The Most Unexpected Success Stories in Tennis During 2014

It is sport's wicked sense of humour to throw up unexpected storylines, normally resulting in pain for one side and ecstasy for the other. In 2014, champions were stopped, star potential was realised and the tennis pendulum began to show signs of swinging the other way.

Eugenie Bouchard has long held the burden of expectation, but her exploration of the later rounds in three of the four Grand Slams was a surprising statement of intent.

Talk of a crack in the top players' dominance can often seem like a mere dent, but two debut Grand Slam finalists at the U.S. Open offered a refreshing storyline to the 2014 season.

The following slides will review the four most unexpected stories of the year from both the ATP and WTA tours. 

Jack Sock and Vasek Pospisil Stun the Bryans

Pavel Golovkin/Associated Press

One Wimbledon television commentator described 2014 doubles winners Jack Sock and Vasek Pospisil as "the boys who came from nowhere." If that was the case, they were playing against the men who had dominated everywhere.

This was not to highlight a tough upbringing, but to illustrate that the debut pairing were competing against the most prolific doubles partnership in recent history.

Logic might have backed Bob and Mike Bryan, three-time Wimbledon winners, but their fellow North Americans relied on the type of zeal and confidence possessed only by the young.

It was confidence that allowed Sock and Pospisil to lead 1-0 and then 2-1 before the Bryans called on their vast experience accumulated through years of winning.

Sock slammed a forehand down the line to win it in the fifth set and secure their status as the first pair to win on their Grand Slam debut together since Lleyton Hewitt and Max Mirnyi in 2000.

Sock in particular showed some late season singles form to suggest that the duo will be even stronger next year. However, by that point they'll be the men who came from somewhere.

Eugenie Bouchard's Grand Slam Consistency

David Vincent/Associated Press

When a player is posited as the next big thing, unrealistic expectation and media frenzy marry to form a fever that can weigh a player down for the entirety of their career.

Eugenie Bouchard had the type of year that will only feed that level of attention. 

The Canadian was knocked out by the eventual winners of the Australian Open and French Open in the semi-finals and then surged to the Wimbledon final.

Bouchard was also named the WTA's Most Improved Player of the Year, illuminating the seemingly inevitable path that she is walking to Grand Slam success.

Susan Dominus wrote for The New York Times that Pam Shriver believed Bouchard's key was "her steadiness, a valuable asset in a sport so susceptible to psychological self-sabotage."

Given her triumphs this year, including her first title in Nuremberg and a year end No. 7 ranking, there may be a slightly misplaced sense of what Bouchard should achieve next year.

Irrespective of the urgency that will be demanded of her, Bouchard's sharp acceleration in 2014 makes her one of the more unexpected success stories of the year. 

Nick Kyrgios Triumphs over Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon

Ben Curtis/Associated Press

Rafael Nadal had once played the same role as Nick Kyrgios did in July. The pretender flexed his muscles on the Wimbledon turf and unhinged the favourite. It's a role that the Spaniard can no longer assume but the Australian donned with glee.

There's nothing quite like an audacious trick shot from a 19-year-old to snatch a point against a 14-time major champion to set the cameras flashing. Even without Kyrgios' nervelessness, it was his persona, something that has long been questioned of some of tennis' players, that stole the show.

Crowds love a champion. They love a character even more.

Kyrgios endured a promising year, claiming three titles and looking every inch a future champion.

As with Bouchard, Kyrgios will likely need patience, from himself and the media. Yet here is a man who evaded inevitability with a swagger often alien to the tennis court.

For that, pundits will talk and crowds will speculate about the future of a teenager for whom it has all begun with the unexpected taming of a legend.

Marin Cilic and Kei Nishikori Contesting the U.S. Open Final

Darron Cummings/Associated Press

Had the U.S. Open men's final produced an American representative, that would have been unexpected in itself. Yet the two candidates for the year's final major still had many doing their background research.

To the devoted followers of the game, both Marin Cilic and Kei Nishikori had been on the radar for a while, particularly the eventual winner.

Cilic, claiming his first Grand Slam as he beat Nishikori 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, had said that Stan Wawrinka's Australian Open win in January "opened the door" for surprise contenders at the majors.

The Croatian was perhaps one of the less fancied to deepen the crack in the big four's dominance, and, despite their victories, Johnette Howard wrote for ESPN that neither Cilic nor Wawrinka "look like tennis' next ascendant."

Nishikori has an edge that earned him a first Slam final in New York and will certainly enable him to reach many more. Nonetheless, his presence was surprising and contributed to one of the more unexpected storylines of 2014.