RECAP: Tennis Country 2009 New Year's Predictions
• The new ATP CEO will be a “tennis insider”…
o Technically many might not consider Adam Helfant a “tennis insider”, but he is definitely a “sports insider” from his years at Nike…
• Between them, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will win two Grand Slam titles
o Not just two, three in fact! Nadal captured the Australian Open and Federer claimed the French Open and Wimbledon titles
• The Serbian trio, i.e. Novak Djokovic, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic will collect a pair of Grand Slam titles between them
o The Serbs started off the year pretty poorly, but Djokovic definitely finished strongly and Jankovic ended the year better then she began it. Ivanovic’s season was forgettable…
• Half of the players in the Top 10 of the ATP Tour’s and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour’s year-end rankings will be different from 2008
o There were four different players in the top ten compared to a year ago, i.e. Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka, Robin Soderling and Fernando Verdasco
• There will be both a first-time male, and female, Grand Slam, i.e. Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open, champion, e.g. Andy Murray, Jelena Jankovic
o Juan Martin del Potro captured his first Grand Slam title at the 2009 U.S. Open
• Three different women will be ranked Number One in 2009
o Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina and Serena Williams all held the Number One ranking during 2009
• Two European countries will play in the Davis Cup Final
o Spain defeated the Czech Republic to claim its second consecutive Davis Cup title
• One Top 10 player will compete in the Federation Cup Final
o Flavia Pennetta who led the Italians to the 2009 Federation Cup title also became the first Italian woman to crack the top ten earlier in the year
• Roger Federer will hire a coach before the end of the year
o Severin Luthi, the Swiss Davis Cup caption, serves as Federer’s travelling coach although Federer did also train with Darren Cahill during the winter, but Cahill decided not to become Federer’s full-time coach
• Either Serena Williams, Venus Williams or Maria Sharapova will win a Grand Slam title…
o Serena Williams took home two Grand Slam titles and the year-end Number One ranking in 2009
Not a bad year, but we can do better in our prognostications… always next year!
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