Dec 29, 2015 | Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal will go down in history as one of the best Tennis players of all time, with many people believing he is the greatest clay-court player to ever pick up a racket. The last few years have seen the Spanish former world number 1 and fourteen-time grand slam winner slip down the rankings, suffering from injuries and struggling to find the form that took him to the top of the world. Could 2016 be the year that Nadal gets back to his best? Well, let us look at his 2015 to try and find the answer. Nadal started his 2015 season with a surprise first round singles defeat in Qatar to German qualifier Michael Berrer, before partnering Juan Monaco to the doubles title at the same event. That was just the start of a struggling singles campaign for Nadal, which saw him win only three tour titles and not get past the Quarter Final of any of the four grand slam events. His ranking even dropped to 10th in June ’15 as he found himself falling further behind the likes of Djokovic, Murray and Federer. Nadal isn’t one to just lay down and die though, with a fighting spirit instilled into him that he showed in abundance as the season drew to a close. The last five tournaments of the year saw the Spaniard reach two Finals, two Semi Finals and one Quarter Final as he climbed back up to fifth in the ATP world rankings. The ATP Tour Finals in London saw Nadal playing as good as ever, with victories over Stan Wawrinka, David Ferrer and Andy...
Dec 23, 2015 | Australian Open, Novak Djokovic
One man stood head and shoulders above the rest of the ATP in 2015, completely dominating the tour and breaking several records along the way. That man was Serbian world number 1 Novak Djokovic, with what was statistically the best season of his career and one of the best seasons in tennis history. Starting 2015 in Qatar, Djokovic didn’t have everything all his own way and was knocked out at the Quarter Final stage by Ivo Karlovic. That seemed to fire him up and he proceeded to reach the final of all 15 tournaments he played for the rest of the season. These included all four Grand Slam events, to make Djokovic only the third man in history to achieve this feat. His eleven titles for the season included a record breaking six Masters 1000 events, three Grand Slams and the end of season ATP Tour Finals. On top of all the trophies, he also amassed a record amount of prize money in a calendar year ($21,646,145) and won 31 matches against top ten players. The only other defeats he suffered after the one to Karlovic were against Federer (3 times), Murray and Wawrinka. The man wasn’t quite unbeatable but was as near to it as anyone is going to get in the near future. The question coming into 2016 is, can anyone stop him from having an even better season? The Serb will again start his campaign in Qatar at the start of January, where he will hope to have a better tournament than last year, before starting the defence of his Australian Open crown from the 18th....
