US Open 2015: Final Grades for Top Stars at Flushing Meadows
Novak Djokovic captured his third Grand Slam title of the year by winning the U.S. Open, but is that enough to earn the elusive A+ grade for his work the past two weeks?
Did Serena Williams' loss to an unseeded player greatly affect her grade? How do you assess the tournament of Roberta Vinci, who upset Williams but defeated no other seeded player?
We graded 14 players, seven men and seven women. All eight U.S. Open semifinalists, as well as six other well-known players, were given grades.
The grades were based primarily on how far a player advanced at the 2015 U.S. Open. Some consideration was given to how the player performed relative to pre-tournament expectations and the quality of the competition faced by a given player. In a few cases, the player's body of work over the entire year was taken into account.
The star player with the lowest assigned grade is listed first, with players presented in ascending order of their grades thereafter. The player receiving the highest grade is listed last.
Caroline Wozniacki
1 of 14
2015 U.S. Open Expectations
No. 5-ranked and No. 4-seeded Caroline Wozniacki was a player worth watching because she had reached the U.S. Open finals last year, beating three seeded players, including Maria Sharapova, along the way. Wozniacki's best performances have come at the U.S. Open, where she reached the finals in 2009 as well as last year.
Generally, though, Wozniacki has not done well in Grand Slam events. She has never won a major and got to the finals of only two, despite being ranked No. 1 at the end of 2010 and 2011. This year, Wozniacki lost in the second round of the first two Grand Slam events and in the fourth round at Wimbledon. She got to the semifinals of her final hard-court tuneup in New Haven, Conn., but had lost her opening match in the other three.
2015 U.S. Open Performance
Wozniacki's difficult time in Grand Slam events continued with a terribly disappointing second-round loss to Petra Cetkovska. Not only did Wozniacki lose to a player ranked 149th, but she failed to convert four match-point opportunities in the third set of a 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 defeat.
Wozniacki seemed to take control when she rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the second set to force a third, but Cetkovska was the more aggressive player in the key moments of the deciding set. Wozniacki went down rather meekly in the tiebreaker, losing it 7-1.
Entering the U.S. Open, Cetkovska had lost in the first round in all five WTA Tour events she had played in 2015, leaving no way to sugar-coat Wozniacki's loss.
Final Grade: D
Kei Nishikori
2 of 14
2015 U.S. Open Expectations
There was every reason to believe Kei Nishikori would advance deep into the 2015 U.S. Open. He had the best tournament of his life at Flushing Meadows last year, reaching the finals of a Grand Slam event for the first time and beating three top-six players, including No. 1 Novak Djokovic, in the process.
Nishikori had reached the quarterfinals of this year's first hard-court major, the Australian Open, and his ranking had risen from No. 12 in August 2014 to the No. 4 spot he occupied heading into the U.S. Open.
He had performed well in the two hard-court warmup events prior to the U.S. Open, beating Marin Cilic and John Isner while winning in Washington, D.C., and beating Rafael Nadal before losing to Andy Murray in the semifinals in Montreal.
2015 U.S. Open Performance
Nishikori fell flat, losing in the first round to 41st-ranked Benoit Paire, a player Nishikori had beaten in their only two previous meetings. This loss was not as embarrassing as his straight-sets defeat at the hands of 178th-ranked Daniel Evans in the first round of the 2013 U.S. Open.
However, in some ways, it was worse. Nishikori is now an experienced top-five player expected to perform well at the critical moments of major events. He had a double match point at 6-4 of the fourth-set tiebreaker but lost four points in a row to lose that set and ultimately the match 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4.
Nishikori's only possible excuse was that he was still feeling the effects of a hip injury that caused him to withdraw from the hard-court tournament in Cincinnati two weeks earlier. To be fair, facing Paire in the first round was a tough draw, as Paire proved by reaching the fourth round. But as the No. 4 seed, Nishikori expected much more.
Final Grade: D+
Rafael Nadal
3 of 14
2015 U.S. Open Expectations
Rafael Nadal finally seems to be healthy this year, but he has not shown the form that made him the world's No. 1-ranked player as recently as May 2014.
