Tennis in 2023 will be dominated by Djokovic, the Big Three in the WTA, the Alcaraz Wimbledon spectacle, and Sania Mirza’s retirement

Another tennis season comes to a conclusion, with compelling narratives, memorable events, and noteworthy accomplishments – from Novak Djokovic becoming a legend to the WTA discovering its own Big Three and global tennis star Sania Mirza saying adieu to the game. We also look back at the 2023 calendar year before the highly anticipated return of Rafael Nadal after 348 days and the glittering action of the 2024 calendar year begins.

Novak Djokovic is the absolute best.
The 36-year-old returned to the top of the ATP rankings after another incredible year in which he won three Grand Slams. He concluded the year with his 71st major championship victory in Turin at the Tour Finals. He overtook Rafael Nadal’s record of 22 men’s singles major championship victories in May after defeating Carlos Alcaraz to win his 10th Australian Open in January. Nadal also won the French Open in May. Later, on his first trip to New York after the Covid incident, the world No. 1 won the US Open championship. He defeated Daniil Medvedev in September to increase his Slam record to 24, the most ever held by a player in the Open Era, regardless of gender. After all, the Serb broke Roger Federer’s record by winning his seventh ATP Finals at the conclusion of the year.

It’s Carlos Alcaraz here.
Djokovic was one set away from accomplishing his first-ever Calendar Slam in 2023, but the man who had won every Centre Court match at the SW19 in ten years and had never lost an All England Club final in seven was taken aback by the incredible Alcaraz in the summit match. Alcaraz won his Wimbledon title after defeating the 36-year-old in a hard-fought five-setter in July.

Alcaraz finished the 2023 season with 65 victories, a remarkable increase over his total of 57 wins the year before, despite having a delayed start to the season and missing the Australian Open due to an injury. It had six championship victories, including a first-ever grass-court victory at the Queen’s Club and two Masters 1000 titles in Indian Wells and Madrid. A week before the US Open, Djokovic exacted revenge on him in the Cincinnati Masters, which he lost despite his run at the Wimbledon crown. This helped him regain the top place in the ATP rankings in September.

WTA’s Big Three
Following Serena Williams’ retirement from the game, there were many unanswered concerns about who would take over the massive hole in the WTA. Following Ash Barty’s retirement in 2022, Iga Swiatek assumed leadership and ruled the league all year. Nevertheless, Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, who together won five of the previous seven majors, proved to be formidable rivals for the Pole the next season. Furthermore, a number of industry professionals and authorities compared them to legendary figures as a result of their combined achievement in 2023. Among Swiatek’s six titles in 2023 was the defense of the French Open title and the first-ever season-ending Tour Finals trophy; Sabalenka, the only WTA player to reach at least the semifinals in every Slam, won her first major at the Australian Open before taking home the 1000 trophy in Madrid; and Rybakina, the only player to win 1000 trophies this year between the Italian Open and Indian Wells, as well as her second career Grand Slam final in Melbourne.

Indian tennis: Sumit Nagal finishes strong, Sania Mirza retires
Sania, an Indian tennis legend, ended her historic career on March 5th, after an exhibition match in Hyderabad’s Lal Bahadur Tennis Stadium. Almost two decades before, she had made her debut at the same location with a record WTA singles championship triumph. Sania, who is a former world no. 1 in women’s doubles and has won six Grand Slam championships in doubles as well as 43 major trophies, played her last major earlier in January at the Australian Open, where she had advanced to the final with Rohan Bopanna in mixed doubles.

Conversely, the unstoppable Bopanna has been setting record after record and winning more titles in 2023. When he and Matthew Ebden won the Indian Wells doubles, he became the oldest ATP Masters 1000 winner. Along with being the oldest player to reach a Grand Slam doubles final in the Open era, the 43-year-old defeated five-time major winners Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France to advance to the US Open final with an Australian partner. Additionally, in the ATP Finals last month, when the two advanced to the semifinals, he became the oldest player to win a match. Along with ending his Davis Cup career earlier in September with India’s victory over Morocco, Bopanna also added a gold medal haul from his mixed doubles performance at the Asian Games with Rutuja Bhosale to his impressive résumé.

Indian tennis also had some incredible singles achievements, most notably from Sumit Nagal, who miraculously recovered from injuries to place within the top 150 in 2023. Along the way, he won the Challenger trophy in Tampere and Rome, making history as the first Indian player to win two championships on European clay.