2021: The year of Russian Tennis
When most people think of tennis, they think of individual brilliance - Federer's backhand, Roddick's serve, Williams' forehand, the list goes on - but rarely does anyone associate tennis with a team or a collection of people.
In the wake of Russia's victory at last month's Davis Cup, I wonder if that's about to change. Tennis in 2021 has been all about the Russians, from both an individual and a team perspective.
Obviously, world number 2 Daniil Medvedev's stellar year stands out most. From runner-up at the Australian Open in January to first-time Grand Slam Champion as the US Open in October, Medvedev's consistency in 2021 has been unmatched. However, he wasn't the only Russian to put on a show at the Grand Slams. In fact, a Russian was in the final at all four Grand Slams this year. Medvedev at the Australian and US Opens, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova at the French Open and the doubles pairing of Veronika Kudermetova and Elena Vesnina at Wimbledon.
Beyond this, who could forget 28-year-old Aslan Karatsev's debut Grand Slam at the Australian Open? Joining the tournament from the qualifying rounds, Karatsev became the first Grand Slam debutant to reach a semi-final in the Open era. Karatsev's run saw him scalp the likes of world number 8 Diego Schwartzman, Canadian young-gun Felix Auger-Aliassime and former world number 3 Grigor Dimitrov before being defeated by eventual Champion and world number 1 Novak Djokovic. Karatsev's year began with him ranked number 115 in the world, he's now number 18.
Among Russia's other singles powerhouses are men's world number 5 Andrey Rublev and women's world number 11 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Pavlyuchenkova was runner-up at this years French Open, falling to fellow Grand Slam final debutant Barbora Krejčíková in three sets, while Rublev's strongest Grand Slam result came when he reached the Quarter-finals at the Australian Open in January.
However, singles aside, the pair joined forces at the Tokyo Olympics and won gold together in the mixed doubles event. The gold medal was a great reflection of Russia's team strength among both men and women, but perhaps an even better reflection of the team's depth is the fact it was two Russians, Aslan Karatsev and Elena Vesnina, who were defeated by Rublev and Karatsev in the final, claiming silver.
Tokyo also saw Russia's Karen Khachanov win silver in the men's singles event, making it the country's best ever medal haul in Tennis at an Olympics.
Khachanov himself also had quite the year in singles, making it to the Quarterfinal at Wimbledon as well as two ATP semifinals at the Great Ocean Road Open and the Lyon Open respectively.
This kind of team dominance has been a mainstay of Russian Tennis all year. Tokyo aside, Russia recently completed a sweep of all three tournaments in men's and women's tennis played between national teams in 2021. Team Russia won the ATP Cup, the Billie Jean Cup and most recently of course, it was victorious at the Davis Cup.
With 2022 around the corner, the mix of youth and experience paired with depth and consistency suggests the Russian Tennis Federation has more success on the horizon - both in an individual and team respect.
As the year comes to a close, here is how the Russian's stack up in terms of ATP/WTA singles rankings.
In the men's competition:
- Daniil Medvedev, world number 2;
- Andrey Rublev, world number 5;
- Aslan Karatsev, world number 18;
- Karen Khachanov, world number 29
In the women's competition:
- Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, world number 11;
- Daria Kasatkina, world number 26;
- Veronika Kudermetova, world number 31;
- Ekaterina Alexandrova, world number 33;
- Liudmila Samsonova, world number 39
Depth = dominance.
