When 2017 began, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic sat atop the ATP rankings, while Angelique Kerber, fresh off a career year, led the WTA. None of those players would finish this season in the Top 10, for varying reasons, but that hardly implied a lack of drama on the tours.
At the Australian Open, fan favorites Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal met in the final, setting the tone for a renaissance run of dominance. The Williams sisters also played for the title, with Serena coming out on top. She would miss the remainder of the season to give birth to her first child, allowing the depth of the WTA to shine. Jelena Ostapenko and Sloane Stephens would go on to claim their maiden Grand Slam titles, while Roger and Rafa added to their historic totals. In so many ways, it was a memorable year—and that was just at the majors.
Now that the 2017 season has come to a close, it's time to decide what was its best match. Steve Tignor will relive his top 10 contests over the next two weeks—but which match was your favorite? We want to know, so vote for your favorite match in our poll below.
Tennis Channel will air the Top 3 matches with the most votes on December 31, in full.
Denis Shapovalov d. Rafael Nadal, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4), Montreal round of 16
Tennis has been aging for years, but that trend became even more pronounced on the men’s side in 2017. When the ATP’s dominant player of this decade, Novak Djokovic, slipped from his perch at the top of the rankings, he wasn’t replaced by anyone from the next generation. Instead, it was the old guard—36-year-old Roger Federer and 31-year-old Rafael Nadal—who re-ascended their thrones.
Yet there were signs, every month or so, that the sport does indeed have a future. Alexander Zverev, 20, won five titles. Nick Kyrgios, 22, beat Djokovic twice and Nadal once. But it took 18-year-old Denis Shapovalov of Canada to make the game feel young again, at least for one night.
Shapovalov did that by beating Nadal at the Rogers Cup, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4), in a rousing evening session in front of a raucous home-court crowd in Montreal. There were better-played and more consequential ATP matches this season, but this was the biggest and most festive surprise.
Shapovalov was ranked 143rd at the time, and had precious few tour wins to his name. Until that August evening, he was best-known, unfortunately, for having been defaulted from a Davis Cup match for hitting a chair umpire in the eye with a ball.
Six months later, with Wayne Gretzky quietly nodding approval from the front row, Shapovalov’s aim was true on just about everything he hit. His big, bending lefty serve. His forehand that he cracked for winners crosscourt, down the line, inside out and inside in. His leaping one-handed backhand that dipped at Nadal’s feet at net, and lasered into the corners for winners. Shapovalov controlled the rallies against his Hall of Fame opponent, pushing Rafa far behind the baseline and sending him scrambling outside the tramlines with his lefty hook shots. Shapovalov hit 49 winners to just 18 for Nadal; his edge was 33 to 14 from the forehand side.
It wasn’t just Shapovalov’s winner count that was impressive; it was when he hit them. Down 0-30 at 4-4 in the second set, two points from almost certain defeat, he hammered two aces down the T and hit a smooth forehand winner into the corner. Early in the third set, in a long service game, Shapovalov kept facing break points, and kept wiping them away with line-clipping serves and forehands—he saved nine of 11 break points on the night.
By the time the match reached an appropriately climactic third-set tiebreaker, Shapovalov appeared to be destiny’s teenager. He was: Down 0-3, he fired off two aces and three forehand winners over the last seven points.
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