had wrapped up. Cornet had been 0-20 in grand slam vs. Top 20 players, while Serena had lost before the Round of 16 at Wimbledon just twice before, in 2005 and in her 1998 debut. Cornet would notch a *third* win over the #1-ranked Williams later that season in Wuhan when Serena retired eleven games into the match.
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6. 2019 Wimbledon 1st Rd. - Coco Gauff def. Venus Williams
...6-4/6-4. Venus probably has a comfortable sweater older than Gauff, but that didn't stop the 15-year old qualifier (the youngest in the Open era) from making her Wimbledon debut one of the most memorable ever en route to a Round of 16 run that virtually hijacked the first week of the fortnight.
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7. 2013 Australian Open QF - Sloane Stephens def. Serena Williams
...3-6/7-5/6-4. Future Sloane wasn't quite *then* just yet, but her first *big-time, big-stage moment* in the spotlight saw her rise to the occasion and come back from a set down against Serena after Williams was at least temporarily hampered after injuring her back racing to reach a drop shot. But credit was due the then 19-year old for holding her nerve in the match's most important moments, including breaking serve to take the 2nd set, then holding for 5-4 late in the 3rd at a point where Williams would normally turn the tide in her favor against a more inexperienced opponent. The upset gave Stephens, a U.S. Open champ four years later, her first Top 10 win and maiden slam SF berth, and also ended Serena's 20-match win streak with Williams' first-ever loss to an U.S. woman younger than herself. Soon after, Stephens somewhat spoiled the memory of the moment with her short-lived, shortsighted social media feud with Williams.
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8. 2010 Australian Open 1st Rd. - Maria Kirilenko def. Maria Sharapova
...7-6(4)/3-6/6-4. In 3:22 on Day 1, Sharapova, in her first AO match since she won the title in 2008, Sharapova suffered her earliest slam exit since the 2003 Roland Garros.
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9. 2010 Roland Garros 1st Rd. - Kimiko Date-Krumm def. Dinara Safina
...3-6/6-4/7-5. Against a nearly-40 year old opponent with a bad thigh who hadn't won a slam main draw match in fourteen years, and with a 4-1 lead in the 3rd set, 2008-09 RG finalist Safina still found a way to lose. With seventeen double faults, the same player who was the world #1 one year earlier was out in the 1st Round in Paris.
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10. 2013 Wimbledon 2nd Rd. - Michelle Larcher de Brito def. Maria Sharapova
...6-3/6-4. Sharapova broke through at Wimbledon nine years earlier with her first slam crown, but her post-2004 rocky stretch hit its nadir with her loss at the hands of #131-ranked Portuguese qualifier Larcher de Brito, a one-time child phenom renowned for her on-court decibel level. On Black Wednesday (aka "The Radwanskian Massacre" in this space), Sharapova slipped and fell all over the court, never looking like the determined come-from-behind winner she normally would be in such circumstances. Meanwhile, except for an extended bout with closing things out -- MLDB finally did it on MP #5 -- the youngster, channeling a bit of Jelena Dokic, circa 1999 vs. Martina Hingis, played pressure-less tennis and sent the Russian packing, or at least off to watch (then fiance) Grigor Dimitrov's match. Sharapova would play just one more match -- a loss after which she fired new coach Jimmy Connors -- before shutting things down for 2013 with a shoulder injury.
11. 2011 U.S. Open 1st Rd. - Simona Halep def. Li Na
...6-2/7-5. Still just under two years away from her maiden tour singles title, Halep scores her first career Top 10 win over reigning RG champ Li in New York.
12. 2015 Wimbledon 1st Rd. - Alona Ostapenko def. Carla Suarez-Navarro
...6-2/6-0. A year after winning the girls title at SW19, Ostapenko makes her slam debut (as # 147) with a Top 10 win over #9-seeded CSN. Less than two years later, she'd win Roland Garros. A year after that, she was in the Wimbledon semis.
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13. 2014 U.S. Open 1st Rd. - CiCi Bellis def. Dominika Cibulkova
...6-1/4-6/6-4. The 15-year old wild card (ranked #1208) makes her tour debut a memorable one, taking down the #12-seeded, AO finalist to become the youngest player to win a U.S. Open main draw match since Anna Kournikova in 1996.
