The wait is soon over. In a few days the 2014 ATP World Tour Tennis Season starts in Brisbane (Federer) and Doha (Nadal, Murray) and Chennai (Wavrinka). Here are some of my predictions for the season in bullet form:
Federer starts winning tournaments again.
His wife is pregnant and he’s tired of being talked of as the has-been. This won’t be a year of being number one again, but he will definitely win more tournaments and I even think he’ll take the Wimbledon trophy home. Working with Stefan Edberg might do the trick (if he decides to do that).
Djokovic ends the season as number one.
Nadal was the best player in 2013, but it was a tight race. 2014 is Djokovic’s time to shine again with 2 Slams (Australian Open and US Open) and a few Masters titles.
Nadal wins French Open for the ninth time.
Nadal won’t be as spectacular as last year, but the French Open is his for the taking. I bet that he will end the season as the number two player and that he will dominate the clay season, but suffer some surprising losses to big hitters on faster courts.
Murray and Del Potro have a so-and-so year.
Murray ended the year with injury struggles and now that he’s desperate ambition for Wimbledon is over, he’ll have a hard time to re-focus his energy in 2014. Del Potro will sadly be troubled by injuries and the inability to kick the top four’s ass repeatedly.
The break-out stars.
From the younglings the ones who’ll make the biggest dent in 2014’s calendar is Pospisil and Dimitrov. Tomic will still be looking for his head and Raonic is still too much serve. Gulbis will make the semi’s in a Slam, but that’s pretty much it.
“The misc category”.
Haas had a fantastic 2013 – not so in 2014. His body is getting tired. Wavrinka’s body is fine, but he won’t be climbing the ladder and instead hover around the top 10-15.
Hope these predictions aren’t too miserable. It’s gut feeling and experience and my disclaimer is that I might be completely off.
Got any questions? Comment and start the 2014 discussion!
