Ranking the Biggest Grand Slam Upsets of 2015
The 2015 tennis season is nearly over, so now is the perfect time for reflection. And what better way to look back than by re-examining the top Grand Slam upsets of the year.
Beginning in Australia, stretching to Europe and finally ending in America, the four majors brought plenty of excitement and intrigue across the globe. As we watched Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams exert their continued dominance, there were quite a few surprises and shocking matches along the way. Not even the queen of tennis herself was immune to this reality.
But five of these upsets stood out above the rest. By factoring in the rankings of those involved, the magnitude of the situation and how unexpected the result was, here’s our rundown of the most noteworthy ones.
These moments defined the narrative throughout this long journey, and some will surely be remembered for ages to come.
Honorable Mentions
1 of 6
U.S. Open Third Round: Fabio Fognini over Rafael Nadal 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4
As Nadal's struggles escalated in 2015, one opponent in particular who had his number was Fognini.
The Italian surprised Nadal on the clay in Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona, winning both of those contests. Though Nadal got some payback in the Hamburg final, their fourth meeting of the year played out like the first two.
It didn't look that way in the beginning. Nadal seemed to finally be on the right track, and he pushed past Fognini to take the first two sets. In the third, he even held a 3-1 lead. All of it went away.
With nothing to lose, Fognini started going for broke. And it worked. As winners oozed off his racket, he steadily built momentum and kept extending the match further and further into the night.
Eventually, the two found themselves in a decisive fifth set, which Fognini clinched after both players traded several breaks of serve. That epic comeback meant Nadal had lost a two-sets-to-love lead for the first time (151-1) in his storied career.
French Open Second Round: Mirjana Lucic-Baroni over Simona Halep 7-5, 6-1
Simona Halep came painfully close to winning the 2014 title at Roland Garros. Only a clutch performance from Maria Sharapova kept her from a maiden Grand Slam crown. Based on her own clay prowess, Halep was considered a top contender at the 2015 event.
So much for that hope. Halep instead watched as 70th-ranked Mirjana Lucic-Baroni overpowered her from the baseline. In a nervy performance, Halep offered little resistance, and her flatness was jarring.
In retrospect, maybe we shouldn't have been so surprised by the result. Lucic-Baroni had stunned Halep the previous fall at the U.S. Open, so she definitely wasn't intimidated by her opponent's game. But to see Halep lose this early at the French Open was shocking.
U.S. Open Second Round: Petra Cetkovska over Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (1)
A runner-up at the 2014 U.S. Open, fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki didn't find the same luck a year later.
No stranger to disappointing Grand Slam losses, Wozniacki entered New York without a major quarterfinal appearance under her belt in 2015. At the previous three events, the Dane watched as more opportunistic opponents hit her off the court. More of the same would follow.
Facing off against 149th-ranked Petra Cetkovska, Wozniacki hoped to find her groove at the major where she's had her most success. But Cetkovska won the first set and raced out to a 4-1 lead in the second. The upset appeared close.
Wozniacki, however, fought back to win the second set and force a decider. It looked like things would work out for her, especially when she gained four separate match points in the third set. Yet she wasted all of them, allowing Cetkovska to run away in the tiebreak.
With that loss, Wozniacki's reputation for shrinking under the spotlight continued.
5. Wimbledon 2nd Round: Dustin Brown over Rafael Nadal
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Score: Brown won 7-5, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
Rafael Nadal's fortune at Wimbledon had already swung in the opposite direction before the 2015 edition. The two-time (2007, 2010) champion and five-time finalist failed to make the previous three quarterfinals, losing to the likes of Lukas Rosol, Steve Darcis and Nick Kyrgios in one disappointing performance after another.
The low point came to Darcis in a 2013 first-round loss. For some reason, Nadal can't transition his game to the grass like he once did so easily. The faster pace seems to bother him more than ever these days, and that pattern repeated itself this summer.
