So Who Had The Better Year, Serena Williams Or Novak Djokovic?

Djokovic had the better year, per se. And that’s a big “per se.” However, Djokovic hasn’t been winning majors since 1999 and hasn’t been dominant for the past five years.

December 14th, 2015 at 2:39 pm

Joker will never win this award – he’s Serbian.

December 14th, 2015 at 2:58 pm

Sean nails it again!

December 14th, 2015 at 3:27 pm

I would say Novak as he made all four GS finals where as Serena fell short,im sure she will surpass Steffi next year,as she has very little in terms of competition….

December 14th, 2015 at 3:42 pm

@Delonjo,

I thought this award goes for the achievements in calendar year not a lifetime achievements?

Elina,

Sean is on a roll, may it has something to do with coming holiday season..

December 14th, 2015 at 3:58 pm

“Joker will never win this award – he’s Serbian.”

So Rafa didn’t get it because he is Spaniard and Roger because he is Swiss?

December 14th, 2015 at 4:02 pm

Serena is so “fit” that she can’t even run her own charity marathon (5km) but Venus did complete it, don’t you think it is a bit of disrespect, to people who joined your charity marathon, to catch a cab to drive you to finish line just after running 2km, it was last night on the news here:

“Tennis star Serena Williams has been spotted getting a cab to the finishing line of her own 5k run, which was raising funds for her charity foundation.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3358335/Serena-Williams-spotted-getting-TAXI-finishing-line-charity-run-foundation.html

December 14th, 2015 at 4:22 pm

Agree with your post Wogboy,it makes a bit of a mockery of the whole thing,i hope we are still cool BTW?….

December 14th, 2015 at 4:32 pm

Of course we are GG.

December 14th, 2015 at 4:39 pm

Thanks Wogboy ;)….

December 14th, 2015 at 4:43 pm

Just looking at 2015 metrics, Djokovic clearly had a better 2015. No way to argue against that.

But if you start looking at the intangibles, there’s a lot on Serena’s side. She accomplished the “Serena slam” by winning the Wimbledon, and by winning the French got her 3rd career slams.

In any case, there’s no point arguing that Novak should have won the SI Sportsperson of the Year award. It almost never goes to a non-American, no matter how deserving the nominee.

December 14th, 2015 at 4:47 pm

“I’m happy tennis finally got some recognition by the magazine and that horse didn’t win.”

I echo Sean’s sentiments!

December 14th, 2015 at 4:48 pm

Qualunque sia il motivo è scandaloso che Nole non abbia vinto come miglior giocatore dell’anno perché nessuno è stato migliore di lui. Ha giocato tutti i mesi dell’anno e ha vinto moltissimo. Più di tutti gli altri. Il miglior tennista è NOVAK DJOKOVIC!!!

December 14th, 2015 at 6:10 pm

This is front page of today’s The Daily Telegraph,
“GRAND SHAM”
is the title, I don’t remember such a big letters being used since Monica Lewinsky thing:

http://www.pressreader.com/australia/the-daily-telegraph-sydney/20151215/281479275361185/TextView

December 14th, 2015 at 8:01 pm

^^^^When you open the link slide to your left for the front page.

December 14th, 2015 at 8:02 pm

now these are some awards i can get behind: from the tennis channel:

man of the year – novak djokovic
woman of the year – serena williams

men’s coach of the year – boris becker
women’s coach of the year – patrick mouratoglou

men’s player of the year- andy murray
women’s players of the year – martina hingis

sportsman of the year – novak djokovic
sportswoman of the year – flavia penneta

men’s match of the year – novak djokovic vs roger federer us open final

women’s match of the year – serena williams vs maria sharapova ausralian open

rationale here:

http://tennischannel.com/the-2015-flink-awards/

December 14th, 2015 at 10:24 pm

Thanks for the link jane :)
Brilliant write up for Andy, concluding with: “Andy Murray, men’s player of the year 2015, he wears that label well.”
Sure does. More :)

December 15th, 2015 at 1:51 am

you’re welcome margot. i thought flink had super nice words for andy’s dc run, lovely things on pennetta and hingis, and some good thoughts on novak/serena too.