His ranking had slipped to No. 8 entering the U.S. Open. Nadal got no further than the quarterfinals in any of the first three majors this year, and he did nothing in his two hard-court tuneup events to suggest he would contend at Flushing Meadows. However, the mere fact that he is Rafael Nadal, with the potential to regain his past dominance at any time, made him a player of interest.
2015 U.S. Open Performance
Nadal played decently, but not great, in winning his first two matches against 33rd-ranked Borna Coric and 74th-ranked Diego Schwartzman. He played his best tennis of the tournament while taking the first two sets in his third-round match against 32nd-ranked Fabio Fognini.
Then things fell apart. Fognini rolled through the next three sets to finish off a 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 victory. It was the first time Nadal had lost a match in a Grand Slam event after winning the first two sets. When he was at his peak, Nadal would crush the life out of opponents after getting on top. At the moment, he is is not able to do that, and opponents know it.
Still just 29 years old, Nadal has time to return to his form of a few years ago, as Roger Federer demonstrated. Whether he will do so is an open question.
Final Grade: C-
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Andy Murray
4 of 14
2015 U.S. Open Expectations
Andy Murray seemed to be returning to the form that brought him a Wimbledon title and a No. 2 ranking in 2013. This year he had reached the finals of the Australian Open and the semifinals of both the French Open and Wimbledon, losing twice to Novak Djokovic and once to Roger Federer in those majors.
He had beaten Djokovic to win the Montreal hard-court event before losing to Federer in the semifinals of his final tuneup tournament in Cincinnati. His ranking was up to No. 3 after being No. 12 last September.
Murray's consistency in Grand Slam events suggested he was likely to advance deep into the U.S. Open, a tournament he won in 2012. Murray came into Flushing Meadows having reached at least the quarterfinals in each of the last 18 Grand Slam events he entered.
2015 U.S. Open Performance
Murray's run of 18 straight quarterfinal berths in majors came to a screeching halt in a 7-6, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6, fourth-round loss to No. 15-seeded Kevin Anderson. Murray had won his previous four matches against Anderson, including two on hard courts, but he could never get control this time. Anderson fired 25 aces and won the fourth-set tiebreaker 7-0.
It was Murray's earliest departure from a Grand Slam event since he lost in the third round of the 2009 U.S. Open.
Murray had been less than dominant earlier in the tournament, losing the first two sets to 35th-ranked Adrian Mannarino before easily winning the next three in the second round.
Final Grade: C+
Petra Kvitova
5 of 14
2015 U.S. Open Expectations
It was difficult to determine what to expect from Petra Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion who entered the U.S. Open ranked No. 4. She had not done much this year, failing to reach the quarterfinals in any of the first three majors. Furthermore, Kvitova had not had success at the U.S. Open, never reaching the quarterfinals and losing to unseeded players in the third round the past two years.
The one result that suggested Kvitova might perform well at Flushing Meadows was her triumph in the hard-court event at New Haven, Conn., the week before the U.S. Open. She beat Madison Keys, Agnieszka Radwanska, Caroline Wozniacki and Lucie Safarova in succession to win that title.
2015 U.S. Open Performance
Kvitova had her best showing ever in the U.S. Open, reaching the quarterfinals before losing to No. 26-seeded Flavia Pennetta 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. Kvitova, who seemed exhausted in the third set, was beaten by the heat as much as by Pennetta.
Kvitova played well while winning her first four matches without the loss of a set. She was particularly impressive in a 6-2, 6-1 third-round victory over No. 32-ranked Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
Reaching the final eight at the U.S. Open represents a step forward for Kvitova. But when the world's No. 4-ranked player fails to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament and loses to a player ranked outside the top 25, it is difficult to consider it a success.
Final Grade: B-
Venus Williams
6 of 14
2015 U.S. Open Expectations
Venus Williams showed she is still capable of playing top-flight tennis in big events by getting to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and the round of 16 at Wimbledon this year. However, the 35-year-old Williams, who is afflicted with Sjogren's syndrome, is still a long way from where she was at her peak.
Entering the U.S. Open, she had not reached the semifinals of a major since 2010, and she had advanced as far as the quarterfinals only once in her last 16 Grand Slam appearances. She did not play particularly well in her tuneup events for the U.S. Open and had to withdraw from the Cincinnati tournament because of a virus.