When Nadal collided with qualifier and 102nd-ranked Dustin Brown in the second round, some already had the 10th seed on upset alert. Brown had won their only previous meeting, which fittingly was played on the lawns in Halle. A Jamaican with a throwback serve-and-volley game, Brown is a tricky opponent for anyone to play. And his style proved especially effective against Nadal.
Brown had an almost magnetized attraction to the net, coming forward a staggering 89 times. That ultra-aggressive tactic kept Nadal pinned behind the baseline and robbed his game of its potency. As his own shots misfired, Nadal watched as Brown painted the lines with winners.
Though Nadal found the zone in the second set, Brown completely controlled the rest of the match. His tennis blitzkrieg didn't let Nadal build much momentum, allowing himself to capture a career-defining victory.
As Brown told BBC Sport afterwards: "You have to play your A game against him. I am fortunate I played him twice on grass, which is my favorite surface. My game makes him not play his game. He doesn't get in a rhythm."
While Brown celebrated the moment of his life, Nadal walked away from another Wimbledon with a sour taste in his mouth.
4. Wimbledon 1st Round: Jana Cepelova over Simona Halep
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Score: Cepelova won 5-7, 6-4, 6-3
Simona Halep brought high expectations into 2015. Many expected her to challenge for a Grand Slam title, especially after appearing in the previous year's French Open final. But the Romanian lost her way during the spring and early part of the summer.
At Roland Garros, Halep suffered a surprising second-round defeat to Mirjana Lucic-Baroni. All those points she was defending disappeared. Clearly, she had something to prove at Wimbledon and wanted to make amends for that humiliation in Paris. Even Halep wasn't prepared for what happened next.
When the draw came out, 106th-ranked Jana Cepelova didn't seem like a player who would offer Halep much trouble. They had met once before, a straight-sets rout by Halep at the 2014 U.S. Open. And with a semifinal appearance under her belt at the All England Club, Halep had a comfortable edge on the grass.
But confidence is the great equalizer, and Halep didn't have enough of it entering the match. She'd squeak out a tough first set, though Cepelova's power and aggression clearly affected her. Dealing with a bothersome toenail, Halep cracked in the second.
Cepelova went after her and clinched a thrilling set. Suddenly, their contest was deadlocked and headed to a decider. Yet Halep completely lost her way in the third, and she struggled to even hold serve.
In a match that featured a staggering 15 breaks, Cepelova proved the more efficient returner and attacked Halep's second serve. Earning eight breaks herself, Cepelova outlasted an off-kilter Halep.
She entered the tournament looking for redemption, but Halep left with more questions than answers after that surprising exit.
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3. US Open 1st Round: Benoit Paire over Kei Nishikori
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Score: Paire won 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4
In 2014, Kei Nishikori riveted New York with a thrilling run to the final. Edging out Milos Raonic, Stan Wawrinka and Novak Djokovic in succession, the Japanese star had his breakthrough moment on the biggest stage in tennis.
Though he'd fall to Marin Cilic in the championship, Nishikori emerged as a top contender at future Grand Slam events. So far, living up to that pressure hasn't been easy for him. Nowhere was this more apparent than his followup performance at the U.S. Open.
Nishikori struggled with calf and hip injuries throughout the summer, and the latter forced him to skip Cincinnati. Entering the year's final major, he found himself short on match preparation. And the brittle Nishikori likely wasn't close to 100 percent physically. His first-round opponent wasted no time taking advantage.
Benoit Paire, a French showman on the court, had lost both of his previous meetings to Nishikori. The world No. 41 was expected to just be a sparring partner for the 2014 finalist. As it turned out, he was the one who landed the early haymakers.
Courtesy of some aggressive shotmaking, Paire took a tight first set. To his credit, Nishikori didn't panic. He raised his level and won the next two sets going away. But things intensified in the fourth set.
As the two competitors traded shots, Nishikori found himself one point away from the finish line at 6-4 in the fourth-set tiebreak. Yet he fumbled that double-match-point opportunity and let Paire steal the set.
In the decider, Nishikori ran out of gas against his foe's power. Even though he actually won more points during the match, Nishikori didn't take enough of the big ones. The margins are extremely small in tennis, and he found out the hard way as Paire celebrated an epic victory.
