It’s getting to be the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, so it’s a good time to look back.

At the end of 2011, Djokovic had had the best year of his life, but he never quite recovered after a grueling US Open where he beat Rafael Nadal in four long sets, but injured his back in the process.  He would heap on the defeats the rest of that year.  Meanwhile, Roger Federer ended 2011 on a tear winning Basel, in Paris, and defending his title at London in the year-end championships.

2012 started with Djokovic showing that 2011 was no fluke.  It also marked the pairing of Ivan Lendl and Andy Murray.  Murray chose to skip the Hopman Cup and played Brisbane instead, and won that tournament.  Murray reached the semis, and despite some uneven play, managed to force a fifth set.  Although he got broken early, he recovered to tie the match only to get broken again.  With that grueling 5-setter, fans wondered if Djokovic, like Nadal from a few years earlier, could recover and play Nadal who “only” needed 4 sets to beat Federer.  The final would prove just as wearying.  Djokovic had to avoid a break down 15-30 with Nadal needing a simple pass to get to double-break point.  Djokovic kept in the match and eventually broke again to take the first Slam of the year.

Nadal felt he needed a break to figure out how he could beat Djokovic, if not on hardcourts, then on his beloved clay.

Roger Federer would play Andy Murray in the finals of Dubai and showed, despite turning 30, that he still had the chops to beat the younger players.  Indeed, Federer had about as good a half year leading up to the French Open as any player.

That same week, Milos Raonic defended his title at San Jose.  Might have been a small tournament, but it’s hard for the young players to break through.

Federer won another Masters 1000 in Indian Wells beating John Isner in the finals in a tournament that saw many top players lose early.  Federer had a good match against Nadal in the semis, though Nadal would later point to this match as the start of him not playing well (and eventually lead him to not playing the second half of 2012).  Djokovic came back to win Miami over Andy Murray.

The summer showed Rafa back in full confidence.  He won Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and Rome, but lost to Verdasco on the blue clay of Madrid.  Djokovic also lost early, and both threatened to not play Madrid if the blue clay was used again.  Meanwhile, Federer showed he could win on clay regardless of the color, and took another Masters 1000 against his rival, Tomas Berdych, in a match that went the distance.  Rafa twice won against Djokovic, though some felt that Djokovic was grieving over his grandfather’s death.

Djokovic’s dream run in 2011 was stopped by Roger Federer in the semis of the French Open.  This year, he would reach the finals, but having lost to Nadal twice on clay, he would struggle until a steady drizzle made the court a mud pit, and oddly enough, this suited Djokovic’s play, and he ran off a series of games taking the third set, and getting up a break in the fourth when the rain finally was too heavy to continue.  Rafa grumbled this whole time knowing if the match had completed that day, he might have lost, and not in the way he would have hoped.

Federer played Halle where he reached the finals against aging  Tommy Haas, and lost.  Heading into Wimbledon, Djokovic and Nadal were favored.  But Nadal lost in the biggest upset of 2012, when unheralded Lukas Rosol knocked the stuffing out of the ball.  Despite a delay due to darkness that lead to indoor play, Rosol kept his head about him, and secured the fifth set upset.  No one knew it then, but that would be the last official match Nadal would play the rest of the year.

Andy Murray would find one tough opponent after another, but he would slice and dice his way to his first Wimbledon final.  Federer, who knew a win at Wimbledon would return him back to number 1, took on a game Djokovic in the semis.  The first two sets were played quickly with not much rhythm.  Federer was beginning to get into the long rallies, and eventually pressured Djokovic to take set 3, then continued his excellent play to take the fourth set.  Murray had to beat Ferrer and Tsonga in back-to-back rounds, but he had lost 2 of the Slam finals he had reached to Federer, and despite taking the first set, Federer’s confidence was still in place.  With the win, he not only reached his 7th Wimbledon title, but also regained number 1, something that seemed very unlikely at the end of 2011.  Federer achieved the goal by playing well at Masters 1000 tournaments, one level below the Slams, and accumulated points that way.