December 15th, 2015 at 1:57 am

Poor Yolita is gutted joker didn’t win the SI Award! 🤑

December 15th, 2015 at 7:59 am

Giles, they do not give the award to foreigners. I still say they should give Serena the swimsuit edition.

December 15th, 2015 at 11:21 am

django. All said and done Serena ain’t no model.

December 15th, 2015 at 11:26 am

But the swimsuit edition should feature a female athlete instead of a random model. After all it is called “sports illustrated” not vogue.

December 15th, 2015 at 11:36 am

SI is an American magazine. So there is no way they are going to not give it to her. No disrespect to Serena’s CAREER,I am a fan of hers. But Djokovic was most dominant athlete in the world in 2015. And the so called SI award is for 2015, not a career.

December 15th, 2015 at 1:18 pm

Giles, what gave you the idea that I am gutted? Lol

Do you think I thought, even for a minute, that the SI award would go to a non-American? Do you think I thought, even for a minute, that a panel would give Novak an award that Roger has never won? You must thing I’m 5 years old.

Thanks for thinking so much about me, anyway, :D

For what it’s worth, I am very happy that Serena won the award, as I said on Twitter. Long overdue, given her accomplishments.

To jump from from there to the conclusion that her season was better than Novak’s is ridiculous, read the Jared Pine piece.

I don’t see why SI bothers to nominate non-Americans, but if they do, they shouldn’t get a hater to make their case, which is what happened to Novak. The woman who supposedly made his case couldn’t hide the fact that even writing his name offended her pen… Hilarious stuff…

Also for what it’s worth, and this may give you an inkling to my personality, part of me is hoping that Novak doesn’t get any awards this year, precisely the year when he posts the best male tennis season posted in almost half a century. It would be surrealistic, :D

December 15th, 2015 at 3:08 pm

I think we should all be happy a tennis player won for the first time in over 20 years. Considering the favorite was a horse, and Steph Curry is a human cheat code, this is a huge deal.

December 15th, 2015 at 3:15 pm

Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated joined the No Challenges Remaining podcast yesterday to discuss why Serena was chosen as the winner. http://nochallengesremaining.podbean.com/

Also, I agree with Ben – happy that a tennis player won.

December 15th, 2015 at 3:37 pm

wertheim was the one who made her case in the first place… so there’s no surprises there.

December 15th, 2015 at 3:46 pm

He even wrote a book about the Williams sister.

Nice example of intellectual honesty.

December 15th, 2015 at 3:53 pm

… sisters… It was about Venus.

December 15th, 2015 at 3:56 pm

@Jane – no surprises, but he is a high up for SI and shares some insight.

He made a compelling case for Serena (contrasted to the case for Djokovic, which gave info on his stellar 2015 but didn’t seem passionate at all). It was interesting to hear him say he wishes he had made a stronger case for Federer in 2006 (when Dwayne Wade won) and how that affected how he made the case for Serena..

December 15th, 2015 at 3:58 pm

@Mat4 – I didn’t read “Venus Envy” but I thought it was about all of the women (Hingis, Kournikova, Davenport, etc.) during that year on tour. I always thought he just used that title because he thought it was witty and would catch attention.

December 15th, 2015 at 4:01 pm

rz, thanks, and yep, again not surprising: wertheim is a self-admitted fed fan and thus not too fond of novak, esp in the past 2 years. ;)

December 15th, 2015 at 4:10 pm

@Jane – but he’s definitely given Novak his due in his mailbag. I think if Serena wasn’t in the running for the award, he would have backed Novak and made a better case than the person who did the write-up. (Not that it would have mattered, Novak was never going to win it).

