By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
Where does Novak Djokovic’s incredible 2015 season rank in the history of tennis?
Outside of Rod Laver’s 1969 Grand Slam sweep of all four majors, and Roger Federer’s three-major 2006 season, you can look to rank Djokovic’s 2015 as the third-best season in the Open Era (since 1968).
Djokovic won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open as part of his 11 tournament titles and posted an 82-6 won-loss record. As the big favorite to win the final at Roland Garros over No. 8 seed Stan Wawrinka, he fell in a four-set final, his lone blemish in major tournament play on the year, where a win would have put him in a position to win the Grand Slam.
There’s little to argue that Rod Laver’s 1969 season was the best in the Open Era of tennis where he swept all four major titles to win an unprecedented second Grand Slam – the only one by a man in the “Open Era” of professional tennis. As documented in the book that describes in detail Laver’s 1969 season “The Education of a Tennis Player,” (available here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0942257626/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_6u0vwb18BX9W8) Laver played 32 events, won 18 titles and finished runner-up five times. His won-loss record was 102-15, but 106 -16 including “one-night-stand” matches against Ken Rosewall and Pancho Gonzales, but were not tournament play.
In Laver’s first Grand Slam year in 1962 – where he only played against amateur competition and not the already-turned-pro standouts like Lew Hoad, Gonzales and Rosewall among others – he played 37 tournaments, winning 22 and finishing runner-up seven times and posting a 149-15 record.
Federer’s 2006 season receives strong consideration for the second-best season as he was able to win three of the four major titles (Australian, Wimbledon and US Opens) and reached the French final, where he lost in tight four-set final to Rafael Nadal. Federer also won 12 titles and posted a 92-5 record. The following year, Federer won three of the four majors again and again lost in a four-set final to Nadal in Paris, but won fewer titles (8) and had a worse won-loss record at 68-9. Federer also won three majors in 2004 (Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open) but lost in the semifinal of Roland Garros to Nadal. He posted a 74-6 record and won 11 singles titles, just as many as Djokovic did in 2015.
Djokovic’s other three-major-title year came in 2011, but he fell a rung shorter in Paris, falling in the French Open semifinals to Federer in four sets, but won 10 singles titles and posted a 70-6 won-loss record for the year, his French loss to Federer being his first loss of the year.
Also for consideration among the best-ever pro season’s is the 1974 year of Jimmy Connors where he won all the majors he played (Australian, Wimbledon and the US Open, not being allowed to play the French due to his involvement with World Team Tennis). He posted a 93-6 record and won 15 titles.
In 1984, John McEnroe accumulated the best winning percentage in a single-season in the history of the ATP Tour at 82-3 and he won 13 titles, including Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. He lost the French final to Ivan Lendl as one of this three losses on the year (after leading two-set-to-love) but did not play the season-ending Australian Open.
Mats Wilander and Rafael Nadal also three majors in a calendar year in 1988 and 2010. Wilander, however, lost in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, while winning in Australia, France and United States but won six titles and posted a 53-11 won-loss record. Nadal won the French, Wimbledon and U.S. titles and began the year losing in the quarterfinals of Australia. He won only seven titles on the year and had a won-loss record of 71-10.
Chris Chase has a great comparison between the Djokovic 2015 season and the Federer 2006 season here in his “For The Win” tennis column for USAToday.com here: http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/11/roger-federer-novak-djokovic-best-season-in-tennis-history-ever-2006-2015-john-mcenroe-rafael-nadal-grand-slams
