2011 summary (after 3rd quarter)

Novak Djokovic confirmed his astonishing supremacy in the third quarter of the season winning 16 matches in a row and collecting another two big titles. His main opponent in the first half of the year – Rafael Nadal – couldn’t handle the Nole’s conditions, after being beaten painfully in the Wimbledon final, had the worst pre-US Open period in career winning just 2 out of 4 matches! His chances to defend the US Open title seem to vanish. Juan Martin del Potro disappointed in the last three months, I expected much more from him on his favorite surface – American hardcourts, he needs a breakthrough at the US Open to dream about ‘ATP World Tour Finals’. Most of spots in the season ending championship are rather guaranteed up to the 6th place which currently occupies Robin Soderling, who as the only top player hasn’t participated in any tournament of the American series due to injury. The last two spots should be taken by two guys of this group: Monfils, Fish, Berdych, Tsonga, Del Potro… if the latter will find his form of the first half of the year. It’s a special time for Serbian tennis, not only due to Djokovic’s hegemony (still may achieve the best season in the Open era), for the first time in history there are three Serbs in the Top 20!

Compare with the summary of the 2nd quarter

August 22, 2011 (after Cincinnati)

48 tournaments have been played so far (including three majors and seven ‘Masters 1000′) and two rounds of the Davis Cup.

Number of tournaments by surfaces/conditions:

Clay: 21
Outdoor hard: 16
Indoors: 5
Grass: 6

Ranking (Top 20, singles):

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Singles titles:

9 – Novak Djokovic
4 – Robin Soderling
3 – Rafael Nadal, Nicolas Almagro
2 – David Ferrer, Juan Martin del Potro, Gilles Simon, Andy Murray
1 – Tommy Robredo, Ivan Dodig, Roger Federer, Stanislas Wawrinka, Nikolay Davydenko, Kevin Anderson, Milos Raonic, Andy Roddick, Pablo Andujar, Ryan Sweeting, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Andreas Seppi, Dmitry Tursunov, John Isner, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Mardy Fish, Marcel Granollers, Alexandr Dolgopolov, Ernests Gulbis, Robin Haase, Radek Stepanek

Doubles titles:

6 – The Bryans
4 – Horia Tecau,
3 – Scott Lipsky, Mahesh Bhupathi, Leander Paes
2 – Lukas Dlouhy, Paul Hanley, Marcelo Melo, Bruno Soares, Rajeev Ram, Eric Butorac, Jean-Julien Rojer, Jurgen Melzer, Robert Lindstedt, Philipp Petzschner, Simone Bolelli, Olivier Marach, Filip Polasek, Frantisek Cermak, Xavier Malisse, Matthew Ebden, Nenad Zimonjic, Michael Llodra, Santiago Gonzalez,
1 – Marcel Granollers, Tommy Robredo, Dick Norman, Jamie Cerretani, Adil Shamasdin, Rafael Nadal, Marc Lopez, Leonardo Mayer, Max Mirnyi, Daniel Nestor, Robin Haase, Ken Skupski, Sergiy Stakhovsky, Mikhail Youzhny, Victor Hanescu, Alexandr Dolgopolov, Horacio Zeballos, John Isner, Sam Querrey, Max Mirnyi, Daniel Nestor, Rohan Bopanna, Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, Daniele Bracciali, Jonathan Erlich, Alexander Peya, Andy Ram, Ryan Harrison, Alex Bogomolov, Mark Knowles, Daniele Bracciali

Most matches won (singles):

1. Novak Djokovic 57-2
2. Rafael Nadal 53-10
3. Nicolas Almagro 45-17
4. Roger Federer 42-11
5. David Ferrer 40-12
6. Tomas Berdych 39-17
7. Robin Soderling 38-9
8. Juan Martin del Potro 38-12
9. Mardy Fish 36-17
10. Janko Tipsarevic 35-18

Longest match (best-of-5):
Australian Open, 1R: David Nalbandian d. Lleyton Hewitt 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(1), 9-7 – 4 hours 48 minutes
Longest match (best-of-3):
Cincinnati, 3R: Rafael Nadal d. Fernando Verdasco 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 7-6(9) – 3 hours 38 minutes
Longest final:
Roland Garros: Rafael Nadal d. Roger Federer 7-5, 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-1 – 3 hours 40 minutes

Most match points saved:
Singles: Roland Garros, 4R:
Fabio Fognini d. Albert Montanes 4-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 11-9 – 5 m.p.
Doubles: Wimbledon, 1R:
Juan Sebastian Cabal / Robert Farah d. Rohan Bopanna / Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 2-6, 6-2, 21-19 – 5 m.p.

Tie-breaks

Singles

Longest tie-break:
Queens Club, QF: James Ward d. Adrian Mannarino 6-2, 6-7(14), 6-4
Longest tie-break in the deciding set:
Delray Beach, 1R: Teimuraz Gabashvili d John Isner 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(13)

Doubles

Longest tie-break:
s’Hertogenbosch, 1R:
Robert Lindstedt/Horia Tecau d. Christian Kas/Alexander Peya 7-6(13), 2-6, [10-7]
Longest super tie-break:
Rome, 1R:
Mardy Fish/Andy Roddick d. Tomas Berdych/Lukas Dlouhy 6-3, 2-6, [19-17]

Most tie-breaks won (singles):

1) John Isner 24-19
2) Nicolas Almagro 23-14
3) Feliciano Lopez 20-19
4) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 18-12
5) Janko Tipsarevic 17-11

Aces

Most aces:

1) Feliciano Lopez – 581
2) John Isner – 570
3) Ivo Karlovic – 548
4) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga – 516
5) Kevin Anderson – 514

Aces / match average (at least 10.0 & 10 matches played):

1. Ivo Karlovic – 17.1
2. John Isner – 14.6
3. Milos Raonic – 13.8
3. Gilles Muller – 13.8
5. Andy Roddick – 13.5
6. Feliciano Lopez – 12.6
7. Dustin Brown – 12.3
8. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga – 10.8
9. Kevin Anderson – 10.7

Most aces served in a match:

The best of five: 48 – Ivo Karlovic (Australian Open, 1R) 5 sets, lost to Ivan Dodig
The best of three: 38 – Milos Raonic (Memphis, 2R) 3 sets, defeated Radek Stepanek

# The fourth and last summary will be posted after the Davis Cup final.