December 15th, 2015 at 4:13 pm

@RZ:

Yes, other players are mentioned, although not as much as the Williams sisters (the surname “Williams” occurs 200 times on 230 pages). Here’s an example:

“Serena hates Martina, and Martina hates Venus, and Venus hates Lindsay, and everybody hates Kournikova.” p. 150

December 15th, 2015 at 4:15 pm

“..and everybody hates Kournikova.”

How wrong one can be?!

December 15th, 2015 at 4:58 pm

“..and everybody hates Kournikova.”

How wrong one can be!

December 15th, 2015 at 5:01 pm

@WB:

Today, he would have written “… and everybody hates Sharapova”…

How wrong one can be!

December 15th, 2015 at 5:15 pm

mat4,
But you are not wrong!

December 15th, 2015 at 5:20 pm

@Mat4 and WB – LOL. There was the recent “Sharapova and Friends” exhibition in L.A. but I heard plenty of people remark about it “I thought Sharapova had no friends.” From the pics I saw, the stands were half empty. Not so many friends after all.

December 15th, 2015 at 5:27 pm

When it comes to Kournikova,Pam Shcriver once said she threatened to wear out the mirrors in the dressing rooms as she spend that much time posing and admiring herself,she once said supposedly im like a menu in an expensive restaurant beautiful you can look but you cant afford me, she was gorgeous but if ever there was a player so full of herself and so unbelievably irritating it was her….

December 15th, 2015 at 5:37 pm

RZ:

Sharapova doesn’t need friends. She has money and men. And sweets.

December 15th, 2015 at 5:37 pm

Sharapova was on Chelsea lately,and said i have a reputation for been a bit of a b*tch as im not in this to make friends,i dont give the other girls high fives in the showers i try to get out of there as soon as possible as its not my thing,or words to that effect anyway….

December 15th, 2015 at 5:44 pm

Mat4 imagine when shes older,and has had 2/3 kids,and if suffering with middle age spread,and losing her looks what then?….

December 15th, 2015 at 5:47 pm

SI probably shouldn’t even nominate foreigners if the conventional protocol is to only award Sportsman of the Year to Americans only.

Guess you could say the SI Sportsman of the Year is as rigged as the Stefan Edberg Award is.

Fortunately, SI does not make the Swimsuit Issue models show US citizenship, with no paid gig at the beach for any ‘furroner’ bikini’d sweeties. We’d all be the poorer for that!

It isn’t the 1st time a tennis player has gotten the award in over 20 years (Ashe 1992) , it is almost 40 years (Evert 1976) since a tennis athlete was considered the best athlete of the year. The award for Ashe, who retired back in 1980, was political. The decision of the naming of Arthur Ashe Stadium was also a political act, not because he was even close to being the best or most influential American tennis athlete of the last 50 or so years.

December 15th, 2015 at 5:48 pm

@Mat4 – as Wog Boy would say, “you are not wrong.”

December 15th, 2015 at 5:50 pm

Since both of them are adopted by America, may something American rubbed off on them..

December 15th, 2015 at 5:52 pm

RZ,

I’ll buy you a drink, pick time and place:)

December 15th, 2015 at 5:54 pm

RZ:

:-)

A song for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjntknL7Ykg

December 15th, 2015 at 5:55 pm

GG:

What’s a b*tch?

A song for you too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oJ0ovkS864

Ronsard wrote:

Quand vous serez bien vieille, au soir, à la chandelle,
Assise auprès du feu, dévidant et filant,
Direz, chantant mes vers, en vous émerveillant :
Ronsard me célébrait du temps que j’étais belle.

When you are very old, by the hearth’s glare,
At candle-time, spinning and winding thread,
You ‘ll sing my lines, and say, astonished :
Ronsard made these for me, when I was fair.

December 15th, 2015 at 6:01 pm

Looks like I have more friends than Kournikova or Sharapova. :-)
@Mat4 – thanks for the song.
@Wog Boy – cheers!

