This decade was ushered in with everyone anticipating the beginning of the 2010 season.
Serena Williams had won career majors #10 and #11 in 2009, while the slam season had concluded with an un-retired Kim Clijsters (who'd become a first-time mom in her two years away) picking up her long-delayed maiden major title at the U.S. Open, defeating Caroline Wozniacki in the final. As the 2010 season was set to begin, we were awaiting the return of another Belgian, Justine Henin, who was staging her own comeback after a year and a half retirement. She'd reach the final of her first event (Brisbane, losing to Clijsters) and slam (falling to Williams in the Australian Open title match), but an elbow injury would force her to retire for good in January '11.
Clijsters would successfully defend her U.S. Open crown that summer, then retire for the final time after the '12 event at Flushing Meadows. Francesca Schiavone would battle her way to her career moment in Paris, becoming the Roland Garros champion in the spring of '10. Meanwhile, Wozniacki wouldn't win a slam that year, but would complete her first of back-to-back #1 seasons. Serena would win (naturally) another slam title (at Wimbledon) during the season, but days later would step on broken glass in a Munich restaurant, miss the rest of the year, and the following March suffer a hematoma and near-fatal pulmonary embolism. She wouldn't play again until June '11.
Flashforward to the upcoming start of the 2019 campaign. Both Clijsters and Henin are now Hall of Famers, with both Serena and the Dane on deck for future enshrinement. Schviavone retired this past summer. Henin is now the mother of two kids, while Clijsters has since given two siblings to first daughter Jada. Wozniacki finally won her maiden slam last year in Melbourne and, after having first reached #1 in '10, briefly returned to the top spot in '18 after a record six-year absence. She's now engaged. Serena, too, has become a mother, gotten married, survived another near-death health emergency (a pulmonary embolism after giving birth), and now holds 23 major titles, just one short of Margaret Court's all-time record.
Ten years from now, when the 2020-29 stretch is remembered, surely Serena's playing career will have long since officially ended and become part of tennis history forever. Well, at least we *think* that'll be the case. Hmmm, daughter Olympia will be, what, eleven years old (probably going on 30) as '29 approaches? Old enough to be proficient with a racket... and, remember, she's *already* been on the court for *one* slam title run, as Serena was secretly pregnant with her when she won her most recent major in Melbourne in 2017.
So... I'm just sayin'.
This post kicks off a second Backspin "Decade's Best" series, set to appear periodically in this space throughout 2019. At the moment, it's time for an opening "nominations list" that includes all the players deserving of consideration for Backspin's "Players of the Decade." Well, it's more of an "honor roll," really, since the vast majority of the women mentioned below have no chance to rank very highly on the final list. But their individual achievements during the span DO deserve to be highlighted, even if only for a brief moment (which will occur, for the most part, when they're "officially" eliminated from contention as the list is cut down as the final season of the decade plays out).
So, how did these nominations come about? It was actually quite easy. As I did before the '09 season, I started with all the players who've won grand slam singles titles from 2010-18 (names may or may not be soon added, of course), then worked down the list from there. Thus far, 152 players have met the "criteria" for inclusion on the master list, but more could pick up their Honor Roll "prerequisites" before the end of the upcoming season to make the final cut.
The first pruning of the list will occur after the Australian Open, when I'll also compile a Top 10 list to highlight the players who most brought their "A" games to Melbourne over the most recent 10-year span. I'll do the same for each of the four slams as the season progresses, then count down the Top 25 (well, probably with an "honorable mention," so 26) players of the 2010's after the U.S. Open, and over the final weeks of the 2019 season.
Without further ado and explanation, here are all the up-to-date nominations, with the players placed in the highest of their "qualifying categories," which are listed in descending order of criteria "importance" (or at least something resembling it), though I *did* add a few additional lists for this decade in order to pay respect to the top level wheelchair stars, as well as widening the doubles net a bit.
NOTE: I won't follow the "Ms.Backspin" pattern of listing Fed Cup teams as entries on the Top 25 list, though there will be a final ranking of the top teams of the decade. Hmmm, I *wonder* which team will be #1?
*GRAND SLAM SINGLES CHAMPION* (17)
Victoria Azarenka
Marion Bartoli
Kim Clijsters
Simona Halep
Angelique Kerber
Petra Kvitova
Li Na
Garbine Muguruza
Naomi Osaka
Alona Ostapenko
Flavia Pennetta
Francesca Schiavone
Maria Sharapova
Sloane Stephens
Samantha Stosur
Serena Williams
Caroline Wozniacki
...four more than 2000-09, with another season (and a handful of legit potential first-time slam champs in the mix) to go. The seventeen champions hail from fifteen different nations, with only the U.S. (Serena/Sloane) and Italy (Francesca/Flavia) with more than one.