2. Australian Open 3rd Round: Andreas Seppi over Roger Federer
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Score: Seppi won 6-4, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (5)
After winning a season-opening title in Brisbane, Roger Federer entered the Australian Open intent on reaching his first final Down Under in five years. How quickly those dreams were dashed.
The first warning sign for Federer came in his second-round match with Simone Bolelli. He’d drop a quick first set in that one before storming back to win in four, but in hindsight, something wasn’t quite right with his form. Doubts would only amplify against his next opponent.
Coming into his meeting with Andreas Seppi, Federer held a sterling 10-0 record against the Italian, capturing 21 of the 22 sets they played. On paper, he held a monstrous advantage in terms of confidence and experience. But a funny thing happened: Seppi simply outplayed the Swiss legend from the first ball.
Ranked No. 46 in the world entering their contest, Seppi performed well above that level. He took total control from the baseline, punishing Federer with penetrating forehands and dictating points with ease. It didn’t take long for him to wrap up the first set over a perturbed Federer.
The match tightened up in the second set and eventually went to a tiebreaker. Federer raced out to a quick 4-1 lead, yet watched it slip away as Seppi took a two-sets-to-love edge.
A hush fell over Rod Laver Arena as the clock ticked on Federer. When he fought back to win a tight third set, it appeared momentum had swung. Seppi, however, didn’t get the memo.
Locked in another tiebreak, the fourth set played out much like the second. Federer grabbed a 4-2 advantage only to squander it because of sloppy hitting in crucial moments. And like that, Seppi notched the biggest win of his career.
Thanks to a whopping 55 unforced errors, Federer suffered his earliest loss at the Australian Open since 2001. So much for his quest to nab Grand Slam title No. 18.
“I wish I could have won the first set; then things would have been different,” Federer told the New York Times’ Ben Rothenberg afterwards. “I definitely wanted to go into the match, play aggressive, play the right way, play on my terms. But it was just hard to do. For some reason, I struggled.”
Federer would rebound and go far at the remaining 2015 majors, but that nightmare match is one he likely won’t forget.
1. US Open Semifinals: Roberta Vinci over Serena Williams
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Score: Vinci won 2-6, 6-4, 6-4
This match wasn't just David vs. Goliath—it was more like David vs. Godzilla. And the spunky underdog pulled off one of the most historic upsets ever. Maybe even the biggest in tennis history.
Entering the semifinals, world No. 1 Serena Williams was two wins away from the first calendar Grand Slam in 27 years. It seemed like a foregone conclusion that she'd capture the title, her fourth consecutive and seventh overall at the U.S. Open.
Blocking her path to the final was pint-sized Roberta Vinci. The Italian veteran, 32, had never made the semifinals of a major before in singles. Everyone expected her to wilt under the spotlight against one of the sport's most decorated champions.
Things went according to plan in the first set, which Williams easily won. But just when you expected Williams to steamroll to the finish line, Vinci flipped the script. She started going toe-to-toe with her opponent from the baseline, using her nasty backhand slice to coax error after error out of Williams.
What she lacked in firepower, Vinci made up for with grit, and that mentality helped her steal the second set. As shocked as viewers were at that point, few gave Vinci a chance to actually seal the deal.
Williams jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the decisive set, and a spot in the final looked certain. Instead, she wound up totally falling apart. With the pressure of history and her tenacious opponent weighing on her, Williams' game spiraled out of control, allowing Vinci to complete the unprecedented upset.
As quoted by the New York Times in her post-match press conference, a crestfallen Williams told reporters: "She’s going for it at a late stage. So that’s good for her to keep going for it and playing so well. Actually, I guess it’s inspiring. But, yeah, I think she played literally out of her mind.”
Crazy might actually be the best word to describe Vinci's performance that day. In two magical hours, she stunned the world and ensured herself everlasting fame.
All statistics are courtesy of ATPWorldTour.com and WTATennis.com unless otherwise noted.
Joe Kennard is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report.
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