The Biggest Surprises of the 2016 Tennis Season

The 2016 tennis year saw Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams fall from the extraordinary dominance they showed last year. It opened the way for other stars to make their mark in a year of transformation in both the ATP and WTA tours.

These surprising headlines were also important to tennis and set up trending possibilities for 2017.

For the most part, we have discounted results from more minor stars and tournaments in our list of 2016's biggest tennis surprises. We're not going to chatter about Indian Wells CEO Raymond Moore or discuss how to tank a match by Nick Kyrgios. And by now, we’re not surprised that U.S. Open winner Stan Wawrinka checks in for his yearly Grand Slam title.

It was not a year to rest on great achievements, either. As the photo above symbolizes, no sooner had Djokovic walked away with the Musketeers' Cup, he and Andy Murray would see their fortunes turn in opposite directions.

Here are the most surprising, significant stories in tennis, ranked from from eight to one.

8. Important Firsts

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We begin with a smorgasbord of breakthroughs. A few of these are modest, and a couple were historically significant.

• Maybe the biggest surprise for Kyrgios is that it took him a long time to get that first title. He got it the hard way in February at Marseille, defeating three formidable opponents in Richard Gasquet, Tomas Berdych and Marin Cilic. Kyrgios would capture Atlanta and Tokyo later in the year on his way to the No. 13 ranking.
• Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, won his first Masters 1000 title, sweeping a weary Murray in the Western & Southern Open final.
• Alexander Zverev got his first title with a stunning final victory over Wawrinka in St. Petersburg, Russia. There will be many more to come for the young German, and he snapped Wawrinka’s streak of 11 straight wins in a tournament final.
• Milos Raonic defeated Roger Federer to get to the Wimbledon final before bowing down to Murray.
• Garbine Muguruza was a mild surprise in getting the French Open title, though it was one of our predicted possibilities before the year started. Maybe it was more surprising that she regressed significantly after this landmark win over Serena.
• Credit also to Karolina Pliskova’s huge victory at Cincinnati’s Western & Southern Open, a Premier 5 title that she won by blasting Muguruza and Angelique Kerber. She would go on to defeat Serena in the U.S. Open semifinals and narrowly lose a three-set final to Kerber.
• Raise your hand if you predicted that Monica Puig would win Olympics gold in women's singles while Serena got eliminated quickly in singles and doubles?
• Oh, and Dominika Cibulkova won the WTA finals in Singapore. She scratched her way into the tournament in the closing weeks and then closed with a masterpiece over Kerber.

7. Victoria Azarenka: Hello and Goodbye

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After a year of slow progress, former No. 1 Victoria Azarenka looked ready for a big 2016. She won Brisbane and was one of the two favorites to win the Australian Open. The first surprise was her quarterfinals loss to Kerber. Almost anyone would have put money on Azarenka, not Kerber, to win the tournament.

Azarenka peaked when she swept the “Sunshine Double” of Indian Wells and Miami, knocking out Kerber and Serena among other stars. There was a lot of talk that Azarenka would be the No. 1 threat to Serena’s top ranking.

But she faded in the clay-court season and played her last match of the year with a first-round loss (retired in the third set) in the French Open.

A month later, and after missing Wimbledon with a knee injury, Azarenka announced her pregnancy. She plans to resume her career, but her withdrawal was certainly a surprise to tennis fans, especially after she looked so dominant in early spring.

6. Fedal a Fading Factor

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It’s surprising that 35-year-old Federer missed most of 2016 because of a serious knee injury, and the effect was felt by all tennis fans.

His 2015 rivalry with Djokovic came to an abrupt end after he lost their semifinal encounter in the Australian Open semifinals. Soon after, he hurt his knee in a routine moment at home, had surgery and missed extensive time, including the French Open.

He had a valiant run at Wimbledon despite still trying to play himself into shape. But he could not survive back-to-back five-setters in the quarterfinals and semifinals, and he lost to Raonic.

Federer slipped on the grass late in the Raonic match, and he revealed that he would need to take off the remainder of 2016 to allow his knee to heal. He was not able to play in the Olympics or the U.S. Open.

Meanwhile, longtime rival Rafael Nadal also missed much of 2016 with injuries, but this is less surprising given his history. Perhaps most surprising of all, Nadal had to pull out of the French Open with a career-threatening wrist injury after he had looked so dominant for two rounds. It was a shame he could no longer compete after titles at Monte Carlo, Monaco, and Barcelona, Spain, and a strong challenge against Djokovic at Rome.

It was a tribute to Nadal that he came back to the Olympics and won the gold with doubles partner Marc Lopez and got to the semifinals in singles. It all caught up to him soon enough, and by October, he declared that he would be unable to finish the year.

It was good to see Federer and Nadal together at the opening of the Rafael Nadal Academy by Movistar, but it was a bit sobering to see them wearing suits rather than facing off in tennis attire.

5. Andy Murray's Flight to No. 1 with Ivan Lendl

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When Murray stood at the French Open ceremony with his second-place cookie sheet, nobody could have dreamed that he could make up over 8,000 points to catch Djokovic for the No. 1 ranking.

While Djokovic’s holy-grail quest would leave him depleted, Murray would take his next big career leap, something that many observers had doubted he could do.

It was even more unbelievable that Murray would reunite with coach Ivan Lendl, who had helped guide him to his greatest triumphs from 2012-13.

The effect was immediate. The Lendl mentorship, or charm if you will, saw Murray race out to his first major title in three years with Wimbledon, before following that with a second Olympics gold medal in men’s singles.