*GRAND SLAM SINGLES RUNNER-UP* (+12)
Genie Bouchard
Dominika Cibulkova
Sara Errani
Justine Henin
Madison Keys
Sabine Lisicki
Karolina Pliskova
Aga Radwanska
Lucie Safarova
Roberta Vinci
Venus Williams
Vera Zvonareva
...most are either retired (3), scheduled to retire (1), in their late 30's (2), or likely past their "best chance" moment (4) to win a major. Only Keys and Pliskova are exceptions. Even if no new names are added to the slam *winner* list, a few might jump into the mix here by the end of '19.
*GRAND SLAM SINGLES SEMIFINALIST* (+19)
Timea Bacsinszky
Kiki Bertens
Elena Dementieva
Kirsten Flipkens
Julia Goerges
Ana Ivanovic
Jelena Jankovic
Johanna Konta
Mirjana Lucic-Baroni
Ekaterina Makarova
Elise Mertens
Peng Shuai
Andrea Petkovic
Tsvetana Pironkova
Magdalena Rybarikova
Anastasija Sevastova
CoCo Vandeweghe
Elena Vesnina
Zheng Jie
...and few here -- most notably Makarova, Vandeweghe and Vesnina -- have been versatile enough that they would qualify for their *doubles* success alone, as well. Lucic would have met the agreed-upon qualifications for 1990-99 (for her WS/WD/MX results in the late '90s), but not for 2000-09, and now does so again for 2010-19. Ah, The Most Interesting Tour. And, we see you there, JJ -- you can't hide!
*GRAND SLAM SINGLES QUARTERFINALIST* (+22)
Belinda Bencic
Caroline Garcia
Camila Giorgi
Daniela Hantuchova
Kaia Kanepi
Dasha Kasatkina
Maria Kirilenko
Ana Konjuh
Svetlana Kuznetsova
Kristina Mladenovic
Tamira Paszek
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
Nadia Petrova
Yulia Putintseva
Shelby Rogers
Yaroslava Shvedova
Barbora Strycova
Carla Suarez-Navarro
Elina Svitolina
Lesia Tsurenko
Alison Van Uytvanck
Zhang Shuai
...though 48 players met the qualifying standard before her, Svitolina is the only one here (though Mladenovic & Strycova should *contend*... Sveta, who knows?) assured of a spot in the final Decade Top 25, based solely on her regular season prowess and just-won WTA Finals title. She really needs to bump her spot up on this list in '19, though.
*YEAR-END TOP 10* (0)
--
*EIGHT-OR-MORE WTA SINGLES TITLES - 2010-19* (0)
--
...contenders to possibly jump onto the list? Hmmm. Not many. Alize Cornet has five titles in the decade, but she was a player who started the '09 season on the verge of adding her name to the list, too, but ultimately never did. Aryna Sabalenka only has two titles as of now, but *could* (in a best-case scenario) get hot enough in '19 to reach eight, though she's more likely to join the list based on her slam results or Top 10 finish. If Wang Qiang could bring her Asian continental success to the rest of the world, she'd be under consideration, too (though she's *already* on the nomination list -- as you'll see later).
*DOUBLES/MIXED SLAM CHAMPION* (+28)
Timea Babos
Ash Barty
Iveta Benesova
Cara Black
Latisha Chan
Gaby Dabrowski
Casey Dellacqua
Gisela Dulko
Jarmila Gajdosova
Anna-Lena Groenefeld
Martina Hingis
Hsieh Su-wei
Liezel Huber
Vania King
Barbora Krejcikova
Bethanie Mattek-Sands
Sania Mirza
Kveta Peschke
Andrea S.-Hlavackova
Lucie Hradecka
Nicole Melichar
Melanie Oudin
Lisa Raymond
Laura Siegemund
Katerina Siniakova
Abigail Spears
Katarina Srebotnik
Heather Watson
...speaking to either the singles-only nature of so many of the *top* stars, the doubles depth, or maybe the absense of long-term "super duos" hogging the big titles, this number is nearly double the number (15) that were on the list to begin the '09 season. And let the internal debate begin... just how high will Hingis land on the Top 25 list with her 2.0 doubles career? Barty should be able to add some singles numbers to her candidacy in '19.
*YEAR-END DOUBLES TOP 10* (+3)
Nuria Llagostera-Vives
Demi Schuurs
Rennae Stubbs
...Stubbs won't finish ahead of her new pupil, Pliskova. She's here based on her 2010 finish as the doubles #10.
