With the end of the 2014 tennis season, we at Newfanzone.com take a look at what happened throughout the year in the world of tennis in Nigeria and also the ATP and WTA season.
NIGERIA
This year saw Aruna Quadri hit the limelight after he had a fantastic outing at the 2014 Commonwealth games. He also dethroned the defending champion Egyptian El Sayed Lashin in the Africa top 16 tournament. The Oyo state born athlete was awarded at the Nigeria Sports award,and he is also in line to nick the award for Star of the year and Star point of the year in the ITTF awards holding in Dubai.
We cannot talk about how good Nigeria tennis without mentioning Waheed Enitan Oshodi. The sport administrator of the year at the Nigeria Sports Awards took it as a duty to make sure we tennis lovers had a lot of tennis to savour this year with exciting and prospective talents coming through not also forgetting Nigeria winning this year edition of the Governors Cup that has eluded us for years.
All in all there were positives to take home from Nigeria tennis this year (especially Table Tennis) we hope to have a much more exciting season Next Year.
THE WTA SEASON
The WTA season was very interesting this year as we had four different winners in the Grand slam events Li Na(Australian Openn),Maria Sharapova(French Open),Petra Kvitova(Wimbledon),Serena Williams(US Open). Serena of course had a good tennis year this season though she picked up her good form late in the year but it was enough to give her a Grand slam and also the season ending WTA tournament.
Victoria Azarenka injury woes this season has seen her tennis career experience a bit of low,while Li Na had to call it quit this season because of injuries though she won the Australian Open.
Petra Kvitova,Simona Halep and Eugenie Bouchard had a very fantstic year with Kvitova winning a Grand Slam defeating Canadian Eugenie Bouchard in the final. Simona Halep did well enough and was consistent to finish the year as world number 3.
Maria Sharapova also had a good season as she finished the year as world number 2 and also capped her effort with the French Open title.
Former world number 1 Caroline Wozniacki will hope her 2014 form transfers into 2015 because she looks to be winning her first Grand Slam title anytime soon as she got herself playing good tennis once again.
TOP PERFORMERS
Serena Williams
Petra Kvitova
Maria Sharapova
Simona Halep
Eugenie Bouchard
FLOPS
Victoria Azarenka
Sloane Stephens
Samatha Stosur
Venus Williams
Jelena Jankovic
PLAYER(s) TO WATCH NEXT SEASON
Eugenie Bouchard-The Canadian was a threat all year long to the big names causing upsets and she even got to the Wimbledon final where she was humbled by Petra Kvitova. Bouchard will want to keep her form going till next year hopefully she might nick a Grand Slam title.
Caroline Wozniacki– She is popularly known as Rory Mcllroy’s Ex Girlfriend or better still “the world No.1 with no Grand slam title”. Wozniacki has picked form of late and if she is consistent enough she might get to win her first career Grand slam title.
THE ATP SEASON
The ATP season gave tennis followers what they wanted with breathtaking performances from the big names such as Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer,Stanislas Wawrinka and even Marin Cilic at the US Open.
Novak Djokovic who was formerly “the joker” seems to be writing his name in the tennis history books.
He was crowned the Wimbledon Champion and also won the Season ending tournament in London. The Serb was always the favourite in any competition he is and he never disappointed. He has a very tough mental strength and power that only Rafael Nadal(on clay) can match.
Roger Federer was also one top performer this year as he won the Davis cup with Switzerland this year. Federer would have won a Grand slam this season if not for spectacular displays from Novak,Rafael and Stanislas but he still managed to go as far as he can in some competition winning ATP masters title in the process. Next year provides another chance for the Swiss to get a Grand Slam hopefully he has the strength to carry on with him getting old by the day.
Stanislas Wawrinka also had a fruitful year winning the Australian Open and was in the Swiss team that won the Davis cup. Wawrinka consistency is his achilles heel and hopefully he will work on it next year.
Rafael Nadal injury problems made him a little bit irrelevant this year though he won Roland Garros and other Masters title.
British world number one Andy Murray was very disappointing this year and he cannot wait for 2015 to come.
Other top performers were Kei Nishikori and Marin Cilic(US Open winner).
TOP PERFORMERS
Novak Djokovic
Roger Federer
Stanislas Wawrinka
Marin Cilic
Kei Nishikori
FLOPS
Andy Murray
Grigor Dimitrov
David Ferrer
Jo.W. Tsonga
Alexander Dolgopolov.
PLAYER TO WATCH NEXT SEASON
Kei Nishikori- The Japenese seem to habe grown into his own this year and Next year looks like a big one for him as the whole of Asia will want him to win a Grand Slam just like his female Compatriot Na Li. Hopefully he will deliver.
The tennis season has been an enjoyable one all round from the Local athletes to their foreign compatriots and we at Newfanzone.com believes that 2015 will be much more livelier than this year especially locally.
You can send in your player of the year(Male and Female) to fanzone.fans@gmail.com or tweet @newfanzone or @demydemo.
The Newfanzone comes up every Saturday on City 105.1fm from 2pm.
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