The 2023 Tennis Season In 15 Minutes…

The 2023 Tennis Season In 15 Minutes…

Subscribe to Our Newsletter “For The Love Of Tennis!” https://tennisplus.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Want To Help Support The Channel?:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgMAr3PRnvH4RSgHe_sVqUQ/join

SUBSCRIBE: https://bit.ly/tennisplusyt
SUBSCRIBE: https://bit.ly/tennisplusyt

For copyright matters relating to our channel please contact us directly at : Tennisplus@nanozebra.com
#tennis #atp #wta

2023 was one of the very BEST and most  EVENTFUL seasons in tennis in recent   years. Left with a NOSTALGIC feeling, we decided  to do something DIFFERENT – A recap of the year,   pulling back the curtain on our Tennis Plus  awards, and something thoughtful for you guys. January In January,  

The first edition of the United Cup, a brand  new tournament that featured mixed-gender team   tennis was unveiled and the United States won the  tournament after beating Italy in the final. What   followed was an EPIC final in Adelaide where Novak  Djokovic saved match points to beat Seb Korda in  

One of the best three-setters of early 2023. Tallon Griekspoor then won his maiden ATP Tour   singles title in Pune, India while Richard  Gasquet would win the Auckland Open and   become the no. 1 French player. Of course,  we all remember how the month ended with Nole  

Winning a record-extending 10th Australian Open  in sensational fashion despite nursing a hamstring   injury as he returned to the world no. 1 position.  Unfortunately, Rafael Nadal’s injury would rule   him out for the entire season. February  February came and we saw a couple of ATP 250  winners – Sebastian Baez in Cordoba, Jannik Sinner  

In Montpellier, and Wu Yibing in Dallas. After a  terrible start to the year, Daniil Medvedev would   then kickstart an incredible run winning the first  of a couple of titles in Rotterdam. Meanwhile,   Carlos Alcaraz would mark his return from  injury and start the season with a title win  

In Buenos Aires. Unfortunately, he would lose  out to Cameron Norrie in the finals of the 500   event in Rio De Janeiro the following week. Daniil  Medvedev would then win titles in Doha and Dubai,   where he ended Djokovic’s undefeated start to  the season. Taylor Fritz wins a title in Delray  

Beach and Hubi Hurkacz wins one in France.  Meanwhile Alex De Minaur would beat Tommy   Paul to the title in Acapulco. We couldn’t  have asked for a better start to the year.  March It was all about Indian Wells and Miami in  

March. Novak missed out on both and wasn’t allowed  into the United States. Thankfully, we witnessed   an EPIC Alcaraz-Sinner fixture in both tournaments  as they shared the spoils 1-1. Alcaraz won Indian   Wells after beating Daniil in the final while  Daniil won Miami after taking down Jannik Sinner  

In straight sets. Not a bad month at all. April  In April, we witnessed a rather STRANGE European  Clay Court swing. Oh, Frances Tiafoe won a clay   event held in Houston at the beginning of the  month. Casper Ruud won the title in Estoril,  

But one of the biggest stories of the month was  seeing Andrey Rublev finally win his first Masters   1000 tournament in Monte Carlo against a solid  player in Holger Rune. No surprises here seeing   Carlos Alcaraz go in Barcelona and Madrid cos it’s  literally what he did the year before. For Nole,  

It was probably his worst month of the year  as he had to deal with an elbow injury and   early defeats at the Monte-Carlo  Masters and the Banja Luka Open.  May But if you thought April was an interesting month,  

I wonder how you might have felt seeing the  rise of Clayvedev in Rome. Honestly, seeing   Meddy play so well at the Italian Open, winning  the tournament on a surface he hated couldn’t have   been more ironic. Later that month, Arthur Fils  would secure his Maiden ATP title win in Lyon,  

