Men's Tennis: 4 best Grand Slam matches of the 2018 season

The 2018 tennis season is done and dusted with no more ranking points on offer. The only competitive matches left are the Davis Cup Final matches between finalists Croatia and France. The Davis Cup being a team event doesn't reward ranking points.

2018 has been another year where 3 of the Fabled 'Big 4' have continue their stranglehold over the Grand Slams. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic between them won the 4 Grand Slam titles on offer meaning that the 'Next Gen' of tennis superstars will have to wait a bit longer before changing the status quo of domination by the 'Big 4'. It is remarkable that even in 2018, not a single player born in the 1990's has won a Grand Slam yet.

The year started off with 36-year-old Roger Federer defending his Australian Open crown. Juan Martin Del Potro and John Isner grabbed their first ATP Masters 1000 titles and Rafael Nadal continued his remarkable clay court dominance. The second half of the season saw a spirited Djokovic claim the last 2 Grand Slams and rise to the top of the ATP rankings to become the oldest ever player to finish the year as World Number 1.

'Next Gen' superstars Alexander Zverev, Karen Khachanov and Stefanos Tsitsipas all made bold statements by winning titles and pulling off victories against the higher ranked players. The 2019 season will see the return of Andy Murray and Stanislas Wawrinka from lengthy lay-offs and they will look to reclaim their Top-10 ranking which they held for several years.

As the players relax and get some well-deserved rest after a demanding season, we take a look back at 4 of the most memorable Grand Slam matches over the course of the year :

#4 Roger Federer vs Marin Cilic (Australian Open Final)

The Australian Open final pitted 5-time defending champion Roger Federer face-off against his Wimbledon 2017 Finals opponent Croat Marin Cilic.

Unlike in the Wimbledon Final the previous year, where Cilic was not at his best battling foot blisters, the Australian Open final saw a fully fit Cilic rearing to go and claim his maiden Australian Open crown. The match was played indoors much to the charge-in of Cilic who was perplexed at the last-minute decision by the authorities to play the Final indoors.

Initially, it looked like Federer was going to breeze past his opponent just like he did in Wimbledon the previous year comfortably wrapping up the first set. But then, the Croat levelled the match by winning the second set in a tie-break. Federer took the third set 6-3 and looked set to claim the match having broken Cilic in the fourth set to take a 3-1 lead.

Cilic was not one to back out without a fight. He immediately broke the Federer serve and took the fourth set 6-4 to level the match at 2 sets apiece. Federer playing in a 5 set match in the Australian Open Final for a second successive year got the better of Cilic in the 5th set 6-1 as the Croat buckled under pressure. The win meant that Roger Federer became the second oldest winner of a Grand Slam in the Open Era after Australia's Ken Rosewall.

#3 Kevin Anderson vs John Isner (Wimbledon semifinal)

The scoreline and the players' expressions in the photograph reflect the physical nature of this match.

Eighth-seeded Kevin Anderson faced off against ninth seed John Isner in the Wimbledon final. It was a battle between two giants having two of the best serves in the game. The match lived up to its expectation of being an all-time classic.

The match was the second longest Wimbledon match and the third longest Singles match of all-time. The match lasted an extraordinary 6 hours and 36 minutes.

It was going to take something special to separate these warriors as they traded ace for ace and blow for blow. 3 sets were decided in tie-breaks and the decisive set saw a scoreline of 26-24 in Anderson's favour.

Isner who has had prior experience in playing in a similar marathon Wimbledon match way back in 2010, found himself on the losing side this time despite being 2 sets to 1 up.

Isner fought valiantly in the deciding set as for two of the three times that Anderson broke his serve, he immediately responded by breaking his opponent's serve. Finally, the crowd got very restless and Isner was the one who conceded the decisive 3rd break in the set to hand Anderson the victory.

Anderson later revealed prior to the Nitto ATP Finals that the match affected him in a big way physically and mentally. Physically, he lost 4 toenails and mentally he was exhausted and drained out going into the Wimbledon final where he was beaten comprehensively by Djokovic with the effects of his semi-final clearly coming into the picture.

#2 Juan Martin Del Potro vs Rafael Nadal (Wimbledon Quarter-final)

An outstretched Del Potro produces a remarkable

winner

against Nadal at the Wimbledon Championships 2018

Centre Court was witness to an all-time classic as 5th seed Juan Martin Del Potro faced off against second seed and 2-time Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal.

The match was a five-hour marathon of pure emotion from two players who are experts in conveying it, and it concluded with Nadal jumping over the net and walking over to Del Potro, who got back on his feet only when Nadal came close by. They immediately hugged and it was a poignant moment as the crowd gave them a deserved standing ovation.

Andy Murray, who was making his debut as a commentator for BBC was in complete awe of their performance. “This fifth set is one of the best sets of tennis I've ever seen live,” said Murray at one point during the decider. Tributes kept pouring in as World Number 1 Simona Halep tweeted that it was possibly the best ever match that she has ever witnessed.

The pair combined for a total of 144 winners with Del Potro producing some incredible diving volleys.

#1 Rafael Nadal vs Dominic Thiem (US Open quarter-final)

Rafael Nadal hops over the net to congratulate Dominic Thiem after their 2018 US Open quarter-final

Top-seed Rafael Nadal was up against 9th seed and French Open final opponent Austrian Dominic Thiem.

Nadal had probably the worst possible start getting bageled 6-0 in the first set. Despite losing the first set, few would have doubted the Spanish Matador's abilities to pull off a comeback. This is exactly what Nadal did as he grabbed the lone break of the second set to level the match at 1 set apiece.

Barring the first set, all the other sets were tight affairs with very little to separate the two men. Despite Thiem winning 171 points to Nadal's 166 points, it was the Spaniard who had the last laugh just as he did in the French Open final earlier. The fifth-set tiebreak was so evenly matched that the match could have gone either way. An overhead shot by Thiem that sailed long proved costly as Thiem suffered another devastating loss at the hands of the Spaniard.