*OLYMPIC SINGLES QF-OR-BETTER* (+1)
Monica Puig
...and she *only* qualifies with this, too. Let another internal debate begin: Is Puig's Rio '16 Olympic Gold run THE top performance of the decade?
*OLYMPIC DOUBLES/MIXED MEDALIST* (+1)
Laura Robson
...oh, so you'd forgotten that she won Silver with Andy Murray in London in '12? I know I had.
*SLAM DOUBLES/MIXED SEMIFINAL* (+27)
Shuko Aoyama
Raquel Atawo
Harriet Dart
Kimiko Date
Vera Dushevina
Marina Erakovic
Margarita Gasparyan
Eri Hozumi
Klaudia Jans-Ignacik
Miyu Kato
Andreja Klepac
Michaella Krajicek
Varvara Lepchenko
Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez
Christina McHale
Anabel Medina-Garrigues
Monica Niculescu
Makota Ninomiya
Anastasia Rodionova
Alicja Rosolska
Chanelle Scheepers
Tamarine Tanasugarn
Taylor Townsend
Galina Voskoboeva
Xu Yifan
Yang Zhaoxuan
Zheng Saisai
...and Harriet Dart's great grass court summer of '18 gets her nominated. Lit Brit.
*OLYMPIC DOUBLES/MIXED QUARTERFINAL* (+4)
Irina-Camelia Begu
Angel Chan
Chuang Chia-jung
Teliana Pereira
...at least both Chans are now present. And a South American who has played more recently than Dulko, too.
And in an act of widening the net a bit...
*WHEELCHAIR SINGLES SLAM/MASTERS YEC/PARALYMPIC FINALS* (+12)
Marjolein Buis
Diede de Groot
Daniela Di Toro
Sabine Ellerbrock
Florence Gravellier
Jiske Griffioen
Korie Homan
Yui Kamiji
Aniek Van Koot
Esther Vergeer
Sharon Walraven
Jordanne Whiley
...seven of Vergeer's slam singles crowns (+ a Paralympic Gold and two Masters) took place in the decade. With four slam singles crowns heading into '19, could her protégé Diede (The Great) de Groot end up with *more* in 2010-19 than The Greatest Ever? Who'd be the WC Player of the Decade? Another internal debate.
*WHEELCHAIR DOUBLES SLAM/MASTERS YEC/PARALYMPIC TITLE* (+1)
Lucy Shuker
...the Brit won the Doubles Masters with de Groot two years ago. As is traditionally the case, all the other WD title winners were also singles champs/runners-up.
*ASIAN GAMES FINALS* (+5)
Akgul Amanmuradova
Chan Chin-wei
Luksika Kumkhum
Aldila Sutjiadi
Wang Qiang
...see, I told you -- there she is. Wang has won back-to-back AG Golds.
Here's how things were finalized from 2000-09:
2. Justine Henin, BEL
3. Maria Sharapova, RUS
4. Venus Williams, USA
5. Kim Clijsters, BEL
6. Jennifer Capriati, USA
7. Lindsay Davenport, USA
8. Amelie Mauresmo, FRA
9. Svetlana Kuznetsova, RUS
10. Cara Black, ZIM
11. Lisa Raymond, USA
12t. Virginia Ruano Pascual, ESP
12t. Paola Suarez, ARG
14. Rennae Stubbs, AUS
15. Elena Dementieva, RUS
16. Martina Hingis, SUI
17. Liezel Huber, RSA/USA
18. Mary Pierce, FRA
19. Dinara Safina, RUS
20. Daniela Hantuchova, SVK
21. Ana Ivanovic, SRB
22. Jelena Jankovic, SRB
23. Ai Sugiyama, JPN
24. Anastasia Myskina, RUS
25. Patty Schnyder, SUI
HONORABLE MENTION- Martina Navratilova, USA
*TOP PERFORMANCE*
Serena Williams' "Serena Slam" (2002-03)
[Tournament]
Justine Henin-Hardenne, 2004 Athens Olympics
[Weekend]
Justine Henin, 2003 U.S. Open (SF-def. Capriati, Final-def. Clijsters)
[Team]
Russia wins four Fed Cup titles (2004-05, 2007-08)
[Misc.]
Russians sweep Beijing '08 Olympics Medal stand (Dementieva-Safina-Zvonareva)
*TOP DOUBLES TEAMS*
1. Serena Williams/Venus Williams, USA
2. Virginia Ruano Pascual/Paola Suarez, ESP/ARG
3. Cara Black/Liezel Huber, ZIM/RSA-USA
HM- Lisa Raymond/Rennae Stubbs, USA/AUS
*TOP*
[Junior]
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, RUS
[Breakout]
Maria Sharapova wins Wimbledon (2004)
[Comeback]
Jennifer Capriati (2001)
[Adopted Technology]
Instant Replay review
*MATCHES OF THE DECADE*
2001 Roland Garros Final - Capriati def. Clijsters
...1-6/6-4/12-10. So what if it was the only three-set RG final this decade. It was the most dramatic, historic match. Period.