Defeating Francisco Cerúndolo in the final. The French Open came and we were all going   berserk with the predictions. Many experts counted  Djokovic out because of his injury and poor form   and Alcaraz was considered the favorite. In  the end, Carlitos cramped against The Djoker  

Who went on to secure a historic 23rd major and  Triple career slam, after defeating Casper Ruud   in straight sets in the final in early June. It  was Ruud’s 3rd grand slam final in 12 months.   Nothing too shabby. June  The remainder of June was rather quiet although  Tiafoe won Stuttgart while Griekspoor won another  

Title in the Netherlands. A couple of surprising  wins followed – Sascha Bublik at the Halle Open;   Alcaraz at the Queen’s Club Championships, which  was his first grass tournament win. If only we   knew what was coming. Anyway, Chris Eubanks then  wins his first title at the Mallorca Open and  

Goes on to make a crazy run in Wimbledon but not  before Francisco Cerundolo wins in Eastbourne.  **At this point, we are midway through the year  and it puts into perspective just how long the   season is really. July 

The second half of the season begins with what  is literally the biggest tournament of the sport.   Wimbledon. Jannik Sinner makes his first-ever  semi-final appearance in a grand slam and things   are starting to look pu. Meanwhile, Alcaraz takes  out big names like Holger Rune and Daniil Medvedev  

To set up a rematch with Djokovic in the final.  And I’m sure we all remember how that played   out. Djokovic whiskers away from a 2 sets to love  lead, makes some rare mistakes and Alcaraz levels  

Up. The match eventually goes the distance and  Alcaraz comes out on top in what was one of the   biggest upsets in the sport in recent years. Djokovic sees his Calendar grand slam hopes   ruined once again. We then go to Newport where  Adrian Mannarino wins the tournament. We head back  

To the clay courts. Rublev wins in Bastad,  Pedro Cachin wins in Gstaad. Alexander Zverev   wins the Hamburg 500 title; his biggest since  coming back from injury. Fritz wins in Atlanta,   Alexei Popyrin in Umag, Dan Evans in Washington,  and Stefanos Tsitsipas wins his only title of the  

Year in Los Cabos, beating Alex De Minaur in  the final. Báez gets another title in Austria.  August August wasn’t as busy as July but we still enjoyed   plenty of action. Jannik Sinner finally got his  first Masters 1000 win in his 3rd attempt after he  

Beat Alex De Minaur in the final at the Canadian  Open. Alcaraz isn’t firing on all cylinders but   manages to make it to the final in Cincinnati to  set up yet another rematch against Novak. Novak   saves championship point to beat Alcaraz in an  EPIC 3-setter in what was one of the matches  

Of the year. Báez wins yet another title in the  United States and the US Open gets underway. Meddy   becomes the party spoiler after beating Carlitos  in the semifinal at the US Open. Meanwhile, Ben   Shelton makes a deep run into the semis, hanging  up on everyone before getting schooled by Novak. 

September Djokovic wins the   US Open and gets his 24th slam. The group stage  at the Davis Cup continues and Team World gets   the W over Team Europe at the Laver Cup. We go  over to Asia and Sascha Zverev wins in Chengdu,  

Karen Khachanov wins in Zhuhai. Jannik Sinner  gets his first win over Daniil Medvedev as he   wins the title in Beijing. The Sinner engine  is up and running at this point. Meanwhile,   Adrian Mannarino continues winning titles  low-key as he gets another one in Astana.  October It’s October and Hurkacz decides  

That it is time to make his move in the ATP finals  race. He wins the Shanghai Masters beating Andrey   Rublev in the final. Ben Shelton then backs up the  hype with a first ATP title win at the Japan Open;   a 500 tournament. Sascha Bublik rules in  Antwerp and Gael Monfils wins in Stockholm. 

