Five notable storylines in tennis from 2020

The 2020 season in tennis has been cut short due to coronavirus. The season barely went just over two months before four months of action was cancelled. The next significant tournament scheduled on the ATP Tour is the Hamburg European Open from Germany on July 13 and the next tournaments scheduled on the WTA Tour are the Bucharest Open in Romania and the Ladies Open Lausanne from Switzerland also set to start on July 13. Here are five interesting storylines from the tennis season so far this year.

5) Rise of Aryna Sabalenka–Belarus’s Aryna Sabalenka has not done much damage in her career so far at majors (not yet been to a quarterfinals), but the world number 11 won her third WTA Premier Mandatory 5 event in February after beating Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-3 in Qatar. Sabalenka previously won back-to-back WTA Premier Mandatory 5 titles in Wuhan, China in 2018 and 2019. Ironically it is Wuhan where coronavirus began.

4) Gael Monfils has European success over Canadians–In back-to-back weeks in February, France’s Gael Monfils won two consecutive titles with both wins coming over Canadians in the final. On February 9 he beat Canadian Vasek Pospisil 7-5, 6-3 in the final of Montpellier and on February 16 beat Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-2, 6-4 in the final of Rotterdam.

3) Rafael Nadal wins in Mexico–Many people think of Rafael Nadal as a clay court specialist. However, he has now won 22 titles on hard court as well. On February 29 Nadal defeated Taylor Fritz of the United States 6-3, 6-2 in the final of the Mexican Open.

2) Sofia Kenin has been great–Over the first two months of the year, Sofia Kenin of the United States won her first career major at the Australian Open by beating Garbine Muguruza of Spain 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the final. She followed that up with a title in Lyon, France on March 8 by beating Anna-Lena Friedsam of Germany 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 in the final. Kenin is now ranked fourth in the world.

1) Novak Djokovic has been unstoppable–There is no doubt that Novak Djokovic has been the star of the tennis season so far in 2020. He began the year helping Serbia win the very first ATP Cup in Sydney. That was followed by his eighth career Australian Open title where he knocked off Dominic Thiem of Austria in the final by a score of 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. Then in March, Djokovic won the Dubai Tennis Championship by beating Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 6-3, 6-4 in the final.