Another tennis season has drawn to a close, so have a look at the report cards for the leading men’s and women’s players and tell us who you think was the ‘player of the year’.
Men’s
Roger Federer (world No.1)
Highs: Finally winning the French Open to complete career Grand Slam, Regaining Wimbledon title to overtake Pete Sampras as most prolific Grand Slam champion, regaining world number one title, reaching all four Grand Slam finals.
Lows: Losing Australian Open final to Rafael Nadal and breaking down at trophy presentation, losing US Open final to Juan Martin Del Potro, losing three times to Novak Djokovic and twice to Andy Murray, five month title drought at start of the year.
Rafael Nadal (world No.2)
Highs: Winning Australian Open title with epic five-set victory of Federer, knocked Fed from world number one ranking, suffered first loss at French Open with commendable grace, won three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles
Lows: Beaten at French Open by Robin Soderling ending 31-match winning streak at Roland Garros, couldn’t defend Wimbledon title because of injury, missed two months because of injury, 46-week reign as world number one ended.
Novak Djokovic (world No.3)
Highs: Won five titles and reached a career-high 10 season finals, finished season with most wins on tour (76)
Lows: Retired from Australian Open due to heat, lost in three-sets to Nadal at final of Monte Carlo despite playing his best clay court tennis, lost in quarter-finals at Wimbledon
Andy Murray (world No.4)
Highs: Won six titles, reached world number two rank, first British player since 1938 to win at Queen’s, won heroic five-setter against Stanislas Wawrinka at Wimbledon was latest finish at Championships, posted 12-5 win-loss against Top 10 opponents.
Lows: Poor return at Grand Slams given his form, accused of being too negative in losing Wimbledon semi-final to Andy Roddick, lost in fourth round at US Open – his favourite Grand Slam, questions remain over his second serve.
Juan Martin Del Potro (world No.5)
Highs: Won first Grand Slam at US Open beating Federer in final, reached first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final, reached career-best number five ranking, first player to beat Nadal and Federer in a Grand Slam tournament at US Open.
Lows: Lost to unseeded Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon
Women’s*
Serena Williams (world No.1)
Highs: Won Australian Open and beat sister Venus in Wimbledon final, finished season as world number one, won three WTA tour titles, semi-final victory over Elena Dementieva was arguably women’s game of the year.
Lows: Lost US Open semi-final to Kim Clijsters and unleashed a rant at a line judge – punishment pending, running battle with authorities a she claimed she was rightful world number one.
Dinara Safina (world No.2)
Highs: Reached Australian and French Open finals and Wimbledon semi-final, On April 20 became world number one, won three singles titles.
Lows: Still couldn’t crack first Grand Slam title, demolished by Venus Williams in Wimbledon semi-final, lost number one ranking.
Svetlana Kuznetsova (world No.3)
Highs: Won French Open title, won three WTA tour titles
Lows: Lost in third round at Wimbledon to unseeded Sabini Lisicki, lost in fourth round at US Open
Caroline Wozniacki (world No.4)
Highs: Reached career-high ranking of four, reached first Grand Slam final at US Open, won three WTA tour titles
Lows: Lost fourth round at Wimbledon to Lisicki, lost in third round at Australian and French Open.
Elena Dementieva (world No.5)
Highs: Won three WTA tour finals, reached semi-finals at Australian Open and Wimbledon,
Lows: Lost second round at US Open and third round at Roland Garros,
* Match records up to date till 23 November (source http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com)
The Wimbledon Blog 
29 Comments
The obvious choices for players of the year are Roger Federer for the men and Serena Williams for the women.
Rafael Nadal
Roger Federer was the player of the year 2009.
roger federer is my pick!
by far!
Nº 1 Federer
Nº 2 Dyokovyk
Nº 3 Del Potro
Women
Nº 1 Serena Williams
Nº 2 Caroline Wozniacki
Nº 3 Venus Williams
Nº 4 Svetlama Kuznetsova
Is this a report card ? Or just a list of achievements ?
Roger Federer! He reclaimed the world number 1 title and completed his GS collection.
