Which stars are on the wane?
Serena Williams and Roger Federer have long outplayed journalists who attempted to draft their respective sporting obituaries ahead of time. But as much as fans beg them both to keep up the fight, 2022 could see two of the sport’s greats bow out for a final time – or fizzle out as injuries hamper their chances.
Despite being voted as the ATP’s fan favourite for a 19th-straight year, Federer played just 13 matches in 2021 due to injury. After turning 40 over the summer, he revealed he did not envision returning from his long-term knee injury until after Wimbledon in 2022, such is the long-term rehabilitation process he faces.
He is adamant of a return to Centre Court though, saying recently that the excruciating 6-0 final set he lost to Hubert Hurkacz in July cannot be the lasting memory: “My fans deserve better than the image of my last grass season.” Though retirement may not yet be fully coming into focus on the horizon, we will likely see very little of 20-time major champion Federer until the second part of this coming season.
Meanwhile, his contemporary Williams remains on her quest to add a record 24th grand slam title to her name, but has also been hampered by injuries. Since hobbling off court at Wimbledon last July, she has not played a single match.
Despite being the oldest woman in the top 100, Williams’s year-end ranking of 41 is her lowest since 2006 and only the second time she has finished the year outside the top 30 since 1998.
She has already pulled out of the Australian Open under the advice of her medical team and, though she said in a statement that she fully intends to return, like with Federer, injuries have become more and more difficult to recover from in recent years.
Which stars are on the rise?
Daniil Medvedev last year ended Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray’s 15-year stranglehold on the top two rankings, and won four titles – including his first ever major at the US Open. Still only 25, he is the first of the supposed ‘Next Gen’ players to make that breakthrough and will be a formidable opponent as he looks to build on that success in 2022.
On the women’s side, the more seasoned Garbine Muguruza’s resurgence at the end of 2021 – winning the WTA Finals – saw her jump to No 3 in the world. Though a mercurial figure on the tour, who has suffered yo-yoing form, as a two-time major winner she could well find her feet with a strong start in the new year.
Spanish tennis on the whole is on fire, and Muguruza’s compatriots could well be the youngsters that make their mark on 2022. Among 2021’s breakout performers, Indian Wells champion Paula Badosa entered the top 10 for the first time, and 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz became one to watch on the men’s tour, in particular after beating Stefanos Tsitsipas on his way to the US Open quarterfinals.
Hottest ticket of 2022
Watching Emma Raducanu return to the grass courts at Wimbledon will be monumental for the sport in this country. Her exploits at the event in 2021, making it to the fourth round at her first ever major, saw her explode onto the scene, and she was on the front page of every national newspaper as she entered the second week at SW19 as the only Brit left in the singles draw. All that was before she even won the US Open in September, becoming a household name and winning the hearts of the nation – bagging herself the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
To come back to Wimbledon, the home of tennis and the place where she first caught everyone’s attention, there will be enormous hype. The expectation on her young shoulders is going to be unmatched, and watching her try to navigate that will likely be one of the biggest stories of the year.
A looming crisis in the sport is…
Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai’s safety remains the most concerning crisis in the sport, after she accused a former Communist party leader of sexually assaulting her and was subsequently censored by the state for doing so. Though claiming to be united, the three most significant tennis organisations – the Women’s Tennis Association, Association of Tennis Professional and International Tennis Federation – have so far taken different approaches in practice.
The WTA has been praised for putting player safety above profits, after cancelling all tournaments in China until they are convinced Peng is safe and free. “In good conscience, I don’t see how I can ask our athletes to compete there when Peng Shuai is not allowed to communicate freely and has seemingly been pressured to contradict her allegation of sexual assault,” CEO Steve Simon said in a statement in November.
The ATP though has yet to make a similar commitment, while in December ITF president David Haggerty said, “We don’t want to punish a billion people, so we will continue to run our junior events in the country and our senior events that are there for the time being”.
The differing approaches will begin to have a tangible impact in 2022, as tournaments take place (or not). The latest footage of Peng being interviewed by a journalist, in which she looked uncomfortable while denying ever making the sexual assault allegations, did little to allay fears and the cloud of controversy around the sport looks unlikely to fade away until Shuai’s freedom is secured.
One prediction
Naomi Osaka’s 2021 was as stop-start as they come. Despite winning the Australian Open last February, her year will be remembered for the months-long breaks she took from the sport to prioritise her mental health – and the wide-ranging conversation she began as a result.
Any fan of Osaka’s swash-buckling tennis will be willing her to come back raring to go in the new year, and images of her practising at the Rod Laver Arena in the past week were encouraging.
My prediction is that, if healthy, she will return to win a fifth major title, forge a much-longed-for rivalry in women’s tennis with Ashleigh Barty, and resume her reign as the queen of hard court tennis.
