World Tennis Ratings

It takes a look back over the course of the year to see how quickly the tennis landscape can change. It may have only been months ago, even those in the know could sit back and wonder to themselves, “what in the world is a Wozniacki?” Now as we enter a fresh slate of tennis for 2011, Caroline Wozniacki is the hottest name on the women’s tennis circuit, whether a casual fan or all-out tennis addict with the direct tv package to prove it. Though Wozniacki has yet to hoist the hardware of a Grand Slam tournament, no player, male or female, racked up W’s quite like the Danish 20-year old to close out the year.When the final dust cleared at December’s end, not only is Wozniacki well entrenched in tennis vernacular, but it is also synonymous with ITF Women’s Singles World Champion and Year End Number One, among the elite honors the sport has to offer. Winning six WTA singles titles in 2010, Wozniacki paced all women, with Kim Clijsters following in close pursuit with 5. No other woman, however, won more than two.

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Another year will pass without a title for two of the more prominent names in Men’s Tennis, neither of whom has emerged victorious from a Grand Slam title. Nikolay Davydenko and Andy Murray are no stranger to winning. In fact, among active players on the ATP Tour, Davydenko and Murray rank sixth and eighth in terms of wins, respectively. Comparable players to Andy Roddick, Carlos Moya, Novak Djokovic and Juan Carlos Ferrero, both Davydenko and Murray are in danger of becoming what Dan Marino is to football and Charles Barkley is to basketball, just as talented as their peers but without the top level hardware to show for it. As the current contenders for the dubious honor of “Best Tennis Player Alive without a Grand Slam,” the question remains which play will break through first.For Davydenko, the issue is much more pressing. Just 1 year away from the 30 plateau, soon his best tennis days may be behind him. Some have already questioned whether Federer is on the downslope of his career, Davydenko is two months his senior. Murray, on the other hand is just 23 years old, having already racked up 14 titles to Davydenko’s 19, with plenty of tennis left to play. Though both still certainly have the time and talent to win on the biggest stage, perhaps the biggest obstacles facing both players are the two biggest names in Men’s Tennis. Just as Davydenko is nearly the same age as Federer, Murray is 11 months younger than the sport’s current top dog, Rafael Nadal. With similar total time on the ATP Tour, the combination of Federer and Nadal has taken home 22 total grand slams next to Davydenko and Murray’s collective goose egg.

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Rafael Nadal is on a roll. Plain and simple. Winning three consecutive Grand Slam titles to assert himself atop the tennis ranks. Unfortunately for Federer fans, Nadals success has a direct correlation with Federer’s struggles each player has historically served as the major roadblock for the other’s succes. Now with Federer falling early in major tournaments, the ying to his yang has taken advantage, beating Federer head to head and lasting longer when other opponents got to him first.Currently, Federer has dropped to 3 in the world, after losing in the French Open, Wimbledon and US Open. However, he did win the Australian Open at the year’s onset, the fourth Aussie crown on his extensive resume. Mired in his current title drought, hardly a drought though by his terms it is indeed, is it time to write off the 29-year old Fed Express?

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Much like the men’s game, the women’s side of the sport is dominated by two elite players that shine above the rest, and in this case they are sisters. Venus and Serena Williams have dominated Wimbledon, and Women’s Tennis for that matter, like few before them. Venus won the tournament 2 years ago, for the 5^th time in her career, while Serena is the event’s defending champion, looking to defend her 2009 crown. Since Lindsay Davenport defeated Steffi Graf in 1999 to win the title, every Wimbledon women’s final has featured at least one of the Williams sisters, with the exception of 2006. While the sisters sit atop the seeding, the talent gap isn’t quite as large as in the men’s bracket. Here is a lot at a list of female competitors who could make the 2006 anomaly a repeat occurrence.

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For a player of his talent and someone who holds the record for the fastest serve in tennis history, many people feel that Andy Roddick‘s career doesn’t reflect just how incredible his game truly is. A losing streak early in his career, while he was still in the juniors, almost led Roddick to quit. After being convinced to give the game a little longer, he finally had a breakthrough in 2003 and became the number one player in the world, and he was only 21.

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Seven time Grand Slam single winner, 2008 Olympic gold medalist, eighteen time ATP World Tour Masters 1000 winner, five time French Open title winner, and the current No. 1 tennis player in the worldat age 24, Rafael ‘Rafa’ Nadal Parera‘s list of accomplishments is stunning. Ever since he turned pro in 2000, Rafael has earned his nickname as “the King of Clay” for being the greatest clay court player of all time.

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