We are heading into the final weeks of  the year. FAA defends his title in Basel,   beating Hubi in the final. Meddy isn’t able to  defend his title in Vienna as Sinner gets another   win over the Russian. Alcaraz makes one final  push for the year-end No.1 but gets dumped by  

Roman Safiullin in the first round of the Paris  Masters. Dimitrov makes a sensational run to the   final but can’t get past Nole who beats him in  straight sets to win his 7th Paris Masters title.  November Heading into November,  

Ugo Humbert wins in Metz while Adrian Mannarino  wins in Sofia. Next we have the ATP finals. Made   a video about the entire tournament and  everything that happened. Check it out.   It’s one of the best tournaments all year. Novak  barely makes it past the group stage and doesn’t  

Win any match in straight sets. Sinner gives  a helping hand by going all out against Rune.  Tsitsipas withdraws and Hurkacz makes a cameo.  In the other group, Alcaraz gets off to a poor   start but shows everyone that he isn’t the worst  player on indoor hardcourts. Rublev is nowhere  

Near his best and loses all 3 matches. Meddy  goes through but Zverev doesn’t despite winning   2 out of 3 matches. We have an Alcaraz-Nole  rematch in the semis but it is anticlimactic.   Sinner takes out Meddy for the 3rd consecutive  time but loses to Djokovic in the final as the  

Serb reminds everyone that he is still king. However, Sinner gets his revenge as he saves   3 match points to beat Djokovic in the Davis  Cup. Sinner’s Italy lifts the trophy for the   first time in 47 years after beating Australia  in the final. Hamad Medjedovic then wins the  

ATP Next Gen announcing himself as the  next in line for something big in 2024.  So, at this point, let me ask  you guys. What were your biggest   takeaways from the ATP tour this year? Having had a quick recap of the year,  

We got something new for you guys, The Tennis Plus  awards, giving our take on the most impressive   things throughout the tour. TENNIS PLUS AWARDS  ATP Match of the Year Our ATP match of the year goes to Novak-Carlos   Cincinnati because of the nature of their  rivalry, the rollercoaster nature of the match,  

The intense playing conditions, and the quality of  play. I also have Sinner-Alcaraz in Miami as a top   pick. Then there’s Sinner-Nole at the round-robin  stage of the ATP finals. Really, you could count   up to 5 matches that deserve this award. Most Exciting Tournament 

For me, it was the ATP finals. Weird choice you  might be thinking. I considered the fact that   there weren’t too many boring matches with the  very best players constituting the playing field.   The crowd, the tournament, the permutations,  Sinner’s game, everything added up. Honorable   mentions to Wimbledon, US Open, etc. Most Impressive Tournament Run 

Medvedev in Rome has to be the top pick. Almost  no one saw it coming. Meddy winning on a slow   surface when almost everyone wrote him off was  insane. Of course, we have Carlitos at Wimbledon   as a close second or would you rather have it  take up the first spot? On the women’s side,  

I’ll pick Markéta Vondroušová’s Wimbledon  title win. Word on the street was that she   left her fiance home with their cat because she  thought she’d be back in a few days. I’m pretty   sure she must have been surprised herself. I  also thought Coco Gauff winning the US Open  

Was super impressive. We expected her to go  far but going all the way and coming from a   set down against Sabalenka was unbelievable. In  fact, the entire summer of Cocomania was CRAZY.  ATP Funniest Moment When I saw this classic Medvedev  

Dance after he beat Tsitsipas, I was like what the  heck is this guy doing. I thought it was hilarious   considering the context in which he did it. ATP upsets of the year  I have a couple of matches for this one: Alcaraz-Nole Wimbledon. Alcaraz beat  

The 4-time defending champion on a  surface where he had little experience.  Medvedev versus Thiago Seyboth Wild,  Roland Garros first round. Thiago   was world no. 172 at the time. Unbelievable. Alcaraz vs Fabio Maroszan in Rome. Honestly,   I didn’t really know about Maroszan up until  that point and if I remember correctly, he was  