Roger Federer IS the player of 2009!!!!!
He was in ALL 4 Grand Slam finals.
Won Roland Garros for the first time to complete his career slam and tie Pete Sampras’s record of 14 Grand Slams.
Won back Wimbledon in probably the most EXCITING Wimbledon final EVER to BREAK the Grand Slam record.
And, regained HIS #1 ranking that was lost last year.
HOW could ANYONE ELSE BUT Roger be the player of 2009!!!!
Of course Federer. Afterall he was 2 sets short of a calender grand-slam. 2 friggingly badly played 5th sets, in GS finals. That’s all.
And one of those finals, he was ‘this’ close to winning in 4 sets.
The year gotta belong to FedEx, despite all those losses.
I think the ranking say it all the best male player of the year Roger Federer and the best female player of the year Serena Williams.
Men’s – Roger Federer
Women’s – Caroline Wozniacki
The ATP rannkings tell us a lot about the player’s performance within the year and in comparison to the previous. All players had their ups and downs, and this is characteristic of such a demanding sport. However, based on an analysis of 2009 points earned and in comparison to the same period last year, i.e. ATP points as of 1 Dec 2008, I would say that there could be 2 categories for player of the year. In terms of total achievements (winnings) in the year, that would be Federer. In terms of most improved (compared to last year), that would be del Potro.
Men : Roger Federer. Career Grand Slam and unprecedented 15 GS titles.
Women : Kim Cijsters. US Open champ after three years of retirement and the first mom champ after Goolagong. No achievements of players ranked higher than Kim this year were impressive.
Andy Murray for me. Got further in most tournaments than before, won more titles than anyone else. Hopefully will improve with his second serve next year. Good Luck for 2010 Andy
Roger Federer is definitely player of the year in 2009. He turned a bad year around and ended on high at #1 again. The losses should also be put in to the context of at which stage in tournament he lost.
His behaviour of and off court is exemplary – AUS open was not saying “it is killing me” because he lost but because he could not stop the tears, which were nothing more than a release of tension. Those, in themselves, show just how hungry he is for future titles; his love of the game and how seriously he takes it all.
The whole world love Federer ….. Tennis will not be the same without him ;-))
Roger Federer should be the player of the year.
ROGER FEDERER
My player of the year was undoudtedly Roger Federer. He regained the no 1 spot, and broke the record for the most slams, and eventually won the French.
Rafael Nadal. For the Australian Open all by itself. The magnificent matches, the last two five-setters, the underdog victory, first hardcourt slam, taking the number one ranking. And in a big way, for Nadal’s humility and grace – and that arm around Federer’s shoulders.
Tommy Haas should be awarded player of the year, he has come from number 83 in the world in January 09 to ending the yr 17 in the world, even though he has not played 18 countable tournaments. A fantastic achievement reaching quarters of French open, and semis of Wimbledon and losing respctively to the eventual winner of the tournament (R.Federer).
ROGER FEDERER
Rafa fr sure
Del potro. though i am a die hard fan of rafa i go fr delpotro
Djokovic all the way. He had some problems at the beginning of the season but ended it in a remarkable style and was the best player by far in the last tournaments winning back to back titles in Basel and Paris and crushing the likes of Nadal and Federer in the process. Plus he is the second best clay player in the world behind Nadal, he was close many times to beat him this year in Montecarlo, Rome and Madrid. All this makes me confident that he will be a force to be reckoned with in 2010 and eventually he will take nº 1. Not too long now.
Player of the Year is Roger Federer in mens side.Because he reached all four Grandslam Final.Federer completed his career grandslam by winning a Frech Open in this year.
In Womens side,Player of the Year is Serena Williams.she won Australian open and Wimbledon in this year and semifinalist of the US open.
No question, ROGER FEDERER. Unparalleled. Says it all that he is The One everybody wants to beat.
It should be ROGER from 1 to 10. He’s way above the rest. Just look at the numbers he has posted.
Almost all of the votes here also go to Roger.
Gotta be Roger, i don’t remember anyone else doing anything as good as beating sampras’s slam record AND completing a career grand slam in 2009!