She is still capable of beating anyone in the world on a given day, but she did not figure to challenge for the U.S. Open title.
2015 U.S. Open Performance
Williams struggled to win her first two matches in three sets, then played some of her best tennis in years in her next three matches.
In the third round, the 23rd-ranked Williams posted a relatively easy 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 12-seeded Belinda Bencic, a rising star who was expected to contend at Flushing Meadows. Williams then outclassed qualifier Anett Kontaveit 6-2, 6-1 in the fourth round to earn a quarterfinal match against sister Serena Williams.
Venus dominated the second set against the world's No. 1 player but faded in the third set of a 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 loss. Reaching the quarterfinals of two 2015 majors represents Venus Williams' best year since 2010, when she climbed to No. 3 in the rankings following the U.S. Open.
Final Grade: B
Serena Williams
7 of 14
2015 U.S. Open Expectations
Serena Williams was a heavy favorite to win the 2015 U.S. Open and complete the first calendar-year Grand Slam since Steffi Graf did it in 1988. Williams had lost only two matches on the court in her 10 tournaments this year coming into Flushing Meadows, and another possible obstacle was removed when Maria Sharapova withdrew from the U.S. Open with an injury.
Furthermore, 12 of her 21 Grand Slam singles titles had come on hard courts. She had won the last three U.S. Opens and was particularly impressive last year, when she lost no more than three games in any set.
Williams had not been overwhelming in winning the first three majors this year, forced to a third set in nine of those 21 matches. But she had found a way to win. The biggest challenge for Williams seemed to be dealing with the mounting pressure of trying to complete the single-year Grand Slam while attempting to tie Graf's Open-era record of 22 major singles titles.
2015 U.S. Open Performance
Williams fell short of winning her 22nd major and completing a single-year Grand Slam, and the end occurred in shocking fashion. After beating Bethanie Mattek-Sands in three sets, Williams got past what looked to be her two most threatening opponents. First, she beat 19th-seeded Madison Keys 6-3, 6-3 in the fourth round, then outlasted older sister Venus in three sets in the quarterfinals.
Semifinal opponent Roberta Vinci was expected to be easy pickings for Williams. The 32-year-old Vinci, unseeded and ranked No. 43, was known primarily as a doubles player whose favorite surface was clay. This year, Vinci had lost in the first round of two Grand Slam events and the second round of the third.
She did not have to beat any seeded players to reach the semifinals against Williams, and she benefited from Eugenie Bouchard's withdrawal because of an injury before Bouchard's fourth-round match against Vinci.
Williams had won all four previous matches against Vinci without the loss of a set, and when Williams won the first set 6-2 this time, it seemed another routine victory was in store. Even after losing the second set, Williams took a 2-0 lead in the third and again appeared to be in control.
Yet Williams could not close it out, losing 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in what the New York Times called "one of the biggest surprises in tennis history." It was Williams' 12th three-set match in Grand Slam tournaments this year but the first one she could not pull out.
Grading Williams' performance is a challenge because she did reach the semifinals, but anything less than a U.S. Open title must be considered a major disappointment.
Final Grade: B
Simona Halep
8 of 14
2015 U.S. Open Expectations
Although Simona Halep is ranked No. 2 in the world, there were lingering questions about her ability to perform in big events. After reaching the finals of the French Open and the semifinals at Wimbledon last year, Halep seemed to struggle with the pressure of increased expectations.
She lost in the quarterfinals of the 2015 Australian Open, then was beaten in second round of the French Open by 70th-ranked Miriana Lucis-Baroni and lost in the first round of Wimbledon by 106th-ranked Jan Cepelova.
She played well in her two hard-court warmup events prior to the U.S. Open, getting to the finals of both. Halep, who turns 24 on September 27, is still young, and experience may solve her problems in majors at some point, enabling her capture her first Grand Slam singles crown.
2015 U.S. Open Performance
Halep had her best Grand Slam showing of the year by reaching the semifinals of the U.S. Open. Her three-set victories over 24th-seeded Sabine Lisicki in the fourth round and 20th-seeded Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinals were particularly encouraging because Halep had developed a habit of playing poorly in the late going of Grand Slam matches.