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14. 2014 Stanford 1st Rd. - Naomi Osaka def. Samantha Stosur
...4-6/7-6(6)/7-5. Talk about coming full circle. In 2009, Stosur won her first tour title in Osaka, Japan. Five years later, the Aussie lost to Japan's Osaka -- a #406-ranked 16-year old making her tour debut -- after holding a MP in the 2nd set tie-break and serving for the match at 5-4 in the 3rd. Four years later, Osaka won the U.S. Open and Australian Open in 2018-19, becoming the first Asian player ranked #1.
We've got our 1st upset! 16-year-old Naomi Osaka d. Sam Stosur 4-6, 7-6(7), 7-5 to advance to the 2nd round! pic.twitter.com/xqGsPZWVoh
— BOTW Classic (@BOTWClassic) July 28, 2014
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15. 2019 U.S. Open 2nd Rd. - Taylor Townsend def. Simona Halep
...2-6/6-3/7-6(4). Qualifier Townsend changes tactics after dropping the 1st set, becoming a serve-and-volleying net-rushing fiend (106 times!). #4 seed Halep, the newly-crowned Wimbledon champ, never adjusted as the former junior slam champ (2012) posted her first career Top 10 win en route to her maiden slam Round of 16.
16. 2018 Roland Garros 1st Rd. - Kateryna Kozlova def. Alona Ostapenko
...7-5/6-3. What a difference a year makes. Back in Paris for the first time since her maiden slam run at RG, Ostapenko had trouble holding serve right from the start. The Latvian would continually get the break back but would be unable to avoid giving it away again almost immediately. After leveling things at 4-4, she was broken for 5-4 in the 1st. She denied Kozlova when she served for the set once, only to then drop serve again and see the Ukrainian secure the lead with a hold for 7-5. After taking a 2-0 lead, Ostapenko fell behind a break in the 2nd at 3-2. The two traded breaks again in games 6 and 7 until Kozlova finally pulled away, even while dealing with a nasty blister on her heel. For Kozlova, in just her second tournament back after cracking cartilage in her right knee at Indian Wells, it was her first career Top 30 win, and her second slam MD victory (w/ '17 U.S.). Ostapenko's loss made her the first defending RG champ to exit in the 1st Round since Anastasia Myskina in 2005 (and since it happened on Day 1 on the opening Sunday, NONE have ever exited so quickly). Ostapenko would go on to lose 1st Round matches in WD and MX, as well.
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17. 2010 Marbella 2nd Rd. - Beatriz Garcia-Vidagany def. Kim Clijsters
...7-5/4-6/6-4. With just one clay court match under her belt since the '06 Roland Garros semi, Clijsters (w/ 8 DF) was bounced by the world #258. Most definitely NOT the "Marbella Experience" that she was looking for.
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18. 2011 Roland Garros 2nd Rd. - Arantxa Rus def. Kim Clijsters
...3-6/7-5/6-1. Clijsters, back after missing the entire clay court season -- first with shoulder and wrist injuries, then due to a topple on the dance floor -- led Dutch 20-year old Rus 6-3/5-2 and held two match points. But, with nothing left to lose, world #114 Rus started to hit out on her shots. Combined with Clijsters' own 65 unforced errors, it resulted in the #2-seed losing eleven of the last twelve games to suffer her earliest slam loss since the 2002 Wimbledon. Fifty-three minutes after she held match point, the '10 U.S. Open and '11 AO champion was out of Roland Garros.
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19. 2017 Auckland 2nd Round - Madison Brengle def. Serena Williams
...6-4/6-7(3)/6-4. Week 1 play was highlighted by #72-ranked Brengle's windy conditions upset of Williams, which made her just the second (w/ Sloane Stephens, '13 AO) U.S. player that Serena has ever lost to who was younger than herself. Williams had beaten Brengle 6-0/6-1 in their only previous match-up. The other seasons in which Serena suffered her first loss of the season BEFORE the Australian Open? 2007, '09 and '10. The other thing those three seasons had in common was that she was crowned AO champ all three years. Well, naturally, Williams' history held up, as she won the 2017 AO, too.
