Men's Tennis Stars with the Most to Prove in 2015
With the 2014 ATP World Tour almost over, all players will be looking forward to a well-deserved period of rest before 2015 soon comes around.
However, some will be more at rest than others, at least mentally.
Every player has something to prove at the elite level of sport, but we pick out five players at the top-end who perhaps have more than others, whether it’s due to a recent lack of form, testing injuries, or not quite developing as quickly as many expected.
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Andy Murray
Despite fighting admirably to reach the ATP Finals, where he disappointingly exited at the round-robin stage after being crushed by Roger Federer, there is little doubt that Andy Murray has lost his status as a member of the "Big Four."
(Side note: Is it now a Big Three? A Big Two? Or just Novak Djokovic out there on his own?)
After falling to No. 11 in the world after the U.S. Open, he has climbed back to No. 6 after his first three titles of the year all came in recent weeks.
Excluding Grand Slams, that is actually at least as many titles as he won in 2012 and 2013.
But, crucially, those years both delivered a Slam each (as well as the Olympic title in 2012, and another Slam final in each year, too).
Weirdly, Murray has remained reasonably consistent in the Slams this year, with three quarterfinals and a semifinal.
The latter, at the French Open, made him only the 10th man to reach at least two semifinals in all four Slams.
Elsewhere, however, his form has regularly deserted him.
Exhibit A: London last week.
In his defence, he has been adapting to tennis after major back surgery last year.
As he noted in his blog, as per BBC, last week: “My back had still been giving me some trouble [earlier in the year] when I thought that doing the rehab meant it would be fine.”
As such, this year was always going to be as close to a free pass as possible at the elite level of sport.
That means 2015 will be judgment time for the Scot, as well as his coach, Amelie Mauresmo, over whom doubts remain.
It feels ridiculous to claim a player who only this year moved level with Pete Sampras on 14 Grand Slams—behind only Roger Federer—has anything left to prove in the game.
But that is the position Rafael Nadal finds himself in on an almost annual basis.
Of course, it is mostly due to his injury issues, which have kept him out for months at a time in recent years.
Many thought he was finished in 2012 when, following his shock second-round exit to Lukas Rosol at Wimbledon, he missed over six months through tendonitis of the knee.
But he bounced back in 2013 to win 10 titles—including the French Open and U.S. Open—and end the year as world No. 1.
Clearly, then, it would be foolish to write him off. He will remain a top player, of that there is no question.
Equally, however, he turns 29 in June. Repeatedly bouncing back from setbacks will not get any easier, mentally or physically, particularly for a player with such an intense style.
It is not all injury-related, either. There are growing question marks over the King of Clay’s proficiency on other courts.
Hypothetically, if one was to remove Nadal’s hard-court hot streak of 2013 from the equation, you would have to go back to 2010 to find another non-clay title win.
He has particularly suffered on grass in recent times. After reaching five consecutive Wimbledon finals in which he appeared at 2006-11 (he missed 2009 through injury), he has since been knocked out prior to the quarterfinal in each of the last three years (2R, 1R, 4R).
A fourth successive failure at SW19 in 2015 would surely indicate the end of his challenge on the faster grass courts, which appear to push his knees to the limit.
The year 2014 has been hugely memorable for the Croatian, who claimed his first Slam at the U.S. Open and reached a career high of No. 8 in the world last month.
It marks an incredible turnaround after spending four months banned last year for failing a drug test.
In truth, few could have seen it coming.
He enjoyed a strong February, winning two titles and reaching another final.
Steady improvement, sure, but not even his compatriot and newly appointed coach at the time, Goran Ivanisevic, foresaw a Slam on the cards: “Our main goal is to be Top 10 by the end of the year,” he told atpworldtour.com in February.
Safe to say, then, that main goal has been smashed.
There is little doubt the combination of the drugs ban and the hiring of the former big-server sparked Cilic’s career bounce, as brilliantly summarised by the BBC’s Russell Fuller following the U.S. Open triumph:
"This time last year Marin Cilic was holed up in Croatia, serving the last few months of his doping ban and adding a few more revs to his serve. The burning sense of injustice he still feels has driven him to an achievement which had appeared beyond him; he played so calmly and consistently for most of the match - as if the trophy was his destiny.
Coach Goran Ivanisevic has also played a major part, adding more shots to his repertoire and inflating his self-belief.
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His form, however, has dropped since, culminating in him losing every match in straight sets at the Finals last week.
While the faster courts at the Australian Open should play to his strengths, he cannot afford to rest on his laurels.
Otherwise, many will undoubtedly point to the fact he avoided Novak Djokovic in the U.S. Open final as the main factor for his win.
He must prove otherwise.
The Argentine will surely have looked on in envy from the sidelines at Stan Wawrinka and Cilic’s achievements this year.
After all, they became the first non-Big Four Slam winners since Del Potro won the U.S. Open in 2009.
As in 2010, the 26-year-old has missed almost the entirety of this season through a wrist injury.
Per Sky Sports, he announced in October that he will not play again until January in order “to make a difference next season.”
The pressure will now be on him to do so.
After all, nobody on tour strikes the ball as cleanly or powerfully as a free-flowing Del Potro, superbly showcased in his semifinal showing at last year’s Wimbledon.
That showed he can be a threat on any surface.
With Nadal seemingly on the decline and Federer not getting any younger, there is a growing void behind Djokovic.
Depending on how he returns from injury, 2015 could be the year Del Potro finally fills it.
Grigor Dimitrov
Born in 1991, the Bulgarian is still the youngest player in the top 30.
This has been his breakthrough year, reaching a career high of No. 8 in August after a brilliant Wimbledon in which he knocked out Murray before narrowly losing to Djokovic in the semifinal.
Jacob Steinberg described for The Guardian that the “cooing, love-struck Centre Court crowd … adopted Dimitrov as one of their own” during that performance, in part due to his “forehand that could pass for one of Roger Federer’s, [and] the drop shots that make your heart melt.”
Prior to this year, he had never gone past the third-round of a Slam.
He now has a quarterfinal and a semifinal under his belt.
But he must bounce back from the disappointment of missing out on the finals to build on the aforementioned great strides.
Will arguably the biggest young talent in the game, once dubbed “Baby Fed,” make the next step in 2015?
In order to do so, he will need to capitalise on the type of chances he let slip against Nadal in Australia and against Djokovic at Wimbledon.
It is time for him to deliver.
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