Meet the 50-win club of the 2019 ATP season
The 2019 season officially drew to a close with the conclusion of the historic single-week Davis Cup Finals in Madrid.
Year-end World No. 1 Rafael Nadal pulled off double duty by reeling off five singles win and three doubles wins in five days to win Spain their 6th Davis Cup title. In the process, the Spaniard recorded his 29th singles win in the Davis Cup and also improved his stunning winning streak in the competition to 29, having gone unbeaten since his loss to Jiri Novak in 2004.
The season saw the world's top two ranked players Nadal and Novak Djokovic sweep all the four Grand Slam tournaments for the first time since 2011, as the drought for a first-time Slam winner extended to five years (Marin Cilic at 2014 US Open). In the Masters 1000 category, Dominic Thiem (Indian Wells), Fabio Fognini (Monte Carlo) and Daniil Medvedev (Cincinnati, Shanghai) became the newest players to triumph since it was introduced in 1990.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the players who ended the season with 50 (or more) match wins all finished in the top 10 of the year-end rankings. Let us find out who they are.
#5 Roger Federer (53-10)
A 38-year-old Roger Federer is still breaking records at an age most tennis players are well into their retirement. After a disappointing Australian Open fourth-round defeat to young Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas which ended Federer's title defence, the Swiss maestro became the first player since Jimmy Connors to win 100 singles title by beating Tsitsipas in the Dubai final.
Although Federer fell short in a three-set Indian Wells final for a second-straight year (this time to Dominic Thiem), the Swiss maestro became the oldest player to win a Masters 1000 tournament when he dethroned defending champion John Isner in the Miami final to win his 28th Masters 1000 title - and his first since 2017 Shanghai.
Federer proceed to play on clay for the first time since 2016 and reached consecutive quarterfinals at the Madrid and Rome Masters before reaching his first Roland Garros semifinal in seven years, where he lost to eventual winner Rafael Nadal in straight sets.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion then became the first player to win 10 titles on grass when he beat David Goffin in the Halle final.
Also read: A tribute to the Swiss legend on his 38th birthday.
Weeks later, Federer beat Nadal in the Wimbledon semis to become the oldest Grand Slam finalist since Ken Rosewall in 1974. In the final, the Swiss maestro arrived on the cusp of a record-extending 9th Wimbledon and 21st Grand Slam title, only to squander consecutive championship points on serve at 8-7 40-15 in the fifth set.
Djokovic went on to triumph in a historic first-ever Wimbledon deciding set tiebreak to become the tournament's first winner in 71 years to have saved multiple championship points.
Federer endured an early exit in Cincinnati before a first-ever loss in eight matches to Grigor Dimitrov in the US Open quarterfinals ended the Swiss' hopes of a Grand Slam title for the year.
The 38-year-old regrouped quickly and led Team Europe to a third-straight Laver Cup title in the home environs of Geneva, before becoming the first player to win 10 titles on multiple surfaces when he beat Alex De Minaur at his hometown tournament in Basel.
Federer's semifinal win over Tsitsipas in Basel marked a record-extending 16th time that the Swiss maestro registered 50 match wins in a season.
The 20-time Grand Slam champion marked his record-extending 17th appearance at the season-ending ATP Finals by beating Djokovic for the first time in six matches to reach a record-extending 16th semifinal at the tournament. There, he went down in straight sets to eventual winner Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Also read: Top 10 highlights of Roger Federer's 2019 season