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20. 2010 Birmingham QF - Alison Riske def. Yanina Wickmayer
...6-7(5)/6-4/6-3. The 19-year old American qualifier, ranked #185, came into the tournament having never won a main draw tour match before reaching the SF at Edgbaston and pushing Sharapova to three sets there. It worked out for Riske even better when, after losing in the final in three sets to Maria Sharapova, she was quickly awarded a wild card into the Wimbledon Ladies draw (her slam MD debut)... where she lost to Wickmayer. Oh, well. The result opened doors for Riske's career, and her (eventual) Wimbledon QF run in 2019 made her a "Last Eight" AELTC club member for life.
2012 Miami 2nd Rd. - Garbine Muguruza def. Vera Zvonareva 6-4/6-3
2012 Miami 3rd Rd. - Garbine Muguruza def. Flavia Pennetta 6-2/1-6/7-6
...a wild card well utilized, both by the Miami tournament AND the young #208-ranked Spaniard, who'd win multiple slam crowns within five years. The win over Zvonareva was Muguruza's first Top 10 victory.
2017 Washington 1st Rd. - Bianca Andreescu def. Camila Giorgi 5-7/6-3/6-4.
2017 Washington 2nd Rd. - Bianca Andreescu def. Kristina Mladenovic 6-2/6-3
...the 17-year old WC (#167) gets her her first WTA win to become the youngest Canadian to notch a tour win since Maureen Drake in 1988, then becomes the first "2000 baby" to record a Top 20 victory with her upset of Mladenovic. In the latter match, Mladenovic led 2-0 in the 1st set before dropping six straight games to lose the set, then held a break lead early in the 2nd, as well, but then never held another BP opportunity for the remainder of the match. The Pastry served at just 38% on the day, and had ten DF. Two years later, Andreescu took the tour by stor and won Indian Wells, Toronto and the U.S. Open.
Congrats Bianca! What a fantastic week @Bandreescu_ pic.twitter.com/lf2p9XSBo4
— Ashish (@ashishjena94) August 3, 2017
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posted by Todd.Spiker @ 6:56 PM
6 Comments:
Great list! Does show how Serena was all over this decade.
Some of my favorite matches not listed?
Ka. Pliskova def V.Williams- 2016 USO- 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(3)- 5th MP.
Makarova def Kerber - 2017- Cinci - 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(11) 8th MP.
Stosur def Robson- 2012 USO- 6-4, 6-4 9th MP.
Kvitova def Bertens- 2018 Madrid- 7-6, 4-6, 6-3.
Regarding Olympic projections: Russia will be kept in, just like any other player that may need a waiver from their federation, until the last minute. The last Olympic ban didn't hold, though Russia lost 1/4 of their group.
I would assume a blanket ban would be unconstitutional, and even the notorious East Germany was never banned, though they missed 1984 due to boycott.
Azarenka has already withdrawn from AO, so her absence inspires this week's stat.
Stat of the Week- 70- Amount of singles wins for Vika in 2012.
With this decade officially done, it is time to look at Vika's triangle. But do I mean the best in the game trio of Serena, Maria, and Vika that dominated the first half of the decade, or do I mean the junior trio of Vika, Aga, and Caroline that all won junior slams and then made their mark? The latter led to the famous "pusher/ballbasher" vid that is still on youtube.
A fun way to do this is to look at the stats for all 5 throughout the decade.
Wins:
460- Wozniacki
379- Radwanska
369- Williams
323- Azarenka
307- Sharapova
Best Year:
76-5 (2013)Williams
70-13(2012)Azarenka
64-20(2012)Radwanska
63-17(2010-11)Wozniacki
60-11(2012)Sharapova
Season Leader(Out of this group)
5-Wozniacki
3-Williams
2-Radwanska
1-Azarenka
0-Sharapova
*2015 tie, so 11 instead of 10.