=============================
2003 U.S. Open SF - Henin def. Capriati
...4-6/7-5/7-6. The legend of La Petit Taureau is born.
=============================
*BEST*
[Story]
The Williams Sisters
[Unlikely Tennis Power]
Belgium
[Revolution]
Russian
*Ms. Backspin of the 2000's*
THE Serena Williams
2. Jennifer Capriati, USA
3. Lindsay Davenport, USA
4. Justine Henin, BEL
5. Maria Sharapova, RUS
6. Martina Hingis, SUI
7. Amelie Mauresmo, FRA
8. Kim Clijsters, BEL
9. Venus Williams, USA
10. Daniela Hantuchova, SVK
HM- Rennae Stubbs, AUS
*DOUBLES*
1. Serena Williams/Venus Williams, USA/USA
2. Virginia Ruano-Pascual/Paola Suarez, ESP/ARG
3. Martina Hingis, SUI
4. Rennae Stubbs, AUS
5. Daniela Hantuchova, SVK
*JUNIORS*
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, RUS & Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova, CZE
2. Virginia Ruano Pascual, ESP
3. Mary Pierce, FRA
4. Jennifer Capriati, USA
5. Serena Williams, USA
6. Ana Ivanovic, SRB
7. Svetlana Kuznetsova, RUS
8. Kim Clijsters, BEL
9. Anastasia Myskina, RUS
10. Paola Suarez, ARG
HM- Lisa Raymond, USA
*DOUBLES*
1. Virginia Ruano-Pascual, ESP
2. Paola Suarez, ARG
3. Lisa Raymond, USA
4. Anabel Medina-Garrigues, ESP
*DOUBLES TEAMS*
1. Virginia Ruano-Pascual/Paola Suarez, ESP/ARG
2. Anabel Medina-Garrigues/Virginia Ruano-Pascual, ESP/ESP
*JUNIORS*
1. Agnieszka Radwanska, POL & Sesil Karatantcheva, ex-BUL/currently KAZ
2. Virginie Razzano (2000), Alize Cornet (2007) and Kristina Mladenovic (2009)
2. Serena Williams, USA
3. Amelie Mauresmo, FRA
4. Maria Sharapova, RUS
5. Cara Black, ZIM
6. Lindsay Davenport, USA
7. Justine Henin, BEL
8. Ai Sugiyama, JPN
9. Kim Clijsters, BEL
10. Elena Dementieva, RUS
HM- Jennifer Capriati, USA
*DOUBLES*
1. Serena Williams/Venus Williams, USA
2. Cara Black, ZIM
3. Ai Sugiyama, JPN
4. Cara Black/Liezel Huber, ZIM/USA
5. Rennae Stubbs, AUS
6. Martina Navratilova, USA
7. Kim Clijsters/Ai Sugiyama, BEL/JPN
8. Virginia Ruano-Pascual/Paola Suarez, ESP/ARG
9. Lisa Raymond, USA
10. Samantha Stosur, AUS
*JUNIORS*
1. Sisters: Agnieszka Radwanska, Urszula Radwanska and Kateryna Bondarenko
2. Laura Robson, GBR
3. Noppawan Lertcheewakarn, THA
2. Justine Henin, BEL
3. Kim Clijsters, USA
4. Venus Williams, USA
5. Virginia Ruano Pascual/Paola Suarez, ESP/ARG
6. Svetlana Kuznetsova, RUS
7. Maria Sharapova, RUS
8. Lindsay Davenport, USA
9. Lisa Raymond, USA
10. Elena Dementieva, RUS
HM- Jelena Jankovic, SRB
*DOUBLES*
[Teams]
1.Virginia Ruano-Pascual/Paola Suarez, ESP/ARG
2. Lisa Raymond/Rennae Stubbs, USA/AUS
3. Cara Black/Liezel Huber, ZIM/USA
[Individuals]
1.Lisa Raymond, USA
2.Rennae Stubbs, AUS
3.Cara Black, ZIM
4.Nathalie Dechy, FRA
*JUNIORS*
Americans: Coco Vandeweghe, Jessica Kirkland and Alexa Glatch
=============================
A Belgian: Kirsten Flipkens
=============================
Russians: Maria Kirilenko and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova; Svetlana Kuznetsova and Yana Buchina
=============================
