Richmond Hill teen Denis Shapovalov, above, is “overwhelmed” to be named Canadian Press male athlete of the year, edging out Sidney Crosby.
So the return of Maria Sharapova from a 15-month doping suspension injected a desperately needed shot of celebrity and Swarovski crystal into a meh assortment of personalities.
We missed her monster ground strokes. We even missed her shrieks.
A year plagued by injuries, as well, with many questioning whether the schedule was too crowded with events — the tyranny of a pointsformatted ranking system heavily punishing towards players who would have preferred to skip a tour gig here and there. Novak Djokovic, Stan Warwinka, Andy Murray: None played an official match after Wimbledon. Seven men in the top 20, including Canada’s Milos Raonic, shut down it down completely by midsummer.
Most luminously, 2017 was a timeless wonder for men’s tennis as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal chased each other through the rankings, albeit with scarce head-toheads. Each was coming off injuryravaged seasons and many observers were skeptical, in particular, that the Federer Express could be set back on the rails following knee surgery, his first experience under the knife. Instead, he emerged with a recalibrated one-handed backhand, a stunning addition to his arsenal.
These two riveting players, era icons, half of the Big Four, got the year off to a breathless start Down Under, surviving through to a final showdown at the Australian Open. Their five-setter would enter the annals as among the most memorable matches of 2017.
Six years it had been since they last met in a Grand Slam final, a period in which Federer remained revered as the most elegant, balletic player in the game but purportedly on the decline, without a major title in nearly five years.
At two sets apiece, Federer looked to be on the ropes, failing to convert five break points on Nadal’s first three service games. But Federer stormed back, winning the final five games for a 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 victory.
“I told myself to play free. I didn’t want to go down just making shots, seeing forehands rain down on me from Rafa. I kept on fighting. I kept on believing that there was a possibility I could win this match.”
It was the first time Federer got the best of his nemesis at a Slam away from Wimbledon.
And the revival just kept gaining throwback momentum.
On the storied lawns of Wimbledon, Federer progressed with almost ethereal ease, not dropping a single set en route to his second Grand Slam title in a row, bringing his total to 19. On that Sunday afternoon, he was 35 years, 11 months and nine days old.
In his career — 95 titles, passing Ivan Lendl for second most in the Open era (behind only Jimmy Connors) — Federer has never retired from a match. That’s how durable he’s been.
The mojo wore off at Flushing Meadows, where Federer lost in the semifinal to Juan Martin del Potro, clearly ailing with a back problem suffered a couple of weeks earlier in Montreal. But the Swiss Maestro finished the year 7-1 in Slam finals after going only 12-13 from 2013-16.
Seven tour titles on the season, his best acquittal since capturing eight in 2007.
Tennis fans were again denied what would have been a first finals showdown between Federer and Nadal at that U.S. Open. But it was all about the Spaniard, playing relentless tennis, as the lefty waltzed off with a straight-set mismatch triumph over South African Kevin Anderson.
Nadal had launched his 2017 season on a two-and-a-half year Slam drought. In New York he made it 2-for-4, his 16th Slam title, after earlier winning a 10th — 10th! — trophy on the red clay of his beloved Roland Garros. He ends the year at a well-deserved No. 1, ahead of Federer. “Of course is a special year, no?” he said after staking his third U.S. crown. Yes, a special year.
The most thrilling match in Queens, however — a close contender with the Aussie Open final for sheer melodrama — unspooled in the Round of 16 between del Potro and Dominic Thiem, the ever more impressive 24-year-old from Austria currently ranked world No. 5.
Del Potro looked barely able to stand on his feet, ailing with flu symptoms that had him practically delirious with fever. Yet the Argentine, buoyed by a wildly partisan Ole-chanting crowd, persevered, rallying from two sets down, including a tiebreak, and saving another set with a pair of match-point aces in one of the greatest comebacks ever.
“When I saw all of this crowd cheering for me, my illness cleared up,” del Potro told the audience in an on-court interview. “I was trying to feel better every game. I fight like this because of you guys.”
Del Potro then bumped off Federer before running out of gas.
Spain enjoyed a one-two No. 1 punch, for a while, as Nadal compa- triot Muguruza blasted her way through the Wimbledon field, defeating Venus Williams in the final for her second career Slam laurels. At the French Open, though, Muguruza couldn’t defend her title. It was the unheralded and unseeded Latvian 20-year-old, Jelena Ostapenko, who triumphed, coming from behind to overwhelm Halep.
In a year of storybook narratives, the young adult fables proved hugely entertaining even if the tyros mostly folded in the Grand Slam crunch after racking up tour titles.
None burst into more razzle-dazzle pupa prominence than Shapovalov. That’s not just national pride boasting either as tennis cognoscenti and commentators fell in awe with the teen from Richmond Hill, gushing out superlatives of comparison.
Less than a year after taking the Wimbledon junior crown and stepping up from the Challenger series — and apologizing for inadvertently hitting an umpire in the eye with a shot made in fury in Davis Cup play — Shapo electrified the sport in a breakout season: Defeated thenworld No. 2 Nadal and del Potro at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, a Mas- ters 1000 tournament, before falling to Germany’s Alexander Zverev in the semis, then reached the fourth round of the U.S. Open as a qualifier and beating Jo-Wilfred Tsonga in the process.
Indeed, the kid’s leaping ascent lifted him from No. 250 in the ATP rankings to No. 49 (youngest ever to break into the Top 50, currently at No. 51), receiving an invitation to the inaugural Next Gen event in Milan. The ATP anointed him “Most Improved Player and Star of Tomorrow”, Tennis Canada named the 18-year-old male player of the year over Raonic.
At every corner he turned, Shapovalov seemed charmingly gobsmacked with himself.
“Probably just chill with Felix, watch some Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” he said in the immediately postMontreal glow.
That would be Felix Auger-Aliassime, Shapolavov’s best friend and co-court sensation, named Canada’s male junior player of the year. The 17-year-old became the youngest player to debut in the Top 200 since Nadal in 2002 — currently ranked world No. 162, climbing over 400 spots despite missing several months due to injury.
Indeed, 11 Canadian players finished 2017 in the top 200 ATP and WTA rankings.
Some of them are clearly destined to hit the super-elite strata.
Come Jan. 15, the Grand grind starts all over again Down Under. Organizers say Serena Williams has accepted a place in Melbourne and “is anticipated to return” — a mere five months after giving birth to daughter Alexis Olympia.
On Instagram, Williams posted a photo of a pair of dazzling gold and white tennis shoes, with the tease: “Be excited, be very excited.”
The tennis world will unfold as it should, if maybe how nobody predicts.