Ranked No. 135 when he beat Alcaraz. Insane. Scariest Moment  I thought Ymer’s actions in Lyon were quite scary  particularly for the umpire. You could understand   his frustration but such action wasn’t  justifiable in any way. He eventually got   suspended after missing three out-of-competition  doping test attempts and announced his retirement   shortly after. Worst Fail 

How about this for a serve? Surely one  of the worst fails we saw all year.  Young Player of the Year Fils or Shelton? Has to be   Shelton on this one. He reached the quarterfinal  at the Australian Open, the semis at the US Open,  

Won an ATP 500 title, and broke into the Top 15.  On the women’s side, we have Mirra Andreeva who   only turned 16 in April, breaking into the WTA  Top 50. She surely has a bright future ahead.  Most Disappointing Player FAA literally disappeared for almost the  

Entire year. Casper Ruud dropped out of the top 10  and had a year to forget. Tsitsipas didn’t have a   good year. I think this one goes to FAA because  entering into 2023, we thought he was literally   going to be among the very best young players. Most Improved Player 

This one is a little obvious. I think Jannik  Sinner deserves it. He had lots of top-5 and   top-10 wins this season and proved himself against  the Big Guns. All he needs to do now is back his  

Performances up with a really deep run at a Grand  slam. Maybe make the final or even win one. On the   women’s side, Coco Gauff is well-deserving because  she was a different player in the second half of   the season, winning the 3 biggest titles of her  career in 500, 1000, and grand slam categories. 

Funniest Player From calling the Paris crowd   beautiful after giving them the middle-finger  and hilarious exchanges with the crowd,   we’ve gotta admit that Daniil is such an  interesting character on and off the court.  Worst Tournament of the Year Easy choice. After seeing the  

Shambolic display and poor tournament organization  at the WTA finals in Cancun, we knew immediately   that there couldn’t be any worse tournament in  2023. Awful timing and location, terrible player   management, the courts were a mess and almost  everything about the tournament was cringeworthy.  Most Absurd Moment Something crazy happened  

When Stefanos Tsitsipas played Ben Shelton in  Cincinnati. Seeing an old lady actually making bee   noises to distract Stef while he was serving was  quite hilarious and at first, I didn’t quite know   what to make of it. Tsitsipas must have thought  that it was an actual bee cos he then started to  

Swipe his racket around. It was the most bizarre  interruption to a match you’ll ever see. Unlike   many people expected, Tsitsipas handled the  situation pretty well and I’m sure he won a few   fans over with his composure. After she got ratted  out, the lady with the childish behavior ended up  

Apologizing but it didn’t change the fact that  we had just witnessed something really absurd.  Also, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina’s decision to go  for an underarm serve against Holger Rune at such   a critical point in their Wimbledon fourth round  encounter is something I’ll never understand.  Most Random Moment Nick Kyrgios joining Tennis Channel.  

Not in a million years would I have thought of  something like that. I found it quite interesting.  Most Savage Moment Novak hanging up the phone on Ben Shelton at the   US Open was ice-cold and one savage moment that we  aren’t going to forget in a hurry. I also like the  

Fact that Shelton took the response well. Movers & Shakers Of The Year  It’s crazy to think that all of these moments  happened in 2023. Not only did many of these   stories and characters go viral, they also  caused a lot of shake-up within the sport,  

Adding more appeal and colors to it. The  complexities of the characters of the players on   tour and ultimately the randomness of each moment  made 2023 a memorable year for super fans like us. Going into 2024, some of the biggest  storylines will revolve around Djokovic’s  

Quest for a calendar grand slam and Olympic  gold, Rafa’s potential last dance on the tour,   Sinner’s pressured quest for a maiden slam,  the possibility of a third slam in three   years for Alcaraz, and more points to prove  for the likes of Rublev, Tsitsipas, Zverev,  

And Holger Rune. We might also be wondering what’s  next for players like Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka,   and even Dominic Thiem. But one thing is for sure,  2024 is going to be another interesting year.