December 15th, 2015 at 6:10 pm

mat4,

Where is the song for me?

December 15th, 2015 at 6:11 pm

@WB:

A song for you, of course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vRYwaJC5FY

It’s of another kind, but I am sure your Slavic soul will appreciate it.

December 15th, 2015 at 6:25 pm

And this one too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFocQC5hWyI

December 15th, 2015 at 6:29 pm

you guys are awesome! this thread has become quite entertaining. :D

December 15th, 2015 at 6:31 pm

@jane:

That’s because we are men. To quote Dick Masterson, you know: “Space, the final men’s frontier” :-)

But now, some poetry and a song for you, not about tennis, of course, I’m sick of arguing:

Regrets on which hell is founded
Might a sky of oblivion open to my wishes
For her kiss all worldly kings
Would die poor famous ones
For her they would have sold their shadow

I hibernated in my past
Let the Easter sun return
To warm a heart more frozen
Than the forty of Sebastus
Less than my martyrized life

My beautiful ship O my memory
Have we sailed far enough
In a watersea vile to drink
Have we rambled go and fro enough
From the fair dawn to the melancholy dusk

Milky Way O light sisters
Of Canaan the white streams
And of Women in love’ white bodies
Died swimmers shall we awkwardly follow
Your course to further nebulæ

And this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw9ANFOuMBU

Happy birthday, jane!

December 15th, 2015 at 6:52 pm

Should I also make a gift for Sean Randall?

December 15th, 2015 at 6:58 pm

It looks like Sean doesn’t have too many friends here;)

mat4, you know that you have to pay music in Serbia in restaurants if you want them to play your songs, it is not set price, everything depends how drunk one is, but I’ll give you this one for free:

http://youtu.be/ZMEIuT4iF8Q

December 15th, 2015 at 7:57 pm

Twenty years ago, I met a teacher of French from Smederevo. I few times a year, I still dream about her.

We used to listen to this song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTLR4rEecm4

Thanks, WB.

December 15th, 2015 at 8:04 pm

You and the teacher had a good ear and heart for the good music, they are not a “Legende” by the name only, they are real legends when it comes to this kind of music. All what you need is nice lady sitting next to you, “Rubinovo Rose” and “Sifon sode”…and something for nibbling while you are enjoying the music in the company of your lady.

December 15th, 2015 at 8:18 pm

Agree with Jane. Flinck says some wonderfully insightful things about Flavia Penneta, Hingis, and Andy Murray.
For all the attention Fed got facing Nole in 2 Majors and being the only one to beat him twice, let alone the 3 actual times – it certainly should not be forgotten that Andy Murray, not Fed, finished #2.

And over in the realm of Team Djokovic, if there is one player Marian, Boris, and Nole should focus on for the 1st half of the year, it is not Fed, the slim odds that Stan can stay consistent a whole Slam or deep into the Olympics that looms as the biggest challenge. It is Andy Murray. While Novak has pummeled Murray 10-1 since Wimbledon 2013 – Andy gave him fits in Australia and took a huge battle to Novak in the 5-setter they played in the French Open semis.

Andy is for sure the Sportsman of the Year for GBR. And Flink properly acknowledges that this Davis Cup was Andy accepting the challenge to carry the team and doing so.
Flavia, for the class she brought to the sport, so deserved to go out on the high note she did. And her beau Fabio played the match of his life at the same USO to down Nadal.
Hingis? A true phoenix came to tennis in 2015. WHAT SHE Accomplished with her Indian team mates Sania and Leander is one of the best storylines of 2015.

Rafa should not be the forgotten one, BTW. He confronted his bad year with total class. And is ready once again to take on the entire Tour in 2016 and beat everyone more often than not save Djokovic.

The Flink article is brilliant. I echo Jane and Margot – well worth a read.

