The Best and Worst of 2002

Best Classic Matches

Jennifer Capriati def. Martina Hingis 46 76 62; Australian Final
This was a battle. The match really didn't start until Capriati was down 46 04. The second set was one of the best sets of tennis. Great match.

Venus Williams def. Justine Henin 26 75 76; Amelia Island Final
Another classic comeback; Venus was down 26 04; points for 05. Great clay court tennis. This had to have been one of the best clay court matches of the year.

Serena Williams def. Jennifer Capriati 62 36 75; Italian Open Semi
Down 4-1 in the 3rd, things looked bad for Serena. But the soon-to-be Roland Garros champ, showed why she is the best clay courter and fought back. There were lots of errors, but I think it was the best Serena/Jen match this year.

Venus Williams def. Kim Clijsters 63 57 64; Acura Quarter
Just an unbelievable match of power and speed from both players. Venus cranked a 122 mph serve on match point! I remember Tracy Austin saying that Kim would have beaten anyone else on that day, except Venus and Serena.

Chanda Rubin def. Lindsay Davenport 57 76 63; LA Final
I think it was the best final of 2002. High quality. High Drama; Davenport up 75 65, and couldn't close it out. Great match.

Jennifer Capriati def. Monica Seles 46 63 76; Miami Semis
These two seem to bring out the best in each other. Jennie battle back from a set, and match points.

Best One-Sided Matches
Serena Williams def. Amelie Mauresmo 62 61; Wimbledon Semis
I think it was the best match Serena played all year--and that's saying a lot considering the year she's had. She was just unbeatable. Every part of her game worked.

Serena Williams def. Martina Hingis 64 60; Miami Quarters
Another unbelievable showing from Princess. Hingis just looked at Mama Melaine.

Venus Williams def. Chanda Rubin 63 63; Roland Garros 4th
It wasn't a blow away, but it wasn't a battle. It was very good tennis; Venus won more of the big points. Great early round match at Roland Garros.

Venus Williams def. Lindsay Davenport 62 61; Acura Semis
Venus was on fire. Her return and serve were the best in 2002 that day. She was hitting clean winners off Davenport's FIRST serve. Amazing match for Venus.

Daniela Hantuchova def. Martina Hingis 63 64; Indian Wells Final
I haven't seen the entire match, but a flawless performance from Dani.

Worst Matches; classics/one-sided
Serema Williams def. Venus Williams 62 62; Miami Semis
Not a very good performance by Venus. Not much effort went into that match.

Serena Williams def. Venus Williams 75 63; Roland Garros Final
Has Venus ever served worse? Unforced Error fest.

Iva Majoli def. Patty Schnyder 76 64; Family Circle Final
Break fest, in what was a great week for Schnyder. Did she chock in the final? or just run out of gas?

Chanda Rubin def. Jelena Dokic 60 62; LA Semis
I saw part of this on TV. Dokic didn't show. She didn't even try to win.

Jelena Dokic def. Jennifer Capriati 26 62 64; Acura Quarter
Can anyone hold serve? How many doubles were there? The battle of the worse servers, failed.

Angie Widjaja def. Anna Kournikova 63 60; US Open 1st
Widjaja hit ONE winner to win the match. Anna was booed, and rightfully so.

Matches I Wish I Had Saw
Daniela Hantuchova def. Elena Dementieva 36 76 76; Swisscom 3rd
Hantuchova was down 63 53; saved match points. A great battle. Really, the entire week of the Swisscom could be in this category.

Justine Henin def. Serena Williams 62 16 76; German Open Finals
My coverage was so bad, I wish I could see the entire match. From what I've heard, this was the best match on clay this year.

Serena Williams def. Justine Henin 76 64; Italian Open Finals
Again, poor coverage. Another battle against the hottest two clay courters.

Chanda Rubin def. Serena Williams 62 46 75; LA Quarters
I'd like to see the best match of Chanda's life.

Anna Kournikova def. Anna Smashnova 16 63 64; Acura Quarters
This sounded like a classic. Anna K was down a set and a break and battled.

