Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams are celebrating a season of epic proportions, claiming six of eight Grand Slam titles in a march to greatness dented only by two players producing once-in-a-lifetime performances.
Djokovic ended this year with 11 titles, 82 wins and just six defeats in a haul that included three of the four Majors — the Australian Open, US Open and Wimbledon. His on-court earnings of $21m swelled his career total to $94m, while the 28-year-old Serb now has 10 Grand Slams among 59 career titles.
Djokovic won six of the nine Masters and topped that off with a fourth successive end-of-season World Tour Finals triumph in London.
“I’m very proud to have these achievements with my team,” he said. “It’s been a long season, but the best of my life.”
Djokovic reached the final of every tournament he played in with the exception of the Qatar Open in Doha, where he was stunned in the quarterfinals by Ivo Karlovic. From there, it was one-way traffic — indoors, outdoors, hard court, clay and grass. But Djokovic was still left with a case of “what might have been” thanks to a single-handed backhand blitz delivered by Stan Wawrinka at Roland Garros, where a 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-4 defeat left him still seeking a first French Open.
Roger Federer, who has not added to his 17 Majors since Wimbledon in 2012, continued to defy the critics.
Despite passing 34 in August, the Swiss reached the Wimbledon and US Open finals, and handed Djokovic a rare defeat in the round robin of the World Tour Finals before the Serb swept to a comfortable revenge in the title match.
What Wawrinka did to Djokovic in Paris in June, unheralded Italian Roberta Vinci did to Williams in New York in September. The American was on her way to a calendar Grand Slam and a 22nd Major.
She looked on course for a routine semi-final win when she took the first set 6-2 against the 32-year-old wafer-thin Italian who was playing in her first last-four clash at the highest level.
But from nowhere, the world No43 raced through the next two sets for a famous win and a place in the final against fellow Italian Flavia Pennetta.
Pennetta triumphed for a first Grand Slam crown, and promptly announced her retirement. Williams was so stunned that she called time on her season, sitting out the last three months, an absence that helped Agnieszka Radwanska lift the WTA Championship title.
Williams was still the standout player of the year, winning five titles, including the Australian Open and French Open, and Wimbledon. Her record reads 53 wins against just three losses.
