STARNBERG, December 21, 2021 (Guest Post)
Tennis fans are eagerly awaiting the 2022 season after an exciting 2021 campaign in which Novak Djokovic continued to dominate the men’s field while Emma Raducanu stunned the women’s game with a memorable US Open.
The 2022 season will get started immediately at the ATP Cup in Sydney, Australia. On January 1st with Serbia facing Norway with Djokovic set to face Casper Ruud while Chile face Spain, Argentina are against Georgia as well as Greece taking on Poland on opening night.
As the ATP Cup finishes, the players will move on to Melbourne for the first Grand Slam of the season. The Australian Open runs from the 17th January through to the 30th where defending champions Djokovic and Naomi Osaka will be competing to kick off their seasons in similar fashion once again.
The second Grand Slam of the year is no until 21st May at Roland-Garros, shortly followed by Wimbledon which starts 27th June.
Wimbledon, as always, will be one of the most eagerly anticipated competitions and buildup will even be in sports news today. The historic and popular tournament on the grass courts of Wimbledon, London, have been a favourite of players and spectators for generations; and a key date in every tennis fans calendar.
In 2021 Djokovic continued his domination of the men’s singles game last year with defeating Matteo Berrettini in four sets. After losing the first set, Djokovic went on to win three in a row. Ashleigh Barty captured the women’s singles title with victory over Karolina Pliskova. This was Barty’s first Wimbledon triumph and her second Grand Slam title after winning the French Open in 2019.
The final Grand Slam of the year is at Flushing Meadows, New York, where the US Open will be played on 29th August through to the 11th September. Here, Emma Radancanu won her first Grand Slam just two years after turning professional beating Leila Fernandez in straight sets.
In the men’s game, Daniil Medvedev ended Djokovic’s run of victories and stopped him from taking all four Grand Slams of 2021. Winning in straight sets, Medvedev won his first major of his career.
The ATP takes its 500 series across four venues throughout February. Starting on 7th February, the ABM Amro World Tennis Tournament takes place in Rotterdam, Netherlands before the Rio Open presented by Claro in Brazil on 14th February. There are two further ATP 500 events beginning on 21st February, the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship and the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco.
Further dates of ATP 500 series are set for 18th April for the Barcelona Open in Spain, 13th June for the Terra Wortman Open in Halle, Germany as well as the Cinch Championships at Queens in London on the same date.
The ATP 1000 Masters tournaments are always a popular event for players and fans alike and the calendar gets underway in Doha on 9th March with the the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells before moving down to the Miami Open on 22nd March. The US based Masters events on the hard courts lead up to the clay court Masters tournaments which start in Monte-Carlo. The Matua Madrid Open in Spain will kick off on 28th April. German Alexander Zverev was last year’s men’s champion, defeating Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini.
The Internazionali BNL D’Italia in Rome will commence on the 9th May on the clay which last year saw Rafael Nadal defeat Novak Djokovic in three sets.
For those awaiting the Davis Cup, Qualifiers begins on 4th March with the World Group I and II play offs. 16 teams will eventually compete in November in the Finals which in 2021 saw a victory for the Russian Tennis Federation led by Daniil Medvedev. They will automatically qualify for the 2022 finals along with runners up, Croatia.
Once again there is so much to be excited for in the world of tennis. 2021 saw Djokovic go close to the Golden Slam, Radancanu took home the US Open trophy and many more exciting matches across all surfaces along with the Tokyo Olympic Games where Alexander Zverev and Belinda Bencic won gold medals in the men’s and women’s singles events.
There will surely be no shortage of drama once again, and without any hesitation there will be competitive tennis available to watch from the start of the year. Both the men’s and women’s tournaments look set to be highly competitive with such strong competition, it will be hard to see Djokovic dominate so much of the calendar year once again while Barty will know there are a number of highly talented players looking to take her number one seed from her.