Matches I'm Glad I Didn't See
Serena Williams def. Venus Williams 76 63 Wimbledon Finals
Serena Williams def. Venus Williams 64 63 US Open Finals
After poor matches in Miami and Paris, I'm glad I didn't see these two matches. I've heard mixed reviews on them, so I'll stay on the fence, and not watch.

Kim Clijsters "def" Venus Williams 5-0 retire; Champs semis
I don't think I could bare to see Vee cry

Ai Sugiyama def. Jennifer Capriati 63 63; LA Quarters
Conchita Martinez def. Jennifer Capriati 60 63 Swisscom
Alexandra Stevenson def. Jennifer Capriati 61 61 Linz
I'm not a huge Jen fan, but I don't like it when she loses so poorly.

Best Outfits
Daniela Hantuchova
http://tournament.ausopen.org/images/pics/large/bv02-25-014.jpg
http://www.usopen.org/images/pics/large/b_0902_007.jpg
Serena Williams
http://www.rolandgarros.org/images/pics/large/bv_09_004.jpg
Jennifer Capriati
http://www.rolandgarros.org/images/pics/large/bv_15_017.jpg
http://www.usopen.org/images/pics/large/b_0829_501.jpg
Martina Hingis
http://www.usopen.org/images/pics/large/b_0827_014.jpg
Venus Williams
http://championships.wimbledon.org/images/pics/large/bv115_02.jpg

Worst Outfits!
Serena Williams
http://www.usopen.org/images/pics/large/b_0906_018.jpg
Martina Hingis
http://tournament.ausopen.org/images/pics/large/bv02-22-008.jpg
Jennifer Capriati
http://tournament.ausopen.org/images/pics/large/bv02-21-030.jpg
[Teletubbie!]

Best Up and Comers!
Fernandez
Bovina

Break Out Years
Amelie Mauresmo
Daniela Hantuchova

Whatever Happened To...
The "Winning" Jennifer Capriati
Martina Hingis


***

Post Your Thoughts, your lists here too!

You glad that you didn't saw Wimbledon and USO finals? Poor you...

Originally posted by Hardiansf
You glad that you didn't saw Wimbledon and USO finals? Poor you...

Matter of opinion; Some people I talk with have said they were terrible matches; others have said they were good. since I was very disappointed in Miami and Paris [especially Venus' effort, or lack there of], I decided not to watch. :wavey:

I agree with most of your opinion, tennisIlove09 :)

I don't like Wimbledon Final as well, but US Open (I think, it's a good match).... Of course, the finals of grand slams or any other tournaments are not the guarantee that it'll be a good match :)

I agree with him/her opinion too. His/her comments was great.
But I do really love Williams' battles in their 2 last matches, especially in USO. What the power tennis (women) game..!

I thought the French Open 2nd Rnd of Jelena Vs Conchita was a great match ... Conchi was like 2 points from the match in the tiebreak 2nd set and both players played amazing, they both wanted to win, and the court was full of spectators, true the other two sets were very one sided, Jelena losing the first easily and winning the third easily but the second was amazing!!

2 Totally unbiased ;) "list toppers" for me:

Seles d. Venus - AO QF. First victory over her. Only person other than Serena to take Venus out in a Slam this year.

Seles d. Davenport @ Championships - for the 1st time in 5 years saving 7 match points (4 in a row a tiebreak)- that was a thriller.

Other than leaving those off this list, I think you did a pretty nice summary.

yoshie, I agree, the Conchita/Jelena match was full of drama.

Not really Dokic's best performance (I think she made 96 unforced errors) but still, great fight.

It was a little sad watching Conchita in the third set since you could see how much she was struggling to win a game.

Dokic def. Martinez.
3-6 7-6 6-2

The Wimbeldon Final was the cleanest tennis that the Willis ever played. I betcha if Venus had've won you wouldve watched it(smile) Venus downfall was her 6 double faults. I wish there wouldve been a third set. The French Open Final was IMO no more worse than The Pierce-Martinez RG final in 2000. Way too many errors in the US Open final.

It's odd I found the USOPEN final more intense than Wimbly, but then again I figured out who won the final in Wimbledon -(I had taped the final but I checked the score at a friends place and saw Serena had won the first set by the time I got home, 40 mins later the tennis coverage was over)

Hingis defeated Seles 4-6,6-1,6-4 at the Australian Open. This was a great match. Almost 80 winners between them.