December 15th, 2015 at 8:51 pm

wow mat4, i am utterly flattered… poetry AND a song? thank-you! *blushes* [never enough apollinaire…]

but just so you know my b.day is in the summer. :)

————

chrisford1, glad you liked it. steve flink is the bomb.

December 15th, 2015 at 9:50 pm

For all Wog Boy’s stuff on good music, this is NOT Good Music!!!

Andy, Nole, Tomic, Isner, Bryan Bros and etc., etc.. TRY to sing Rudolf . Federer, Stan, and Kei have non-singing parts, mercifully.

https://youtu.be/N9xlHnSv2zM

All too short.
Funny outfits, but you only see a flash or two of some of the guys. Hope there is more. Andy deadpanning well, Nole seeming to get into it more than most…

December 15th, 2015 at 9:52 pm

Thank You Jane,

Flink is right person to believe in his views.The article is more then brilliant.I am happy that there are people like him.

Once more Jane,glad that You are Nole’s fan.

December 15th, 2015 at 10:04 pm

“but just so you know my b.day is in the summer. :)”

Typical French, he is going to wish you happy birthday every day until he gets it right or finds out when is it;)

December 15th, 2015 at 10:11 pm

Thanks CF1, not quite the legends, but good effort:)

December 15th, 2015 at 10:15 pm

The birds have flown in and settled right here on the TX forum……as per my comment :)

December 15th, 2015 at 11:40 pm

You all need to get a room!!! :)

December 15th, 2015 at 11:42 pm

wog boy, you’re really having a go at the frenchies today. :)

bojana, awesome! thanks and so glad you liked the link too. steve flink also does some video commentary with ubaldo scanagatta sometimes which is very entertaining and worth a look! there’s a good interview between vajda and scanagatta on youtube, too. cheers.

okie, the birds? you must mean you, gypsy, and j-kath surely? ;)

December 15th, 2015 at 11:49 pm

Don’t be jealous Okie. I’m sure Mat4 will send you a song if you ask. As for Wog Boy and myself, it’s just a drink. :-)

December 15th, 2015 at 11:50 pm

@RZ…..I will take a pass on the song….if you can’t scoot a boot to the music, then furgit it!!
I would rather have the drink, and I don’t even par take of any type of “spirits”…….LOL The closeness between all of the Novak fans is awesome! Am I jealous??? Maybe a teeny weeny bit…. :) lol

December 16th, 2015 at 12:02 am

@Okie – to think, all of this love started by us talking about Kournikova and Sharapova not having any friends. :-)

December 16th, 2015 at 12:04 am

@Jane 11:49

Yes, I meant the Rafa fans…..all two of us! Oh, I forgot Giles….that is three….. lol

December 16th, 2015 at 12:06 am

@RZ….Thanks for reminding me what started the discussion, I had forgotten, but I am enjoying it.

Jane, isn’t J Kath an Andy fan? He’s my second fav.

December 16th, 2015 at 12:10 am

@Okie:

Don’t be surprised. We exchanged a lot of poetry here a few years ago. jane teaches literature, and I am a linguist by (de)formation.

But it really never wasn’t poetry AND a song. Just poetry. Or just a song.

Since you’re a Rafan, you can’t have poetry, but here’s a song for you too (and it’s not “The eye of the tiger”):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei5pWAimWqE

And don’t blush.

December 16th, 2015 at 1:20 am

@Mat4

I had never heard of Carla Bruni. Wow, she has a beautiful voice! I am going to you tube some more of her songs. I loved that one I just heard. She has a sultry voice. What nationality is she? Thanks for introducing me to her….very nice music…..I’m off to you tube!!

December 16th, 2015 at 2:07 am

Mat4 many thanks for the song,the I was missing,as i didnt want to get put in moderation,anyway love Robert Plant,i actually loved all the music links you and Wogboy put up thanks again guys ;)….

December 16th, 2015 at 4:24 am

Yolita. Yeah, yeah, sour grapes? :)

December 16th, 2015 at 12:22 pm