Tennis Country's 2009 Fourth Quarter Highlights - Men
Tennis Country’s snapshot of the memorable moments on the men’s pro tennis tour during the Fourth Quarter…
• Greatest Accomplishment:
o Russian, Nikolay Davydenko, beat Rafael Nadal, Robin Soderling, Roger Federer and Juan Martin del Potro en route to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals Title in London in late November. Not a bad run for the perennial, and underrated, top tenner…
• Biggest Disappointment:
o Marat Safin did finally hang up his rackets at the Paris Indoors in November. One never knows if Marat will join the list of players staging comebacks, but it appears unlikely unless he decides to partner sister, Dinara, in mixed doubles at some point…
• Major Surprise:
o James Blake’s continued slide down the rankings to end the year ranked 44th after starting the season at number 10. Blake dropped his long-time coach, Brian Barker, and started working with Kelly Jones. However, James only won three matches after the U.S. Open during the fall tournament swing and clearly needs to find his game quickly in 2010.
• Fresh New Face:
o Marcos Baghdatis, who is a former Australian Open finalist and “rereshed new face”, finally returned to the winner’s circle this fall. In 2009, Baghdatis’ ranking dropped all the way down to 151 from a career-high of 8 and he ended 2009 ranked 42nd. For the talented and charismatic Cypriot, it’s been a tough year or two and one hopes that Baghdatis can display more of his best tennis in 2010 and stay injury-free as well.
|
