2011 in tennis explained

This page covers all the important events in the sport of tennis in 2011. Primarily, it provides the results of notable tournaments throughout the year on both the ATP and WTA Tours, the Davis Cup, and the Fed Cup.

ITF

Grand Slam events

width=20%	Championship !	width=20%	Category !	width=20%	Champion(s) !	width=20%	Finalist(s) !	width=20%	Score in the final
Australian Open (January 17 – January 30)	Men's singles	Novak Djokovic		6–4, 6–2, 6–3
	Women's singles	Kim Clijsters	Li Na	3–6, 6–3, 6–3
	Men's doubles	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	Mahesh Bhupathi Leander Paes	6–3, 6–4
	Women's doubles	Gisela Dulko Flavia Pennetta	Victoria Azarenka Maria Kirilenko	2–6, 7–5, 6–1
	Mixed doubles	Katarina Srebotnik Daniel Nestor		6–3, 3–6, [10–7]

width=20%	Championship !	width=20%	Category !	width=20%	Champion(s) !	width=20%	Finalist(s) !	width=20%	Score in the final
French Open (May 23 – June 5)	Men's singles	Rafael Nadal		7–5, 7–6(3), 5–7, 6–1
	Women's singles	Li Na		6–4, 7–6(0)
	Men's doubles	Max Mirnyi Daniel Nestor		7–6(3), 3–6, 6–4
	Women's doubles	Andrea Hlaváčková Lucie Hradecká	Sania Mirza Elena Vesnina	6–4, 6–3
	Mixed doubles	Casey Dellacqua Scott Lipsky		7–6(6), 4–6, [10–7]

width=20%	Championship !	width=20%	Category !	width=20%	Champion(s) !	width=20%	Finalist(s) !	width=20%	Score in the final
Wimbledon Championships (June 20 – July 3)	Men's singles	Novak Djokovic	Rafael Nadal	6–4, 6–1, 1–6, 6–3
	Women's singles	Petra Kvitová		6–3, 6–4
	Men's doubles	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	Robert Lindstedt Horia Tecău	6–3, 6–4, 7–6(2)
	Women's doubles	Květa Peschke Katarina Srebotnik		6–3, 6–1
	Mixed doubles	Iveta Benešová Jürgen Melzer	Elena Vesnina Mahesh Bhupathi	6–3, 6–2

width=20%	Championship !	width=20%	Category !	width=20%	Champion(s) !	width=20%	Finalist(s) !	width=20%	Score in the final
US Open (August 29 – September 11)	Men's singles	Novak Djokovic		6–2, 6–4, 6–7(3), 6–1
	Women's singles	Samantha Stosur		6–2, 6–3
	Men's doubles	Jürgen Melzer Philipp Petzschner		6–2, 6–2
	Women's doubles	Liezel Huber Lisa Raymond		4–6, 7–6(5), 7–6(3)
	Mixed doubles	Melanie Oudin Jack Sock		7–6(4), 4–6, [10–8]

Just 6 male players reached at least the third round of all four grand slams: Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer. Of this group, all but Tsonga would reach the fourth round of all four majors, with Federer and Nadal reaching all four quarterfinals and Djokovic and Murray reaching all four semifinals.
Just 9 female players reached at least the third round of all four grand slams: Caroline Wozniacki, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Francesca Schiavone, Andrea Petkovic, Julia Görges, Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka, Peng Shuai, and Vera Zvonareva. No player would reach at least the fourth round of all four majors.
This was the first year since 2002 in which Roger Federer did not win a grand slam.

Davis Cup

World Group Draw

S-Seeded
U-Unseeded
* Choice of ground

Fed Cup

World Group Draw

S-Seeded
U-Unseeded
* Choice of ground

Important Events

January

John Isner and Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States teamed up to defeat Belgium's Ruben Bemelmans and Justine Henin in the Hopman Cup final.
Venus Williams retired for the first time in 251 Grand Slam matches in her third round match against Andrea Petković at the Australian Open due to a pelvic injury she sustained in the previous round.
Francesca Schiavone defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova 6–4, 1–6, 16–14 in four hours and forty-four minutes in the fourth round of the Australian Open, making it the longest played Grand Slam women's singles tennis match in the Open Era.
Rafael Nadal's bid to become the first man to hold all four Grand Slams since Rod Laver in 1969 was denied by David Ferrer in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.
Roger Federer followed up his win in Qatar by reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open, accumulating an Open Era record of 59 matches won at the year's first major.
Justine Henin announced her second retirement from the sport in three years due to a lingering elbow injury sustained at the 2010 Wimbledon Championships.
Kim Clijsters won her third Grand Slam title since coming out of retirement in 2009 by defeating Li Na in the Australian Open final. Na was the first Chinese woman to reach a Grand Slam final.
Novak Djokovic defeated Andy Murray in straight sets to win his second Australian Open title. Murray became the first man to lose seven consecutive sets in Grand Slam final appearances, accumulating nine in total.
On January 31, for the first time in the history of the WTA, ten different nations were represented in the association's list of top ten players.
Robin Söderling, Stanislas Wawrinka, Petra Kvitová, Gréta Arn, Gilles Simon, David Ferrer, Li Na, and Jarmila Groth also won titles.

