After a great 2014 with a super Davis Cup Finale… it’s time to see who had the best from 2014
Our picks are Federer, Wawrinka, Cilic, Djokovic and Kyrgios.
1-FEDERER
Who else? The Swiss Maestro was considered dead after a horrible 2013 when he was struggling to cope with players well over the top10. The King is dead? Well he has now resuscitated!
Roger implemented 2 key changes. First he adopted the “famous” larger racket to get much more “free power” and better “sweet spots”. Second, the Maestro has finally understood that he had no chances to defeat the kinds of Djokovic, Nadal and Murray (well…) from the baseline… time to attack or bye bye. In this case hiring Edberg as a new coach (we would say “consultant”) was a great move. Roger now doesn’t go to the net like a “pilgrim”, but with a clear strategy and the results are fantastic.
After these changes Roger reached 11 finals winning 5 trophies, he clinched his first Davis Cup, he is now back to world no.2 and… oh yes… he became a father again!!!
He is the happiest guy around!!!
(… now please go and change that diapers… )
2-WAWRINKA
Stan is and always will be the Swiss no.2… but who cares if the no.1 is Roger?
Stan had an unthinkable year to win for the first time a slam (Australian Open), a Master ATP1000 (Monte-Carlo) and the Davis Cup. The Swiss has also reached a world no.3 career high.
Stan may be a “Crying Baby”, but probably those are tears of joy! Well done!
3- CILIC
From infamy to glory!
Marin had to serve a ban of 9 months for doping in 2013. To be honest that was a little bit strange as Marin looks like the son everybody wants and we can’t really see him get doped… but rules are rules.
After serving the ban, Marin collapsed from world no.11 to world no.47. Game over? Not really , the Croatian hired Goran Ivanisevic to win 3 tournaments (Zagreb, Delray Beach and Moscow) and the US Open!!!
After this feat Marin reached a career high world no.8 (now no.9).
In Paradise after being in hell…. well done and so much to be happy!
4-DJOKOVIC
Ups… sorry for putting Nole only as the 4th happiest guy around, but the Serbian is in his prime and we (and he) were already expecting a good season.
Nole had a rather bad start to even miss the finals in Melbourne and Dubai. It seemed as his new partnership with Becker wasn’t giving what Djokovic expected, but things changed. Nole won Indian Wells and Miami back to back to then beat Rafa in the Rome final. The Serbian had to bow again to the King of Clay in Paris, but he managed to defeat the King of Grass (Roger for the sleepy ones) in the Wimbledon final. Then Nole got married… he got distracted … to have a lousy American Summer.
Finally, when things got shaky for the world no.1 spot, Nole became the “Serbinator” once again to win Beijing, Paris and London.
Besides winning 7 titles and retaining the world no.1 rank, Nole won his best match at home after becoming father.
Yes… he is a happy guy!
5-KYRGIOS
Who? Yes … Nick Kyrgios was one of the upcoming teenagers, but so many have failed and so much. Nick was well known “just” for winning the Australian Open among the juniors in 2013, nothing more.
The Australian showed his entertaining personality at this year’s Australian Open beating Becker in 4 sets and losing to Paire in 5 (Nick was 2 sets up). After that everything looked nice for him. Nick won 3 challengers (Sarasota, Savannah and Nottingham-2) to incredibly reach the quarters in London after defeating the great Nadal. During the match against the King of Clay Nick showed his true colors entertaining the crowd with his personality and amazing shots (what about that tweener?).
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After the Wimbledon feat, Nick got a bit lost to say he was “spent”. Doesn’t matter… just out of the blue the guy became a celebrity and he looks to be the best prospect around.
Yes … he is very happy!