One thing with this group is that the numbers are heavy towards the early part of the decade. Some make sense, like Radwanska last 2 active years being the lowest of the decade for her. Wozniacki's 2019 was her lowest.
But you know who had the most wins in 2019? Serena with 25, which was the lowest number to lead. The second lowest? 42 in 2018(Wozniacki). 2012 is the only year in which all 5 had 50 or more wins.
What it does point out is that we are nearing the end of an era. Radwanska is already gone, and Wozniacki will be. Azarenka had a 70 win season, yet only has 69 in the last 4. Same with Sharapova, who had a 60 win season, now 49 in her last 4.
With Azarenka out, and Sharapova not in as of yet, seems the only one of the group able to play off of the slams will be Serena, heading into her fourth decade, and still relevant.
It was a little amusing doing the Upsets list and realizing almost everything at the top involved someone beating Serena. Any time she loses, it's a a big story... going on for 20 years now.
As far as pulling out the matches, the general rule was that I went back and took the top ten or so in each category as I listed them after each year for decade nominees, then skimmed the rest to see if anything caught my eye. I figured if I had them ranked a bit down the list the season they happened, it'd be hard to suddenly list them high now.
Of course, I went totally against that practice when it came to some of the performances, since in retrospect some of those seem/feel even bigger now than they did then. A few climbed significantly from where I had them listed at the end of their season.
Speaking of Russia (whose athletes *really* aren't banned collectively from the Olympics, at least not most of them, and will just be listed as "stateless" or something like that, same as at the *last* games), Sally Jenkins (though I rough up her columns when I don't agree with them, her stuff is pretty spectacular when you *do* agree) had a great piece last week in the Wash.Post (and maybe elsewhere) about how morally bankrupt WADA and its practices/legitimacy are. It wasn't really *breaking news*, but it's still nice to hear someone give a platform to notions that I've thought have been pretty clear for a while just through how they've handled suspension situations with the WTA.
As with so many stats from the era of Serena, comparisons and records will seemingly always have to be listed as records *and* "non-Williams" marks just to get a better judge on how the *rest* of the players in the sport lived. Serena has always been on her own little island (in many ways, even more so than Navratilova and Graf, since they at least had Evert and ASV/Seles to be fitfully compared to).
Ah, Vika. I just hope she'll be able to get one more big slam run in before she's through. Or least become a relevant Top 20 player again. Her career trajectory has really gone off course since the start of the decade, mostly for reasons that just make you shake your head.
This was a great read, Todd.
I'll add one of my favorite matches of the decade: 2014 Australian Open quarterfinals--Radwanska def. Azarenka. The second set remains the most inspired performance I've ever seen on a tennis court.
There are so many. I thought it was pretty good to have Aga in two of the Top 3 matches, though. ;)
I wish there was more video availiable of the Aga/Vinci match. The official highlight package of the match on YouTube is really light on the dramatic/crazy shots. It shows maybe 2-3, when there were a literally about 20 amazing shots/points between the two of them.
I was a little disappointed I didn't get more Kerber in there. So many of her qualifying matches on these lists were times she *lost* in results that could have easily gone her way. And I didn't get her '18 Wimbledon win onto the performances list, either.
Her '16 season was *so* good, but think how close she came to a truly *epic* year had she won the Wimbledon, Olympics and WTA Finals in addition to her AO/US titles. She would have challenged Serena for the #2 season spot, and maybe even #1 if she'd swept.
Speaking of, note that Serena won *three* slams in 2015, and it was arguably her *third* best season of the decade. It's almost comical. :)
I put '13 at #1 because of the sheer number of match wins and overall titles/Top 10 wins. '12 because of the summer/fall dominance that may have been her at her career *best*.
Serena's dominance is something to behold. I talk about 3 year spans, since most players can only peak for so long, but if you split the decade in half(2020-14, 2015-19) Serena is the only player on the women's side to have won a slam in both halves.
Also the only player to have reached a slam final in every year.
Yes, that match against Vinci was simply amazing.
By the way, did you listen to Rennae Stubbs' Racquet podcast interview with Aga? It's extremely entertaining and I learned some things. Also, it's just a great conversation.
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