And after Murray, not Djokovic, went out and swept the post-U.S. Open tour including Shanghai, Paris and the World Tour Finals, the Scot could relish his year-end status as the No. 1 player. It was crowned by a straight-sets shellacking of Djokovic at the ATP World Tour Finals.

Think back to that Roland Garros moment once again. What would have been the odds that Lendl would help guide Murray to No. 1 by November while Djokovic would end the year without another major and a split with his own coach, Boris Becker?

4. Maria Sharapova's Ban from Tennis

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It was the dark cloud that hung over nearly the entire year. Former No. 1 and five-time major winner Maria Sharapova was banned from tennis because she tested positive for meldonium, a substance that was legal prior to 2016.

By July, the ban was set for two years, but in October, her appeal resulted in a 15-month ban that will allow her to return on April 26, 2017.

There were ranges of opinions on the Sharapova ban, many fans feel that her legacy prior to 2016 should be discredited, while others thought she was a victim of ignorance. Often it came down to whether people liked Sharapova or not.

In the end, the sport of tennis was scrutinized, and once again speculation was thrown around about other superstars taking performance-enhancing drugs. Expect Sharapova’s return in the middle of the clay-court season to spark more attention to this topic.

3. The Second-Half Slide of Novak Djokovic

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Perhaps Murray’s rise to No. 1 was not as surprising as Djokovic’s fall from dominance. After all, the Murray run would have never happened had not Djokovic dropped his scepter.

The fall began at Wimbledon. Djokovic’s third-round defeat to American journeyman Sam Querrey was his earliest exit at a major since the 2009 French Open.

His first-round loss to Juan Martin del Potro at the Olympics was a shocker heard around the world.

It was even alarming the way he was hammered in the U.S. Open final by Wawrinka, notwithstanding all of the injuries and the courage he showed just to get to the final.

Time off to heal from those injuries and then to come back to halt a streaking Murray just wasn’t in the cards. He played well enough in the World Tour Finals, but after Murray scored a convincing win in the tournament's final, Djokovic surprisingly said to the media that, “There was no serious chance for me to win today's match. From the very beginning, we could see that,” via ESPN's Peter Bodo.

And just like that, the collapse was complete and he was breaking up with coach Boris Becker. It was clear that Djokovic did not play with the same motivation or commitment as he had through the French Open when he briefly held all four major titles, the Grand Slam of tennis.

Too bad that last and greatest accomplishment could not be the bigger story of 2016, but that was already an expectation. King Novak proved to be human after all.

2. Juan Martin del Potro Returns as a Great Player

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There was doubt about Del Potro recovering from his latest and most devastating wrist injury that basically destroyed two-and-a-half years of his career. Then, in early 2016, he tiptoed into the small tournament at Delray Beach, Florida, and got to the semifinals.

Progress was gradual as he learned to augment his big forehand with a revamped, finesse backhand that often relied on slice and changes of pace. He compiled a 13-8 record through Wimbledon, including promising wins over Dominic Thiem and Wawrinka.

Then Del Potro signaled to the world that he was back as a formidable star. He ousted Djokovic in the first round at the Olympics and took down Nadal in the semifinals before falling to Murray in a grueling final.

He got to the U.S. Open quarterfinals, defeated Murray in Davis Cup action, won Stockholm and led Argentina to an improbable Davis Cup title, highlighted by a five-set comeback over Cilic. His 19-4 record after Wimbledon showed that he is a Grand Slam threat for 2017.

It’s perhaps the best feel-good story of the year, and if Del Potro can stay healthy for another couple of seasons in what should be his peak years, tennis fans all over the world will celebrate. He’s a great role model for the sport and a new symbol of courage.

It’s also amazing that Del Potro rose to No. 38 in the world even though his silver medal and Davis Cup contributions did not garner him any ATP points. Imagine that. No points for defeating Djokovic, Nadal, Murray and Cilic.

Wait ‘til next year!

1. Angelique Kerber's Rise to the Top of the WTA

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The biggest surprise of the year was not Serena Williams’ troubles with injuries and fall from the No. 1 ranking. Our preseason “Bold Predictions” column surmised that Serena would not win multiple majors.

Instead, the biggest surprise in tennis came from the rise of 28-year-old Kerber, a borderline top-10 lefty who figured out how to win championships on the biggest stages against the biggest superstars.

She used her legs to dig out shots and whip flat forehands with a more aggressive and precise combination. It was a beautiful way to play tennis, and it added up to 63 wins and two major titles as the runaway player of the year.

Kerber began 2016 when she saved a match point in the first round at the Australian Open. She stormed ahead with huge upsets over quarterfinalist Azarenka and finalist Serena for a shocking championship. Suddenly, she was ranked No. 2 in the world.

Nothing was easy for Kerber, and after a sluggish spring, she got to the Wimbledon final, this time falling to Serena in their major-final rematch. From there, the chase was on for Kerber to catch Serena. She picked up a silver medal at the Olympics and lost the Cincinnati final when she could have clinched the top ranking.

But Kerber showed that she was elite when she won the U.S. Open title, captured the No. 1 ranking and completed her rise as the best player in women’s tennis despite not having a huge serve or offensive power.

She was the ultimate grinder with a newfound sense of mental toughness. She believed she could compete at the top, even though she dropped other big matches along the way.

The German may or may not last long as the No. 1 player in 2017. If she doesn’t defend her Australian Open title, it opens the way for Serena, who has been resting and healing. Other great players will rise up and challenge the new queen of tennis

Kerber has 2016 locked away forever as the biggest and most surprising superstar. What a year!