[Nimi]

2001 had... Well... Everything.

A touching story: Goran winning Wimby
A sad retirement & hardbraek: Rafter ar the Davis Cup final
The "old balls" still bouncing: Andre & Yevgeny mainly.
The new balls bouncing graet: Hewitt & Ferrero mainly i think.
Dominance: Kuerten & Ferrero at the clay season.
Open field: Each season was dominated slightly by other players.
Rising stars: Roddick, Hewitt, Ferrero etc.
Four different GS champs, all worthy & no flukes.
Sinking star: Pete Sampras. from finishing the year in the top 3 for the last 9 (?) years, finishes as #10
Legendary & other superb matches: Pete v Andre, will me remembered for at least 5 years.
Emotions: Goran.
Climax: Hewitt taking the #1 by storm (entered the Masters Cup as #2 & finished it 110 points clear as #1)

2002 had some excitments, but really?
A touching story: Pete winning USO
A sad retirement & a heartbraek: None yet
The "old balls" still bouncing: Andre's still graet, Pete didnt do nothing except for winning USO
The new balls bouncing graet: Hewitt, Marat & Tommy.
Dominance: No one dominated a whole season. Hewitt had brilliant tournys & alot of bad ones as well. The only real dominance was Hewitt in the grass season
Open field: Way too open
Rising stars: I dont think we had a huge rising star we didnt know about earlier & who actually won stuff. Correct me if im wrong.
Four different GS champs, you decide for youselves if flukes.
Sinking star: Yevgeny had the lowest sink
Legendary & other superb matches: I dont think a match in 2002 will be remembered for more than a year.
Emotions: Pete didnt even had one tear in the USO, Andre was more emotional than him. Lleyton showed plenty emotions, but nothing new there.
Climax: Right now, i dont see a huge climax.

You judge for yourselves, but i think 2002 was not half the year 2001 was.

 

[tennischick]

it ain't over til it's over and there's quite a few months left in 2002. i'll reserve my judgement til then altho' i may yet agree with you. time will tell.

and Androids don't cry...

 

[Chloe le Bopper]

Four different GS champs, you decide for youselves if flukes.

The only two who could be qualified as "flukes" IMO, would be the first two - I'm not sure I agree with that anyhow but meh. As for the other two, Hewitt had been number one the whole season and was the reigning US Open winner, and favourite to win Wimbledon. Fluke?
Sampras was playing like ass for about two years, but his last two results at the US Open had been finalist, and he didnt' play in 99. He was a four time champ there. So playing like ass or not, I would hardly call him a fluke.

Legendary & other superb matches: I dont think a match in 2002 will be remembered for more than a year.

Legendary? Two 30 + all time greats meeting in the finals of a grandslam isn't legendary? The match itself wasn't their best, but come on!
As for superb matches, didnt you make a list of them jsut the other day You are contradicting yourself

Rising stars: I dont think we had a huge rising star we didnt know about earlier & who actually won stuff. Correct me if im wrong.

Your criteria for rising star in 2001 and 2002 must have differed a little Because Ferrero and Hewitt had both "won stuff" and had noteworthy accomplishments before 2001. (in fact Ferrero's most noteworthy accomplishment IMO came in 2000). Roddick is the only of the three that i think could have been called a "rising star" in 2001. The other two had already been "rising"

So if I had to make a list of "rising stars" this year.. I think there have been a few who put in noteworthy performances.

Fernando Gonzalez was a major oversight.. he reached a slam quarter final for one thing, and how much did his ranking jump? more than 100 places, no?

Despite the fact he's been playing like ass for the last little while, I'd also say David Nalbandian. Last year he played the US Open (his first slam?) as a qualifier! This year he's in the top 20, beat two former champs to win Estoril (Ferrero, Moya), and reached a slam final. Doesn't that qualify?

And while he may have not made an enormous splash in ATP events yet, his challenger results are quite good - The Richard Gasquet bandwagon is filling up quickly

 

[Nimi]

Hehe, ya Becca you are right. I actually was talking about the 1st two GS Champs. I dont thing there is a thing like "flukes" in tennis, just dissapointments. & yes, 2002 had super matches, but i wont remember 90% of them by the end of 2003.
& rising starts? Yes, there were several. Btw, i put my money on Gonzales to make it far in the USO, i knew he had it in him. But none of them made some HUGE different. Btw, Ferrero had a much better 2001 than 2000. Right??

 

[Chloe le Bopper]

Ferrero did have a better 2001 than 2000 for sure.

He didn't win any tournaments in 2000, but was runner up at Dubai (lost to Kiefer), and Barcelona (lost to Marat).