Haleps's performance in her 6-1, 6-3 loss to No. 26-seeded Flavia Pennetta in the semifinals was disappointing, however. Not only did Halep lose decisively to a lower-ranked player she had beaten on hard courts in Miami earlier in the year, but Halep again faded down the stretch.
Halep led 3-1 in the second set before losing 15 points in row and 19 of the last 21, according to the ESPN.com report.
Final Grade: B
Stan Wawrinka
9 of 14
2015 U.S. Open Expectations
Although Stan Wawrinka was not having an outstanding year overall, his consistent success in Grand Slam events suggested he was a contender at the U.S. Open.
He came into Flushing Meadows having won just two of the 15 tournaments he played in 2015, and he had three losses to players ranked outside the top 50. However, he won the French Open, beating Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the process, even though he had lost in the first round at Paris the year before and had done nothing of note in the clay-court events leading up to the French Open.
Wawrinka also reached the semifinals at the Australian Open, losing to eventual champion Djokovic in five sets, and got to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon on grass, his least favorite surface. Wawrinka had reached at least the quarterfinals in five straight majors and in seven of the last eight.
His mediocre showing in the hard-court events preceding the U.S. Open did not seem to be a reason to bet against him.
2015 U.S. Open Performance
Wawrinka matched his best showing ever at the U.S. Open by reaching the semifinals, but his poor performance in his loss to Roger Federer undid a lot of the admirable work he had done to get to that point.
Wawrinka lost just one set in winning his first five matches, and his 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 thumping of 15th-seeded Kevin Anderson in the quarterfinals was particularly impressive. There was no hint that he would lay an egg against Federer in the semifinals.
Federer came into the match 11-0 against Wawrinka on hard courts, but most of those matches took place before Wawrinka's rise to elite status, and Wawrinka had won their most recent matchup in straight sets at the French Open. However, Wawrinka put up virtually no resistance this time, losing to Federer 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 in just 92 minutes. Federer played outstanding tennis, but Wawrinka helped make Federer look good.
What should not be ignored is Wawrinka's results in 2015 majors: one title, two semifinal berths and one quarterfinal berth. Only Djokovic has done better this year.
Final Grade: B
Marin Cilic
10 of 14
2015 U.S. Open Expectations
Marin Cilic's 2015 results suggested he was unlikely to win the U.S. Open for the second straight year. He failed to reach the finals in any of the 12 tournaments he played this year before the U.S. Open. A shoulder injury that caused him to withdraw from the Australian Open contributed to his disappointing 2015 results.
Nonetheless, it was impossible to ignore his surprising run in the 2014 U.S. Open. Ranked 16th at the time, Cilic beat Tomas Berdych, Roger Federer and Kei Nishikori in succession, all in the straight sets, to win his first Grand Slam title.
Cilic was healthy again entering this year's U.S. Open, and he was coming off a quarterfinal showing at Wimbledon. Though not a favorite, the No. 9-ranked Cilic could not be ignored.
2015 U.S. Open Performance
Cilic reached the semifinals of a Grand Slam event for only the third time in his career, and he did it while competing on sprained ankle for most of the second week. What will be remembered, however, is his embarrassing 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 loss to Novak Djokovic. By winning just three games, Cilic became the victim of the most one-sided U.S. Open semifinal match in the Open era (since 1968).
Djokovic said afterward that Cilic's ankle injury affected Cilic's performance, but Cilic had beaten 19th-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in five sets in the quarterfinals and 27th-seeded Jeremy Chardy in four sets in the fourth round after turning his ankle early in the second set against Chardy.
Cilic's semifinal berth put him in line for a high grade, but his weak showing in the semifinals could not be ignored in assessing his overall performance.
Final Grade: B
Roberta Vinci
11 of 14
2015 U.S. Open Expectations
Roberta Vinci was not even in the discussion regarding contenders for the 2015 U.S. Open. Known primarily as a doubles player, the 32-year-old Vinci had finished each of the last three years ranked No. 1 in doubles and had won five Grand Slam doubles titles with Sara Errani.