February

Championship	Category	Champion(s)	Finalist(s)	Score in the final
Dubai (February 14 – February 20) – Women (February 21 – February 27) – Men	Men's singles	Novak Djokovic		6–3, 6–3
	Women's singles	Caroline Wozniacki		6–1, 6–3
	Men's doubles	Sergiy Stakhovsky Mikhail Youzhny	Jérémy Chardy Feliciano López	4–6, 6–3, [10–3]
	Women's doubles	Liezel Huber María José Martínez Sánchez		7–6(3), 6–3

Kevin Anderson, Ivan Dodig, and Milos Raonic all won their maiden ATP Tour singles title in Johannesburg, Zagreb, and San Jose, respectively.
By successfully defending his title in Rotterdam and winning the Open 13, Robin Söderling opened 2011 with an impressive 17–1 record.
Andy Roddick reached his fiftieth ATP tour final, and won his thirtieth tour title at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships.
After playing only three tournaments in 2010, and reaching back-to-back semis in his previous two tournaments, Juan Martín del Potro reached his first final since winning the 2009 US Open at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships. He defeated Janko Tipsarević in the final.
Tommy Robredo, Nicolás Almagro (2), Petra Kvitová, Daniela Hantuchová, Magdaléna Rybáriková, Lourdes Domínguez Lino, David Ferrer, Vera Zvonareva, and Gisela Dulko also won titles.

March

Championship	Category	Champion(s)	Score in the final
Indian Wells (March 7 – March 20)	Men's singles	Novak Djokovic	4–6, 6–3, 6–2
	Women's singles	Caroline Wozniacki	6–1, 2–6, 6–3
	Men's doubles	Alexandr Dolgopolov Xavier Malisse	6–3, 6–7(5), [10–7]
	Women's doubles	Sania Mirza Elena Vesnina	6–0, 7–5

Ivo Karlović set the record for the fastest serve, hitting a 156 mph serve in Davis Cup play against Germany.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Jelena Dokić each won titles heading into Indian Wells and Miami. It was Dokić's first title in nine years, while Pavlyuchenkova successfully defended her title to build a 10–0 record in Monterrey.

April

By winning Marbella, Victoria Azarenka extended her winning streak to a career-best 11 consecutive match wins. The win also bumped Azarenka up to a career-best world number five ranking.
Rafael Nadal won his unprecedented, seventh consecutive Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters title, increasing his winning streak at the event to 37 matches. The following week, Nadal became the first player to win two tournaments six or more times in the Open Era by winning his sixth Barcelona title.
The German, Serbian, Spanish, and Ukrainian Fed Cup teams won spots in the 2012 World Group. It is the first time in Fed Cup history that neither the United States or France will be represented in the World Group.
Anabel Medina Garrigues won her ninth clay court title of her career at the Estoril Open, tying her with Venus Williams for the most clay court titles among active players.
Ryan Sweeting, Pablo Andújar, Caroline Wozniacki, Julia Görges, Alberta Brianti, Nikolay Davydenko, Novak Djokovic, Juan Martín del Potro, and Roberta Vinci also won titles.

May

On May 9, for the first time since each list was adopted, there were no Americans in either top ten of the ATP Tour or WTA Tour.
Andy Murray became the first British player to reach the semifinals at the Rome Masters since 1932, ultimately falling to Novak Djokovic.
Nicolás Almagro, Caroline Wozniacki, and Andrea Petković also won titles.