But it was in 2000 that he played his first FO where he had Guga on the ropes in the semis, and at the end of the year where he was part of the winning Davis Cup team. He played a pivitol role in that final He was also in the top 15 by the years end, so I don't think he qualifies as a rising star for 2001 For 2000 he does

 

[Chloe le Bopper]

But none of them made some HUGE different.

Well what do you consider a huge difference? I wouldn't say that Andy Roddick made a HUGE difference in 2001, and you counted him for last year Of course he wons some titles, beat a couple quality players and had a decent us open. But it isn't like he made a slam final *ahem*

 

[luvbadboys]

I thought 2001 was spectacular and 2002 has been great so far.

As for a match that will stay in my mind. nothing will beat Marat/Hewitt quaterfinal in key biscayne (nasdaq 2002). It went to 3 sets and both players put on a full display of grit, touch and power.

 

[Nimi]

David's graet. But when you reach a slam final & you are still not top 15 than... Its not a HUGE different. Besides, Wimby 2002 is non-exiting for me. Worst GS i have ever seen in my short time.

 

[Nimi]

luvbadboys: The truth? Nobody will remember a best-out-of-three-set-match for two months unless you were there or something. Not in ATP. Sorry.

 

[Chloe le Bopper]

Well clearly someone will remember it, or it wouldn't have been suggested

I agree with him, that was a great match. Granted, I lean your way a bit I suppose in that I didn't recall it till someone mentioned it Granted, I was too busy arguing about something else...

. But when you reach a slam final & you are still not top 15 than... Its not a HUGE different

So because he was the number 18th seed, that means less than if he was the number 14th seed? I still fail to see how Roddick made your "rising star" criteria, but a 20 year old slam finalist didn't. But hey, the media agrees with you - not that that is a credible source



I agree that 2001 was more exciting in a lot of ways. But 2002 was not complete crap for me.

 

[Chloe le Bopper]

Oh I might add, that David DID break the top 15 for a brief period if I'm not mistaken - can someone verify this?

 

[AtPGiRL]

well, I certainly will remember the Miami match between Safin and Hewitt for many years to come! As well as the Safin/Kiefer match from USO! Also Safin/Rios from Canada.. maybe this is just because I am a Safin fan, and I remember most of his matches anyway, but at least the first 2 have been listed by many people here as ones to remember....

As for "rising stars" I disagree.. I think there have been several.
I'll start with James Blake, who won his first ATP title and will make an impact on the tour. He is a great player, a great person, and he has a lot of game..

Second, Paradorn Srichaphan.. who also has won his first ATP title this year.. and upset Andre at Wimby as well as Safin at Tashkent to name a few! This guy has a lot of game as well, and he will most likely be top 10 in the next year or two.

Lastly, there are a LOT of young Argentine players who have really made their presence known this year, Chela, Gaudio and Nalbandian are the 3 that stand out to me! You can't take these guys lightly!! Oh and Gonzalez is another South American to step up!

Also, we have seen the emergence of some other fine young players like Richard Gasquet.. who I feel we will be hearing a lot more of, as well as Mickael Kratochvil and Mario Ancic!!

So all in all, I think it has been a fairly exciting year with a LOT of new talent making themselves known! I will agree that the first two slams sucked! That fluke TJ winning AO practically ruined the whole year for me.. not to mention I had to see my Marat lose! *waaaaaahh* and Costa, well, at least he deserved to win.. although I would much rather have seen Juan Carlos win RG!

So.. that's my 2 cents!

 

[Chloe le Bopper]

How did I forget about Paradorn And Gaudio's great clay run this spring (if he hadn't drawn Ferrero early - or for that matter choked - he would have gotten further at the French Open).

Blake as well, this year broke into the top 25 - and counting - for the first time, won that first title, and started being fairly consistent.

It is easy to say "he didn't do well in slams" - but COME ON! Look at who he lost to at Roland Garros (Sebastian Grosjean), Wimbledon (Richard Krajicek), US Open (Hewitt), and try and tell me he isn't giving contendors/formerchamps/defendingchamps a run for their money

Next year maybe he'll get some kinder draws

 

[Nimi]

Ok. You got me on the rising stars category, what can i say?

 

[Chloe le Bopper]

*kick*

 

[Nimi]

*ouch*

So, have i won the battle?

 

[Chloe le Bopper]

Won what battle?

I already said that I agreed 2001 was better

I just disagreed with some of your "evidence" was all

 

[Nimi]

Oh. Well in that case....... Errrrrrrr....... Well........ Hows the family?

 

[Chloe le Bopper]

No idea, I'll have to call home and ask them

How's the weather?

 

[claudine140]

The last couple of years weren't that good for me because Moya had to much health problems and conditioning problems. But 2002 is the returning point for Moyke; He won four tournements already, one super nine. Has no health problems and I hope he can get to the masters cup at the end of the year;