Men's Tennis: 4 best Grand Slam matches of the 2018 season
The 2018 tennis season is done and dusted with no more ranking points on offer. The only competitive matches left are the Davis Cup Final matches between finalists Croatia and France. The Davis Cup being a team event doesn't reward ranking points.
2018 has been another year where 3 of the Fabled 'Big 4' have continue their stranglehold over the Grand Slams. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic between them won the 4 Grand Slam titles on offer meaning that the 'Next Gen' of tennis superstars will have to wait a bit longer before changing the status quo of domination by the 'Big 4'. It is remarkable that even in 2018, not a single player born in the 1990's has won a Grand Slam yet.
The year started off with 36-year-old Roger Federer defending his Australian Open crown. Juan Martin Del Potro and John Isner grabbed their first ATP Masters 1000 titles and Rafael Nadal continued his remarkable clay court dominance. The second half of the season saw a spirited Djokovic claim the last 2 Grand Slams and rise to the top of the ATP rankings to become the oldest ever player to finish the year as World Number 1.
'Next Gen' superstars Alexander Zverev, Karen Khachanov and Stefanos Tsitsipas all made bold statements by winning titles and pulling off victories against the higher ranked players. The 2019 season will see the return of Andy Murray and Stanislas Wawrinka from lengthy lay-offs and they will look to reclaim their Top-10 ranking which they held for several years.
As the players relax and get some well-deserved rest after a demanding season, we take a look back at 4 of the most memorable Grand Slam matches over the course of the year :
#4 Roger Federer vs Marin Cilic (Australian Open Final)
The Australian Open final pitted 5-time defending champion Roger Federer face-off against his Wimbledon 2017 Finals opponent Croat Marin Cilic.
Unlike in the Wimbledon Final the previous year, where Cilic was not at his best battling foot blisters, the Australian Open final saw a fully fit Cilic rearing to go and claim his maiden Australian Open crown. The match was played indoors much to the charge-in of Cilic who was perplexed at the last-minute decision by the authorities to play the Final indoors.
Initially, it looked like Federer was going to breeze past his opponent just like he did in Wimbledon the previous year comfortably wrapping up the first set. But then, the Croat levelled the match by winning the second set in a tie-break. Federer took the third set 6-3 and looked set to claim the match having broken Cilic in the fourth set to take a 3-1 lead.
Cilic was not one to back out without a fight. He immediately broke the Federer serve and took the fourth set 6-4 to level the match at 2 sets apiece. Federer playing in a 5 set match in the Australian Open Final for a second successive year got the better of Cilic in the 5th set 6-1 as the Croat buckled under pressure. The win meant that Roger Federer became the second oldest winner of a Grand Slam in the Open Era after Australia's Ken Rosewall.