Another tennis year has gone by, but not without some great moments to remember. Here’s my top 5 tennis moments of 2021.

5. Emma Raducanu and Daniil Medvedev win the US Open. 

Both Raducanu and Medvedev would win their first grand slam. It was a breakthrough for both, but within different contexts. For Medvedev, he finally got the monkey off his back. He’d been the second-best hard-court player in the world behind Djokovic. Not anymore. For Raducanu, everyone has known she’s a talented youngster with a great future. However, nobody predicted she’d go from the qualifiers to the title. 

4. Djokovic captures his 20^th Grand Slam. 

There was a time when the GOAT conversation only involved Federer and Nadal. That is no longer the case. In the last four years, Djokovic captured eight additional Grand Slams to complement the 12 that he captured in his 20s. Also, there’s no indication that Djokovic is slowing down, which makes it very probable that he’ll continue adding more Grand Slams to his haul.

3. American tennis is back. 

2021 marked the year when I’m finally feeling good about American tennis. It’s been a long nine years since the retirement of tennis superstar Andy Roddick in 2012. However, we now have reason to be optimistic both on the women’s and men’s side, with players like Sofia Kenin, Danielle Collins, Reilly Opelka, Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe. The future looks bright again.

2. The crowds came back.

2020 was a tough year both on tennis players and fans watching empty stadiums from home. Although the quality of tennis could be great at times, it didn’t match the energy that we see when crowds show up to watch. The fan/player interaction is a very important factor in the enjoyment of the game, both from the players and fans perspective. Hopefully 2022 brings us full capacity crowds throughout the year. 

1.  Funny quarantine social media videos from the Australian Open

One of the most memorable things in 2021 was watching the players get very creative with their quarantine time. From Tik Tok challenges, to workout posts on social media, players made the best out of their quarantine situations.