By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday December 13, 2024

With the 2024 tennis season in the rearview mirror, this quiet Friday in December gives us a chance to run down ten statistical milestones that moved the needle in 2024.



Here goes…

Nole Strikes Gold

For many years the Olympic Gold medal had been the only big title missing from Novak Djokovic’s resume. But that all changed this summer in the city of lights.

With his run to the title on the Parisian clay this summer, 24-time major champion Djokovic became the only tennis player ever to win all four Grand Slams, Olympic gold, the ATP Finals AND all nine Masters 1000 events at least once in their career.

And, the Serbian juggernaut also became the only player to win an Olympic gold medal in singles without dropping a single set since tennis returned to the Olympics in 1988.

He may not have won a major in 2024, but Novak still found a way to be the life of the party.



Aryna Sabalenka’s Hard Court Supremacy

By winning all 14 Grand Slam matches she played on hard courts, Aryna Sabalenka asserted her domination at the top of the rankings in formidable fashion. She finished at the top of the WTA rankings for the first time, becoming the 16th player in history to finish a WTA season on top, but that wasn’t Sabalenka’s most impressive statistic.

Sabalenka’s top stat is her flawless play on the hard courts, of course. She became just the second woman in the last 27 years to win the Australian Open and US Open in the same season. Since Martina Hingis achieved the feat as a 16-year-old in 1997, only one other woman has pulled off the AO - USO double, and that was Angelique Kerber in 2016.

Even more impressive, perhaps, is the fact that Sabalenka won 28 of 29 sets played at the hard court Slams in 2024. Just wow.

Sinner Rises Above

Talk about hard court domination, Jannik Sinner also ran the table on the concrete in 2024. The 23-year-old Italian became the fourth man in history to achieve the feat sweep through the hard court majors, joining Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Mats Wilander on that special list.

But the most jaw-dropping statistical achievement by Sinner in 2024 is the fact that he became the first Italian to hold the No.1 ranking, and the first Italian man to win a major title since Adriano Pannata in 1976.

Overall, Sinner won eight titles in 2024, and he racked up almost $17 in prize money, and he was the only man to cross the $10 million threshold.

Iga’s Threepeat in Paris

This year in Paris, Iga Swiatek made history by becoming the first woman to win three consecutive Roland-Garros titles since Justine Henin in 2007. All hail the clay queen!

2024 was the year that the king of clay retired, as Rafael Nadal bid farewell to the sport at the age of 38. But the new queen of clay is very much in her prime. Swiatek improved to 35-2 lifetime at Roland-Garros with her title and stretched her current winning streak to 21.

Carlitos the KID

Did you know that only two players in history have won their first four Grand Slam finals in the Open Era. Roger Federer was the first to do it, claiming victory in seven Slam finals on the trot before he first took a loss in a Grand Slam final. Now Carlos Alcaraz is the second, and the only one to win his first four majors before turning 22.

Alcaraz, who will turn 22 on May 5, also became the youngest player to win the RG and Wimbledon titles back-to-back, and he equalled the Open Era record for most Grand Slam men’s singles titles before turning 22. He can break that record at the Australian Open in January.

Finally, Alcaraz became the youngest man ever to win Grand Slam titles on all three surfaces by doing what he did at Roland-Garros and Wimbledon this spring and summer. The previous record belonged to Rafael Nadal, who completed his surface set of Grand Slams at 22 at the 2009 Australian Open.



Dimitrov Completes the Set

It was also a special season for Grigor Dimitrov, who reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Roland-Garros in June, to complete the set of all four major quarterfinals. Dimitrov also won his first title since 2017 and returned to the Top 10 for the first time since 2018. He finished the season at No.10.

Zheng Makes Chinese History

It was a special year for Zheng Qinwen, and Chinese tennis. The 22-year-old reached her maiden major final at the Australian Open, then proved that herself yet again in the summer when she won Olympic singles gold in Paris, becoming the first Chinese player to ever achieve the feat.

Fritz Stands Tall

American tennis got its first men’s singles Grand Slam finalist since 2009, and first at the US Open since 2006, thanks to Southern California native Taylor Fritz. Fritz defeated Frances Tiafoe to reach the final in Flushing Meadows, and he capped off his best season to date by reaching the title match at the ATP Finals and finishing the year at No.4 in the world. He’s the first American to finish that high since James Blake in 2004.



Gauff’s Fast Finish

It was Coco’s time to shine down the stretch in 2024. The American didn’t come away with a Slam title this season, but she finished the season by blitzing the field at Beijing and the WTA Finals (with a semifinal at Wuhan in between). Gauff won 14 of her final 16 matches and became the youngest player to win the WTA Finals title since Maria Sharapova since 2004. She finishes the season ranked at a career-high No.2.

Osaka’s Return – and Rise

A stat that points forward to 2025 more than many: Naomi Osaka’s largely unheralded comeback season which saw her rise from No.831 in the rankings at the Australian Open to No.73 at the end of the season. Osaka also racked up five Top-20 wins and also had a match point against four-time Roland-Garros champion Iga Swiatek in the second round in Paris this year. She’s set the table nicely for what could be a banner 2025.