The Top Players Of The Decade
The past 10 years have impressed the world of tennis with phenomenal players and heart-racing performances. Here is a list dedicated to the best five player and best doubles teams between the years of 2000 and 2009.
1. Roger Federer
Roger Federer, one of the greatest players to grace the game, has dominated men’s tennis since the beginning of the decade, winning a record-breaking 15 Grand Slam titles. In July 2003, at the age of 21, Federer captured his first major crown at Wimbledon. What followed in the next six years has been exceptional.
The Swiss native went on to win a further five Wimbledon titles, including five successive wins between 2003 and 2007. Since 2004, Rogers dominance at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club has only been interrupted by Rafael Nadal in an epic final in 2008 that was thought to be one of the greatest matches of all time. Federer also exerted his dominance at the US Open, where he won the title five times in a row between 2004 and 2008, with his run finally ending against Juan Martin del Potro in the 2009 final. Federer won three Australian Opens in 2004, 2006, and 2007. He became the sixth man in history to win the career Grand Slam when he defeated Robin Soderling at the 2009 French Open.
Federer has been at the top of the South African Airways ATP Rankings for a good part of the decade. He first clinched the top spot on February 2, 2004 and stayed there for a record 237 consecutive weeks before being dethroned by Nadal on August 18, 2008. Federer reclaimed the top spot on July 6, 2009 and was crowned ATP World Tour Champion for the fifth time in six years.
2. Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal has emerged as the strongest challenger to Roger Federer’s dominance and therefor established one of the most gripping rivalries in the history of men’s tennis. Nadal has shown his domination of clay court over the past five years, winning 25 of his 36 tour-level titles on clay.
Nadal made his debut in 2005 at the French Open and unveiled his clay-court dominance. He won his first 31 matches at the clay-court major, capturing four successive titles, before his run came to an end at the hands of Robin Soderling in the 2009 tournament. Nadal also became the first Spaniard since Manuel Santana to win Wimbledon when he dethroned Roger Federer in 2008. Nadal won his first hard-court major at the 2009 Australian Open, once again defeating Federer. He is also the first Spaniard in the history of the South African Airways ATP Rankings (since 1973) to finish as ATP World Tour Champion in 2008 and has featured in three of his nation’s four Davis Cup triumphs.
3. Lleyton Hewitt
Lleyton Hewitt came into the tennis scene in the late 1990′s, becoming the youngest winner on the ATP World Tour when he won his home-town title in Adelaide at the age of 16 in January 1998.
Hewitt won his first Grand Slam title at the 2001 US Open, signaling a changing of the guard when he defeated Pete Sampras in the final. That same year, at the age of 20, he became the youngest player and the first Australian to be crowned ATP World Tour Champion in the history of the South African Airways ATP Rankings. The following year he defeated David Nalbandian at Wimbledon and once again went on to finish at ATP World Tour Champion.
Hewitt has also been a runner-up at the 2004 US Open and 2005 Australian, been a Davis Cup sensation, and is Australia’s most successful singles player. He was part of Australia’s 2003 Davis Cup title-winning team.
4. Andre Agassi
Andre Agassi won three Australian Opens in 2000, 2001, and 2003. In May 2003 and at 33 years old, he became the oldest player in the history of the South African Airways ATP Rankings (since 1973) to hold the No. 1 ranking. Agassi also won seven of his record 17 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles during the decade, including the Cincinnati crown at 34. Agassi was 35 when he pushed Roger Federer to four sets in the 2005 US Open final. He also finished in the year-end Top 10 for six consecutive years between 2000 and 2005.
Agassi has also became arguably the biggest sporting philanthropist on the planet, raising tens of millions of dollars for the foundation that provides funding for his charter school, the Andre Agassi College Preparatory Academy, which provides free schooling for underprivileged children in Las Vegas.
5. Andy Roddick
Andy Roddick has finished in the Top 10 of the South African Airways ATP Rankings for the past eight years; Roger Federer being the only other player to have accomplished that feat. Roddick has won 27 tour-level titles, including winning at least one ATP World Tour title each year for nine years in a row.
