To compliment the "official" season recap, we present a poll for Outsports tennis fans...

I love polls, and loved this one, but wish it were longer. I wanted to add what I thought the WTA story of the year was, since I selected 'other': The league of injuries and how it definately affected the year-end resultls. I'm happy that players took advantage of this situation and made the most of it, players like Sugiyama, Dementieva, Pistolesi and Myskina getting their big wins in the absence of the Williams and Davenports, and of course I add Seles. And something really must be said of the Belgians run of victories at this time--it's not necessarily an 'asterik' win each and every time Kim or Justine won, but certainly we can agree the draws were simply lighter later in the season. Then there is the disappointment of palyers not taking advantage of the glut, like Capriati, Dokic, and Rubin.

My biggest disappointment this year was with Hantuchova who had possibilities but squandered them. But then again, I'm happy to see Conchita still slugging it out for the dollars--and why not.

[ November 24, 2003, 05:03 PM: Message edited by: shore ]

Curtj will be happy...I voted for Ai wink

You voted for yourself??!!

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!

heh.

ahem.

hahaha.... you're right, Ai am happy. oh jake, what have you started?

The Envelope Please...

Best WTA Player
1. Justine Henin-Hardenne
2. Kim Clijsters
3. Serena Williams

Best ATP Player
1. Roger Federer
2. Andy Roddick
3. Juan Carlos Ferrero

Most Improved - WTA
1. Ai Sugiyama
2. Elena Dementieva
3. (tie) Maria Sharapova & Other

Most Improved - ATP
1. (tie) Taylor Dent & Mardy Fish
3. Mark Philippousis

Biggest Story - WTA
1. Justine Henin-Hardenne
2. Russian women
3. (tie) Fed Cup & Other

Biggest Story - ATP
1. Andy Roddick
2. (tie) Australia vs. Switzerland Davis Cup & Pete Sampras

All of that looks pretty dead on to me, with the exception of Serena at number three behind Kim. I know Kim had a great year, but that was largely due to the abscence of the Williams sisters and even then she didn't manage to win a Slam. Meanwhile, Serena didn't play for almost half the year because of said injuries and the death of her sister, yet she still owns the Australian and Wimbledon crowns. Regardless of the other tourneys and rankings, you win 50% of the Slams in any given year and you're gonna be no. 1 or no.2 in terms of success.

I agree with most of the results except Federer considered the best player on the tour. I toggled between Juan Carlos and Andy.

Did I miss it? Where is the official season recap here at Outsports? Where we all get to say how right we were in predicting Henin's and Roddick's rise, and the disappearance of Serena, Venus and Monica? I did search for last season's summary and it was interesting that a lot of the talk was about Hingis. Sad. So, where is it B Man?

Hey shore... there was the poll, which I guess never closed, and then there was a little something I did up:
http://www.outsports.com/tennis/2003/2003s...seasonrecap.htm

According to ESPN, there were three "tennis stories" in the Top 100 Sports Stories of 2003:

14 - Andy Roddick (between Sammy Sosa suspension and Fiesta Bowl)

30 - Serena and Venus Williams (between Freddy Adu and Indianapolis Colts MNF comeback)

60 - Pete Sampras' retirement (between Bill Mueller and Jean-Sebastien Giguere, and second only to Jordan among retirements)

Hmmmm... what's it take for a non-American tennis player to get a number? Annika Sorenstam, David Beckham, Michael Schumacher, and Gil de Ferran were on the list OH WAIT!!!

Naturally, they couldn't let well enough alone. espn.com, at least, features Anna Kournikova at #100 in the "Also Receiving Votes" category. The website's text reads:

Cynics will say we lobbed Anna Kournikova into our list for design purposes. We'll gladly return that serve, because the 22-year-old had a banner year. Not because she won her first Slam match (Australia) since 2001. Not because back aches ended her Tour season in April. No, Anna made bigger news when she said [she] was retiring to focus on "acting and presenting" at award shows. She changed her mind, of course, leaving her with a WTA ranking of 309 and more Internet hits than any female athlete on the planet. That's gotta be worth a spot in the Top 100 -- and, yes, a pic.

jake's note: a sexy pic, to be sure...