We saw several exciting storylines this year, from Carlos Alcaraz's rise to Nick Kyrgios's return to form.
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The 2022 ATP Tour was the Association of Tennis Professionals’ (ATP) global elite men’s professional tennis circuit for the 2022 tennis season. The Grand Slam tournaments, the ATP Finals, the ATP Tour Masters 1000, the ATP Cup, the ATP 500 series, and the ATP 250 series were all part of the 2022 ATP Tour calendar. The Davis Cup, Wimbledon, the Next Gen ATP Finals, and the Laver Cup were also on the 2022 calendar, but none of them awarded ranking points. In response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the ATP, WTA, ITF, and the four Grand Slam tournaments announced that players from Belarus and Russia would not be allowed to compete in tournaments under their names or flags.
We saw several exciting storylines this year, from Carlos Alcaraz’s rise to Nick Kyrgios’s return to tennis. Between all of that, we saw Novak Djokovic continue to dominate when he was able to play, and Rafa Nadal have a fantastic six months. Let us start with Carlos Alcaraz. He is now ranked first after winning the US Open and two masters events in Miami and Madrid. He also won in Barcelona and Rio, bringing his total tournament haul in 2022 to five. This would be enough to put him first, ahead of Rafa Nadal. He is also the youngest number one in the history of the ATP rankings.
Rafa Nadal’s season was arguably more successful than Alcaraz’s, as he won two Grand Slam titles, the Australian and French Opens. It would be his 14th French Open victory and his second Australian Open triumph. With 22 Grand Slam titles, he is now the all-time leader in the Grand Slam race. This leads us to our next topic of discussion: Novak Djokovic. Despite being barred from competing in the Australian and US Opens due to his vaccination status, Novak won Wimbledon and the ATP Finals. Those are two huge victories for someone who only played sporadically in 2022.
Here are the players who finished the season in the top five ranked 1 to 5 with an honorable mention.
Carlos Alcaraz was feeling burdened by his rapid success just a few months ago, as the tennis tours shifted to the North American hard court season at the beginning of August. He won big titles for fun, outperformed Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, and the Spaniard flew up the rankings with a smile on his face in the early stages of his rise. Alcaraz’s incredible, multifaceted abilities helped him win his first grand slam title and become the first teenage men’s No. 1. He served and volleyed 25 times during his 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (1), 6-3 final victory over Casper Ruud in the US Open final. On the big points, Alcaraz had the confidence to keep going, saving both set points in the crucial third set with nerveless volleys.
The ATP 250 tournament in Melbourne kicked off Rafael Nadal’s 2022 tennis season on January 3, 2022. It includes Nadal’s best ATP Tour season start, when he won his first 20 matches (and three titles, including the Australian Open). It was also his first career season, and he won the first two majors of the year, completing the Australian-French title double. As a result, Nadal broke a tie with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic for the first time in history, becoming the first man to win a 21st and 22nd Grand Slam singles title. He finished the year ranked second in the world.
Ruud advanced to his fourth Masters 1000 semifinal at the Miami Open by defeating Henri Laaksonen, Alexander Bublik, and Cameron Norrie, and then won his first match against world No. 4 Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinals. Ruud then advanced to his first Masters 1000 Final by defeating Francisco Cerndolo in the semifinals. Ruud reached the Italian Open semifinals by defeating 13th seed Denis Shapovalov before falling to world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. He then successfully defended his title at the Geneva Open, defeating Joao Sousa in the season’s longest championship match. Ruud reached the French Open final with a four-set victory over Cilic, becoming the first Norwegian man in history to do so.
He lost in straight sets to Rafael Nadal, but his performance propelled him to a new career-high singles ranking of world No. 6 on June 6, 2022, and world No. 5 a week later. He advanced one step further than the previous year when he reached the final of the 2022 ATP Finals, defeating Andrey Rublev and setting up a match with five-time champion Novak Djokovic.
Stefanos Tsitsipas won his second ATP Masters 1000 title after successfully defending his Monte-Carlo Masters title against Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in two sets. Tsitsipas won his first grass court title after receiving a last-minute wildcard at the Mallorca Open, defeating Roberto Bautista Agut in three tight sets after losing in Stuttgart and Halle. He lost to Djokovic again at the 2022 ATP Finals, his ninth consecutive loss to the five-time season finale champion, and Andrey Rublev, failing to advance past the round robin stage.
The Dubai Tennis Championships kicked off Novak Djokovic’s 2022 tennis season on February 21, 2022. He broke his previous record of 353 weeks as the ATP No. 1. He improved his record of 37 ATP Masters 1000 titles to 38, and the number of finals he reached increased from 54 to 56. 240 wins over top ten ranked players, breaking his previous record of 229 wins. He now has 31 grand slam first-round seedings, breaking his previous record of 28. He has now reached 32 Grand Slam finals, breaking his previous record of 31 (tied with Federer). Became the first player in Grand Slam history to win 80 or more singles matches. Became the first player in ATP Masters 1000 history to win 30 or more singles matches. With six ATP Finals titles, he tied Federer for the most.
In 2022, we can’t forget about the electrifying Nick Kyrgios. a recommitted Nick Kyrgios began the year by winning the Australian Open doubles championship. He then won big in Miami and Indian Wells, defeating players like Medvedev, Rublev, and Ruud. But Nick wasn’t done; he went on to dominate the grass-court season, culminating in a run to the Wimbledon finals. During the summer, he won the Washington Open before advancing to the US Open quarterfinals. Nick Kyrgios’s future looks bright in 2023.
2022 Australian Open: Rafa Nadal
2022 French Open: Rafa Nadal
2022 Wimbledon: Novak Djokovic
2022 US Open: Carlos Alcaraz
