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From Federer to Naomi Osaka: Take stock of the players who fought back at the end of the season

author:The home of tennis

There are 52 weeks in a year, and the calendar of professional tennis events is basically arranged according to natural weeks. Typically, each Grand Slam takes two weeks, with the exception of individual tournaments such as Indian Wells and Miami, where the tour generally occupies one week.

From this point of view, professional tennis players, like us ordinary workers, also work on a weekly basis, but this does not mean that tennis matches are evenly distributed over 52 weeks. In fact, since the end of the US Open in early September, the major tennis events of the year have basically ended. As a result, players who have not achieved significant results before the US Open will be almost lackluster throughout the year, and it will be very difficult to try to catch up.

However, there were also players who achieved a series of major victories in the two-odd months of competition towards the end of the year. Yesterday, the Tennis website listed six players including Federer and Naomi Osaka who played an astonishing wave of tennis at the end of a year when most of them were happy.

From Federer to Naomi Osaka: Take stock of the players who fought back at the end of the season

Federer finished the 2011 season with a 17-game winning streak

There is no doubt that 2011 belongs to Djokovic. His full-year record was 70-6, winning 10 titles including the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open, and it was one of the best seasons of his entire career.

Nevertheless, we have to mention Federer, who defeated Djokovic in four sets in the semifinals of the French Open, but lost to his old rival Nadal in the final. The year was also the first time Federer failed to win a Grand Slam title since 2002.

Federer's decline continued until the end of October, when he broke the championship drought in his hometown of Basel. It was from Basel that Federer won the Paris Masters and the ATP year-end finals in a row, handing in a shining report card at the end of the year.

From Federer to Naomi Osaka: Take stock of the players who fought back at the end of the season

Wozniacki taking off at the end of 2016

On 11 October 2010, Wozniacki made his debut at the top of the world number one and remained in the top 10 for most of the next five years. Despite being among the top players for five years, Wozniacki has never won a Grand Slam title and was once labeled "watery" by fans.

Since 2016, Wozniacki, who has been plagued by injuries and age, has shown clear signs of decline. Starting with the 2016 US Open, Wozniacki's form began to rebound, and she reached the semifinals. In the following Asian season, Wozniacki scored a string of victories, winning five consecutive games in Tokyo and five more in Hong Kong after stopping in the third round in Wuhan and Beijing, and returning to the top 20.

Over the next 1-odd year, Wozniacki's form continued to improve, finally winning the Australian Open in 2018 and reaching the top of the world No. 1 again, washing away the humiliating history of not having a Grand Slam title.

From Federer to Naomi Osaka: Take stock of the players who fought back at the end of the season

Garcia flying from Wuhan

Garcia's world ranking has been outside the top 20 for most of 2017, reaching a quarter-final at Roland Garros, a fourth round at Wimbledon and a third round at the US Open. Her results are lackluster and she seems set to finish the lackluster 2017 season.

Garcia's twist of luck began in Wuhan, where she won six consecutive matches on the Super Five Tour and won her biggest career title by beating Barty in three sets in the final, more than a year after she reached the women's doubles final at the French Open.

After arriving in Beijing, Garcia enjoyed a first-round bye and beat Mertens, Kone, Svetonina, Corvitova and Halep in the following matches to win back-to-back Crown Jewels titles after winning their first Wuhan Super Five Tour titles.

With these two major victories, Garcia lifted his ranking to eighth in the world and thus qualified for the WTA Year-End Finals in Singapore. In the group stage, Garcia defeated Wozniacki and Svitonina, but lost to world number one Halep. After breaking out of the group stage, Garcia lost to Serena in three sets in the semifinals, ending a glorious 2017 season.

From Federer to Naomi Osaka: Take stock of the players who fought back at the end of the season

Kachalov from the capital of his country

2016 was Kachalov's breakout year, with the 20-year-old Russian teenager reaching the Grand Slam main tournament from qualifying for the first time at the US Open, and his world ranking reached the Top 100 for the first time after losing to Kei Nishikori in the second round. In October 2016, Kachalov won his first tour title at ATP 250 Chengdu.

Over the next 2 years, Kachalov rose slowly up the rankings, but never entered the top 20. In October 2018, Kachalov began to explode in Moscow, the capital of his homeland, where he won four consecutive titles.

After moving to Paris, Kachalov defeated Isner, Zverev and Thiem all the way to the final at the year-end Masters, and then defeated Djokovic in straight sets to win the Masters title. It is worth mentioning that Kachalov conceded only one set on the way to the title and defeated four Top 10 players in a row.

From Federer to Naomi Osaka: Take stock of the players who fought back at the end of the season

Naomi Osaka, who recovered at the end of 2019

For Naomi Osaka, the 2019 season has been a roller coaster. She won the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, then was in a slump for most of the year before improving at the end of the year.

After coming to the US Open, Naomi Osaka, the defending champion, was in good form in the first three rounds, and gave Gauff a 6-0. In the fourth round, Naomi Osaka lost to 12th seed Bencic 5-7 4-6.

Just when expectations were no longer being expected, Naomi Osaka improved her form even further in Tokyo, winning four consecutive titles in the first round and sweeping all of them 2-0 on the way to advancement.

After arriving in Beijing, Naomi Osaka took it a step further, defeating Xinke US Open champion Andreescu in a 1/4 final; In the semifinals, Naomi Osaka swept 19th-seeded Wozniacki 6-4 6-2; Coming to the final, Naomi Osaka defeated top-seeded and defending champion Barty 6-3 6-2 after losing the first set 3-6.

From Federer to Naomi Osaka: Take stock of the players who fought back at the end of the season

From Federer to Naomi Osaka, similar examples continue. At the end of September, Krejitskova began a 10-game winning streak from WTA 250 Tallinn, where she won her first singles title of the season with back-to-back victories over the top three seeds Maya, Bencic and Kontaveit.

Arriving at the WTA 500 Ostrava in her home country, Krejitskova defeated world No. 1 Swiatek 5-7 7-6(4) 6-3 in the final to achieve back-to-back victories. At the end of the match, she withstood her opponent's counterattack and finally ended the fight on match point 6, which was also voted by many as the best women's singles match of the year.

Looking back, Krejcikova had a fantastic season in 2021, winning singles and doubles titles at Roland Garros, but her subsequent form and results turned from a dream to a nightmare, quickly falling out of the top 20 from world number two to a recovery last month.

From Federer to Naomi Osaka: Take stock of the players who fought back at the end of the season

From Federer to Naomi Osaka to this year's Krejitkova, these players turned the tide towards the end of the season and achieved their rise as a Jedi. These inspirational experiences are sure to inspire generations of players and we believe that there will be more players to achieve their greatness. (Source: Tennis House Author: Cirrus Yunshu)

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