As a singles player, however, Vinci was a virtual non-factor, and her best days seemed to be behind her. Ranked as high as No. 11 in 2013, Vinci was ranked 43rd when the U.S. Open began. In her 43 career appearances in the main draw of majors, she had never reached the semifinals and got as far as the quarterfinals only twice.
She had lost in the first round in five of her last seven Grand Slam appearances and was beaten in the first round of nine tournaments this year, including both the French Open and Wimbledon.
A finesse player with an excellent volley, Vinci was getting blown off the court by today's powerful players, and more of the same was expected at Flushing Meadows. The only hint of possible U.S. Open success came when Vinci beat slumping Eugenie Bouchard 6-1, 6-0 in the hard-court tournament in New Haven, Conn., the week before the Open.
2015 U.S. Open Performance
Vinci beat only one top-35 player in her seven matches, but that one win was a doozy.
Vinci got a break when the No. 25-seeded Bouchard was forced to withdraw before her fourth-round match against Vinci because of a head injury, and Vinci had to go three sets to beat three unseeded players on her way to the semifinals.
Vinci would ultimately lose in the finals to No. 26-seeded Flavia Pennetta, 7-6, 6-2. However, Vinci made a name for herself in the semifinals when she stunned No. 1 Serena Williams, ruining Williams' bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam. Not only did Vinci pull off one of the biggest upsets in tennis history, but she did it the hard way, twice coming back when Williams seemed to be in control.
Williams appeared to have the match in hand when she won the first set 6-2, and after dropping the second set to let Vinci back in the match, Williams took command by charging to a 2-0 lead in the third set.
Williams has been almost unbeatable in three-set matches in 2015, going 17-1 in three-setters this year, including 11-0 in majors. But she could not close out Vinci, who had not taken a set from Williams in any of their four previous meetings. Vinci was in control in the closing stages and finished off a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 shocker.
So how would you grade someone who beat only one seeded player on the court and lost to a player ranked outside the top 25 but got to a Grand Slam final for the first time and defeated the No. 1 player in the world? The fact that no one exceeded expectations more than Vinci at this U.S. Open played a role in the assessment.
Final Grade: A-
Roger Federer
12 of 14
2015 U.S. Open Expectations
Roger Federer came into the U.S. Open playing some of the best tennis of his career, and the thought of him winning another Grand Slam singles title no longer seemed far-fetched.
He had started the year slowly, losing to Andreas Seppi in the third round of the Australian Open. However, he had improved nearly every week since. He reached the quarterfinals of the French Open, then advanced to the finals at Wimbledon before losing to Novak Djokovic in four sets. It was only Federer's second finals appearance in his last 12 majors, and he was clearly getting closer to capturing his first Grand Slam title since 2012.
Federer's improvement continued into the hard-court season, as he won the only hard-court tuneup event he entered by beating both Andy Murray and Djokovic in straight sets in Cincinnati.
Federer was back up to No. 2 in the rankings after slipping as low as No. 8 in 2014. Plus he had added some service-return intrigue with a new tactic known as SABR (Sneak Attack by Roger) in which he would charge ahead to return serve on a half-volley and advance to the net.
2015 U.S. Open Performance
Federer played some of the best tennis of his career while reaching the finals without the loss of a set. He beat four seeded players along the way, and his 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 rout of No. 12-seeded Richard Gasquet in the quarterfinals and his 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 destruction of No. 5-seeded Stan Wawrinka were particularly impressive.
It enabled Federer to get to the finals of a Grand Slam event for the second time in 2015, the first time since 2009 he has played in the finals of two majors in the same year. However, that 18th Grand Slam title eluded him again, and again Djokovic stood in his way. The score this time was similar to the score in the Wimbledon finals, with Federer taking the second set in both four-set matches.
Although the 34-year-old Federer seemed to tire in the final set of his 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 loss in the finals, he demonstrated that he has the capability of beating Djokovic if they should meet again in a big match, something that seemed impossible two years ago.
There is certainly no shame in losing to Djokovic, who is putting together one of the best seasons in the Open era.
Final Grade: A
Flavia Pennetta
13 of 14
2015 U.S. Open Expectations
Nothing in Flavia Pennetta's 2015 results indicated she would be a factor at Flushing Meadows. She had lost in the first round in five of her last eight tournaments before the U.S. Open, and that included opening-round losses to 34th-ranked Zarina Divas at Wimbledon and to 79th-ranked Magdalena Rybarikova at the New Haven, Conn., hard-court event the week before the U.S. Open.