Seles defeated Clijsters 4-6,6-3,6-3 in Miami. I heard this was a great match too.

The best match of the year by far was Venus-Monica at the Aus open i have just been watching it again its such high quality!

Best News of 2002: Corina Morariu returns to pro tennis with her cancer in remission :):):):):)

Nothing beats that! :hearts:

I also wanted to add:

Best One-Sided Matches:

Serena def. Pierce 61 61 French Open
Serena def. Hantuchova 62 62 US Open


Smartest Match:
Venus def. Lucic 60 60 US Open
Each had about 10 winners; but Venus had about 10 errors, to Lucic's 40! Venus just did what she had to: get the ball back into play. Very smart tennis by Venus.

Hi everyone,

Best Matches of 2002

Jennifer Capriati def Martina Hingis 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 in the Aus Open Final. Amazing tennis from both players.

Hingis def Seles 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in Aus Open Semi-finals. Great match! It was so nice to see two great Champions really fight it out.

Seles def Venus in Aus Open Quarter-Finals. Awesome match! Monica played great! Such high quality tennis!

Serena Williams def Jennifer Capriati in the Semis of the year ending Championships, such an awesome match!

Kim Clijsters def Serena Williams in the year ending Championships final. Fantastic match from Kim, she really played great! Deserved it so much!

Seren Williams def Corina Morariu in 1st round of US Open.
I don't care if Corina lost, she played a really great match, taking more games off of Serena than anyone until the Semis. That match was one of the greatest of the year, just because Corina stepped onto the court.


Worst Matches of 2002

Serena Williams defeats Venus Williams at Wimbledon.

Monica Seles defeats Martina Hingis at the US Open.

Best Outfits

Daniela Hantuchova
http://usopen.org/news/photos/imagepages/db9723bf9f1fc31c00256c2700810d12.html

Anna Kournikova and Martina Hingis
http://usopen.org/news/photos/imagepages/7f401f158ee676e400256c29007cc06a.html

Jennifer Capriati
http://usopen.org/news/photos/imagepages/724a37c3421a9a8400256c2900084e40.html
http://usopen.org/news/photos/imagepages/8829b849e5dc0a5700256c240077a8c4.html

Corina Morariu
http://usopen.org/news/photos/imagepages/0ea987fd348f581600256c220005ccf4.html


Worst Outfits

Serena Williams
http://usopen.org/news/photos/imagepages/5ac091d98ed62d9300256c2c007eb7a0.html


Comeback Players
Corina Morariu
Lindsay Davenport

Breakthrough Year
Daniela Hantuchova
Amelie Mauresmo

Up and Coming
Elena Bovina
Maria Sharapova

Originally posted by AgassiGirl16
Worst Matches of 2002

Serena Williams defeats Venus Williams at Wimbledon.



How can you say that?? That was pretty good match. The French Open final I think was the worst match this year.

IMO the Wimbledon final was the best of the 3 Williams-finals. The match made clear with these two were in the final. Amazingly fast tennis with surprisingly few errors.
Th Hamburg final (Kim def. Venus 1-6 6-3 6-4) was also a classic. From a very bad start, Kim got better and better and really outplayed Venus. Great match and recommended to see.
For best one-sided matches I would add Serena def. Bedanova 4th round US Open. I think Serena had 30 winners and about 5 errors and was absolutely flawless.

Most one-sided Match

Jennifer Capriati def. Mary Pierce 6-0 6-0 ROME

tennisIlove,
Great thread!!!!!

Venus Williams def. Justine Henin 26 75 76; Amelia Island Final
Another classic comeback; Venus was down 26 04; points for 05. Great clay court tennis. This had to have been one of the best clay court matches of the year.

It looked like one of best ever! Amazing rallies! They both played flawless! If only Justine can be as consistent as she was in this match!:o

Hi everyone,
Whoops, sorry about that...I didn't even see Wimbledon, it was a typo, French Open was the only Williams final that I saw, that's what I meant.

Mary Kate