Federer, Sharapova,
Serena, Kyrgios to be
back and better in 2017
If 2016 was a season of memorable firsts in tennis, call 2017 the year of the comeback. Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams and Nick Kyrgios — and there are more — are among those returning to the circuit after being sidelined for differing reasons.
If he stays healthy — and that’s a big ‘if,’ considering he was hit by knee and back injuries last year while also suffering from illness — the 17-time grand slam winner figures to re-enter the top 10 despite his advanced tennis age of 35. He was, don’t forget, ranked third in July just before deciding to skip the rest of 2016 to rehabilitate his knee.
Federer was due to make a high-profile comeback earlier this month in the exhibition IPTL but didn’t play due to, as the struggling Asian-based league put it, the “current economic climate in India and uncertainty of spending money.”
He’ll take to the court in the first week of January at the Hopman Cup, a team event in Perth.
Later, if Federer does end his four-year title drought at majors, he would become the second oldest man to win a grand slam in the Open Era, behind Ken Rosewall.
Wimbledon remains the most likely venue, given it has been Federer’s most successful major with seven titles.
Sharapova is scheduled to return at the end of April, at which time the five-time grand slam winner — and for most of the last decade the richest female athlete in the world — would have served her 15-month suspension for testing positive for meldonium.
The head of the WTA, Steve Simon, says he will welcome her back, but how will the fans and her fellow players respond?
The locker room may be icier.
WTA Finals winner Dominika Cibulkova, shortly after Sharapova admitted to the failed drug test, labeled her “unlikeable, arrogant, conceited and cold.”
Doubles grand slam winner Kristina Mladenovic claimed that Sharapova “wasn’t really nice nor polite.” Sharapova’s Fed Cup teammates Elena Vesnina and Svetlana Kuznetsova have defended her, though.
Could Sharapova win a grand slam? Don’t count her out, especially if Williams isn’t in her way. Sharapova’s motivation is bound to be soaring.
What will Kyrgios do next?
It’s extremely rare for the ATP to sanction one of its own players but the men’s tour has done it two seasons in a row to Nick Kyrgios. Hence the “bad boy” tag.
After Kyrgios directed a lewd on-court sledge at Stan Wawrinka and his girlfriend in 2015, the ATP fined him $10,000 and handed him a suspended ban; then this October he was suspended for eight weeks — through the middle of January — and fined more than $40,000 for not trying in a match at the Shanghai Masters.
Currently without a coach, the likes of eight-time grand slam champion Jimmy Connors and Kyrgios’ fellow Aussie, former Wimbledon finalist Mark Philippoussis, have offered to work with the 21-year-old, but just how much motivation Kyrgios has to make changes remains to be seen.
He told the New York Times in August that he planned to retire by 27 and has often claimed he likes basketball much more than tennis.
Serena’s quest for No. 23
Given her age — 35 like Federer — that may be optimistic, but odds are that the American will edge ahead of Graf, who also holds 22 majors to share the Open Era record: Williams has won a major in each of the past five seasons.