Roddick’s best season was 2003, when he won his first Grand Slam title at the US Open, defeating Juan Carlos Ferrero in the final. Later that year, he became the youngest American at 21 years old to claim the crown of ATP World Tour Champion in the history of the South African Airways ATP Rankings (since 1973). The following year in 2004, Roddick was defeated by Roger Federer at Wimbledon, but led the United States to its first Davis Cup final since 1997. He led his Davis Cup team to victory three years later when the United States beat Russia.
Doubles Team of the Decade: Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan
Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan have, without doubt, been the best doubles team of the decade. Since winning their first ATP World Tour title at Memphis in 2001, the twins have gone on to win 56 tour-level titles between them, the fourth-best tally in the Open Era. The are just five wins behind all-time leaders Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde.
The Bryan’s have won seven Grand Slam doubles crowns, beginning with Roland Garros in 2003. In 2005, they became the second team in 50 years to reach the final of all four Grand Slam championships in the same year and completed the career Grand Slam a year later with their first victory at Wimbledon. They also clinched the Davis Cup for the United State in 2007 with victory in the doubles rubber over Russia.
Honorable Mentions
Pete Sampras: Sampras’ outstanding career was winding down as the decade began. His record six consecutive year-end No. 1 finishes and 12 of his 14 Grand Slam titles came in the 1990s. But the American did win his seventh Wimbledon title in 2000 and, after finals defeats in 2000 and 2001, Sampras won his fifth US Open title in 2002. Sampras won just three of his 64 career titles in the decade.
Marat Safin: Safin won 14 of his 15 career titles in the decade, including his stunning US Open title win in 2000 and the 2005 Australian Open. After his seven-title haul in 2000, Safin looked as though he could become the dominant player of the decade. But he would win just seven more titles in the next nine years, and none in the near four-year period after his Australian Open triumph and his retirement late this year.
Gustavo Kuerten: Kuerten had a huge impact at the start of the decade, winning his second and third Roland Garros titles in 2000-2001. In 2000 he became the first South American to be crowned ATP World Tour Champion when he beat Agassi and Sampras in the semi-finals and final of the-then Tennis Masters Cup (now Barclays ATP World Tour Finals) in Lisbon. He won 11 titles in 2000 and 2001, but just four titles after that when a hip injury robbed him of many more good years.
Nikolay Davydenko: One of the hardest workers and most consistent players on the ATP World Tour, Davydenko has reaped the rewards by winning 19 ATP World Tour titles since 2003 and recording five year-end Top 6 finishes in the South African Airways ATP Rankings. The Russian has an impressive 19-5 record in ATP World Tour Finals and, showing that he is ever-improving, clinched his biggest title to date at last month’s Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. The only notable absentee from his impressive array of titles is a Grand Slam title.
David Nalbandian: The Argentine is worthy of an honorable mention on account of finishing in the Top 10 of the South African Airways ATP Rankings for five consecutive years between 2003-2007 and reaching the 2002 Wimbledon final. The former World No. 3 has won 10 ATP World Tour titles and on top form has always been able to trouble the world’s best players. In 2005 he rallied from a two-set deficit to defeat Roger Federer and win the-then Tennis Masters Cup and also claimed back-to-back ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles in Madrid and Paris in 2007. But, like Safin, many tennis fans believe Nalbandian should have won more titles in the decade given his immense talent.
Juan Carlos Ferrero: Before the arrival of Rafael Nadal, Juan Carlos Ferrero was the man to beat on clay. In a four-year span at the start of the decade, the Spaniard’s clay-court credentials included the 2003 Roland Garros title, a runner-up finish at the clay-court major in 2002 and two semi-final efforts in 2001 and 2000 plus three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 trophies. The right-hander peaked at No. 1 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings on September 8, 2003 and proved his versatility by also reaching the US Open final on hard court that year. However, hampered by injuries, the Spaniard suffered a let down in following years and endured a title drought of more than five years before hitting back in 2009 with victory in Casablanca.