Always a solid doubles player, Pennetta had been ranked as high as No. 10 in singles in 2009 before slipping out of the top 80 because of a wrist injury that nearly caused her to quit tennis in 2013. She worked her way up to No. 12 by the end of 2014, but she had drifted back down to No. 26 by the time the U.S. Open arrived.
Pennetta had not had much recent success in majors, losing in the first or second round in four of her past six Grand Slam events. However, she had always played her best tennis at Flushing Meadows. Pennetta got at least to the quarterfinals in five of her last six appearances at the U.S. Open, including a semifinal berth in 2013, her best showing at a Grand Slam event. Her past U.S. Open success at least made her a player worth monitoring.
2015 U.S. Open Performance
Pennetta had the tournament of her life. She reached the finals of a major for the first time, then captured her first Grand Slam title. And this was not a case of the draw opening up to allow her to slide through the event without facing any top players.
While it is true that avoiding Serena Williams made her march to the crown easier, Pennetta had to get past three quality players, including two ranked in the top four. She started to attract notice when she took out 2011 U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur in straight sets in the fourth round, and she followed that up with a three-set quarterfinal victory over two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, the No. 4-ranked player.
Pennetta's most impressive match came in the semifinals, when she crushed the world's No. 2 player, Simona Halep, 6-1, 6-3. Halep seemed to have control of the second set, leading 3-1, but Pennetta simply squeezed the life out of Halep by winning 15 straight points and 19 of the final 21 to close out the match like a champion.
Although Pennetta was not at her best in the finals against friend and countrywoman Roberta Vinci, she did enough to post a convincing 7-6, 6-2 victory. Pennetta then put a storybook ending on her two-week performance by announcing afterward that she will retire from tennis at the end of the year. She had made the decision a month earlier, knowing the 2015 U.S. Open would be her 49th and final Grand Slam singles event.
Final Grade: A
Novak Djokovic
14 of 14
2015 U.S. Open Expectations
Novak Djokovic was the clear favorite to win the U.S. Open men's title. If it hadn't been for Serena Williams' bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam, Djokovic would have been the talk of the tournament. He had won both the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2015 and was a finalist in the French Open.
Coming into the U.S. Open, Djokovic had won six of his last 10 tournaments and had reached the finals of all 10. He owned a 56-5 match record and was working on one of the best seasons in the Open era.
Djokovic's consistency may be his most impressive attribute. He came into the U.S. Open having reached at least the quarterfinals in 25 straight Grand Slam events, and he got to the semifinals in 20 of the past 21 majors.
The only caveat was Djokovic's disappointments at Flushing Meadows. Though he had reached the U.S. Open semifinals each of the past eight years and got to the finals four times, his only title came in 2011.
2015 U.S. Open Performance
If you look hard enough, you can find a few instances during Djokovic's two-week performance at Flushing Meadows when he was less than dominant. Losing a set against 23rd-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut in the fourth round and dropping another set against 18th-seeded Feliciano Lopez in the quarterfinals made Djokovic look just a wee bit vulnerable.
However, that is nit-picking. The bottom line is that Djokovic won his third Grand Slam title of the year and he did it by outplaying one of the best players in history, Roger Federer, when Federer was at the very top of his game.
Federer was more dominant in his first six matches at this U.S. Open than he had been in any of his five U.S. Open championship runs. But, just as he had been at Wimbledon, Djokovic was just a little too consistent, a little too fast and a little too tough for Federer in the U.S. Open finals, winning in four sets.
Djokovic now owns 10 Grand Slam singles titles, and he has stolen the 2015 spotlight from Serena Williams. Although Williams' year has been remarkable with three titles and a semifinal berth in the four 2015 majors, Djokovic's year is better with three titles to go along with his runnerup finish at the French Open.
It's as close as a man has come to completing a calendar-year Grand Slam since Rod Laver won all four in 1969. It matches Federer's efforts of 2006 and 2007, when he won three majors and reached the finals of the French Open both years.
Final Grade: A+
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