The 2012 Association of Tennis Professional Tour has ended its yearly cycle in London after Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer in an extremely hard-fought and compelling finale at the Barclays ATP World Tour finals. After a season of 62 tournaments spanning across 31 different countries, it will surely not be forgotten anytime soon.
In an age where tennis is defined by a seemingly inelastic polarity at the top of the game, the top four men in the world provided us with wonderful uniformity in 2012, splitting the four majors among themselves.
At the Australian Open, Djokovic outdueled Rafael Nadal in the longest match in Australian Open history, battling it out for nearly six hours. In the second major of the year, Nadal returned the favor, edging out Djokovic in a tight four set-match at the French Open. Less than a month later, Federer shocked a great majority of the tennis world by winning his seventh Wimbledon championship, defeating hometown favorite Andy Murray in the final. In the city that never sleeps, Murray broke through his Grand Slam woes to capture his previously elusive first major at the U.S. Open, beating Djokovic in a stunning five sets.
Despite the monumental victories of the 2012 season, not all was to end in glory. Following his second-round defeat to Lukas Rosol at Wimbledon, Nadal was sidelined for the remainder of the 2012 tennis season due to complications with an ongoing knee injury. Djokovic was forced to overcome the emotional effect of his grandfather’s death during the Monte Carlo Masters. He also relinquished his titles in Monte Carlo and Rome Masters back to Nadal, who has prevented the Serb from holding all four majors at one time — neither Federer nor Nadal has held the title of four majors. At Wimbledon, Murray was once again denied at a major final, losing to Federer in a match that surely marked the most saddening defeat of his entire career considering how he had the home-court advantage. After being denied berths in the Australian Open and French Open finals by Djokovic and Nadal respectively, Federer failed to capture the singles Gold Medal at the London Olympics, falling to Britain’s own: Murray.
Looking forward into 2013, I present four questions about the top four players in order of their current rankings:
1) Will Djokovic be ranked number one at the end of 2013?
2) Will Federer win a major in 2013?
3) Will Murray have a winning record against Djokovic in 2013?
4) Will Nadal play in all four majors?
When we look back a year from now and answer these questions, they will hopefully give us a good sense of how the 2013 season panned out.
A version of this article appeared in the Thursday, Nov. 15 print edition. Nicholas Nemeroff is a staff writer. Email him at [email protected].