Championship	Category	Champion(s)	Score in the final
Madrid (May 2 - May 8)	Men's singles	Novak Djokovic	7–5, 6–4
	Women's singles	Petra Kvitová	7–6(3), 6–4
	Men's doubles	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	6–3, 6–3
	Women's doubles	Victoria Azarenka Maria Kirilenko	6–4, 6–3

Championship	Category	Champion(s)	Score in the final
Rome (May 9 – May 15)	Men's singles	Novak Djokovic	6–4, 6–4
	Women's singles	Maria Sharapova	6–2, 6–4
	Men's doubles	John Isner Sam Querrey	w/o
	Women's doubles	Peng Shuai Zheng Jie	6–2, 6–3

June

Five-time French Open champion, Rafael Nadal, played his first 5-set match at the tournament since his winning debut in 2005. He defeated John Isner 6–4, 6–7(2), 6–7(2), 6–2, 6–4 in just over four hours. (Occurred in May)
Roger Federer advanced to a record 28th consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal, surpassing Jimmy Connors mark of 27. Federer went on to stun Novak Djokovic in the semifinals, breaking the Serb's perfect record from the start of the season and also preventing him from becoming the World Number One.
Kim Clijsters and Caroline Wozniacki lost in the second and third rounds, respectively, of the French Open. It is the first time in the Open Era that both of the top two seeded women at a Grand Slam failed to reach the round of sixteen. Vera Zvonareva's departure in the fourth round meant that for just the third time in the Open Era, none of the top three seeds advanced to the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam.
Li Na became the first Chinese player to win a Grand Slam singles title at the French Open.
Rafael Nadal won his record-tying sixth French Open title, which allowed him to be the second man to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals.
Philipp Kohlschreiber, Andy Murray, Sabine Lisicki, Caroline Wozniacki, Dmitry Tursunov, Andreas Seppi, Marion Bartoli, and Roberta Vinci also won titles.

July

For the first time in the Open Era, eight different European nations were represented in the women's quarterfinals of a Grand Slam at The Wimbledon Championships.
By reaching the final of The Wimbledon Championships, Novak Djokovic became the first man other than Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal to hold the World Number One ranking since 2004. He went on to defeat Nadal in the final to win his first Wimbledon title.
Maria Sharapova reached her second Wimbledon final after seven years, the longest span between final appearances at The Championships. She was defeated by first time Grand Slam finalist Petra Kvitová.
John Isner, Roberta Vinci, Polona Hercog, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Robin Söderling, Anabel Medina Garrigues, María José Martínez Sánchez, Gilles Simon, Vera Zvonareva, Marcel Granollers, Alexandr Dolgopolov, and Nadia Petrova also won titles.

US Open Series Week	Date	Men's Events	Women's Events
1	July 18–24		No Series Event Held This Week
2	July 25–31	Los Angeles Ernests Gulbis	Stanford Serena Williams

August

Novak Djokovic lost only his second match of the year when he was forced to retire in the second set of the championship match in Cincinnati against Andy Murray.
Robin Haase won his maiden ATP Tour singles title in Kitzbühel

US Open Series Week	Date	Women's Events
3	Aug 1–7	San Diego Agnieszka Radwańska
4	Aug 8–14
5	Aug 15–21
6	Aug 22–28	New Haven Caroline Wozniacki

September

Florian Mayer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Janko Tipsarević and Andy Murray won ATP tour titles.
Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová, Ksenia Pervak, Chanelle Scheepers, María José Martínez Sánchez and Agnieszka Radwańska won WTA tour titles.

October

Championship	Category	Champion(s)	Score in the final
Beijing (October 3 – October 9)	Men's singles	Tomáš Berdych	3–6, 6–4, 6–1
	Women's singles	Agnieszka Radwańska	7–5, 0–6, 6–4
	Men's doubles	Michaël Llodra Nenad Zimonjić	7–6^(7–2), 7–6^(7–4)
	Women's doubles	Květa Peschke Katarina Srebotnik	6–3, 6–4

Championship	Category	Champion(s)	Finalist(s)	Score in the final
Tour Championships - Istanbul (October 24 – October 30)	Women's singles	Petra Kvitová		7–5, 4–6, 6–3
Tour Championships - Istanbul (October 24 – October 30)	Women's doubles	Liezel Huber Lisa Raymond		6–4, 6–4

November

Championship	Category	Champion(s)	Finalist(s)	Score in the final
ATP World Tour Finals - London (November 21 – November 28)	Men's singles	Roger Federer		6–3, 6–7^(6–8), 6–3
ATP World Tour Finals - London (November 21 – November 28)	Men's doubles	Max Mirnyi Daniel Nestor		7–5, 6–3

December

International Tennis Hall of Fame

Class of 2010:
- Andre Agassi, player
- Peachy Kellmeyer, contributor