A few weeks later, the players returned back to Wimbledon.  The format went to a best of 3 sets with tiebreaks in sets 1 and 2.  Olympic colors added a bit of brilliance to the normally drab dark green color.  Murray changed his strategy, opting to play much more aggressive this go around.  Murray won the semis in two close sets over Djokovic while Federer struggled mightily in the third set against Juan Martin del Potro.  Murray would win the final rather handily as Federer found it difficult to keep up and produced far more errors than he normally does, which often indicates he’s a bit hurt.

David Ferrer would have one of his best years having won a hard court early in the year at Auckland, then a clay event in Buenos Aires and Acapulco.  Ferrer would even win a grass event in the Netherlands.  Ferrer would win a season high 7 titles, and reach two Slam semis (the French and US Open).

One player that found the swing back to hard courts rejuvenating was Novak Djokovic.  He had just come off losing the French, Wimbledon, and the Olympics.  He was looking to win again, and he did so in Toronto when many players failed to go deep.  He would reach the finals of Cincy, but was ambushed by a transcendant Federer who won another Masters 1000 title, his third of the year, so far.  Murray, who was still trying to break through at a Slam, played indifferently in this period of time, but he seemed less worried about quality wins than about doing well at the US Open.

Murray’s run through the US Open was not exactly smooth.  For every good match he played, he played a tight match.    Murray was pushed by Feliciano Lopez to 4 tight sets in a match that was warm, and where Murray seemed fatigued.  It didn’t help that Lopez’s backhand is a limitation, a side he prefers to slice rather than top it.  But Murray came back to play an efficient win over Raonic who made a concerted effort to attack the net, but caught the Scotsman on a good day passing.

Murray would play a close first two sets over Marin Cilic, before blowing it open in the last two sets.  He then played Tomas Berdych in the semis, the man who upset Federer.  It was a windy match, so Murray simply played smart tennis and let Berdych make the errors.  The wind settled down some and Berdych began to come back.  However, Murray was able to get to a fourth set tiebreak, and despite falling behind a few times in the tiebreak, managed to eke out the tiebreak.

In the finals, played on a Monday for a fifth consecutive year, Murray got to a good lead over Djokovic despite early exchanges of breaks.  For every time Murray appeared to take control of the match, Djokovic came back.  Murray took the first two sets, but Djokovic started to play better getting early breaks in the third and fourth set.  The fourth set look particularly bad for Murray.  The key for Murray at the start of the fifth set was holding serve, which he did, then got an early break.  Murray would get broken back, but broke again, and was able to stay ahead all the way to the title, and finally break the Slam monkey.

Andy Murray chose to skip the Asian swing this year.  The previous year, he opted to play, and had a nice run at Bangkok, Tokyo, and Shanghai, but then didn’t play well the rest of 2011.  This time, Murray started in Tokyo, but lost to Raonic despite match points, something that affected Murray in the latter parts of the year.  However, it was Nishikori winning a tournament at home in Tokyo that signaled his breakthrough, rather than the talented Canadian.  In Shanghai, Murray faced Djokovic once again.  Despite a chance to serve out the match, and match points in the tiebreak, Murray eventually lost the second set.  He appeared to cramp in the third set, and Djokovic claimed the victory.

Roger Federer had been hoping to win at Basel once again.  His chance to stay at number 1 hinged on winning there, and continuing on at Paris, and London.  However, when del Potro won Basel, Federer dropped out of Paris.  This year, Paris was placed a week before London, so many of the top players opted to lose early including Djokovic, Murray, Tipsarevic, Berdych, and Tsonga.  The one player that battled on was David Ferrer, who had never won a Masters 1000 title, despite playing top flight tennis for the last few years.  He beat Polish upstart, Jerzy Janowicz, who used his profound height and deft drop shots to power his way to the final of a tour level tournament.  Ferrer would finally secure his first Masters 1000 title.

In the round-robin, Murray again lost to Djokovic in round-robin play, and Federer and del Potro would win their respective round robin groups.  Federer did not expect to beat Murray in the semis, but he pulled the upset, while Djokovic, riding high since arriving in North America after Wimbledon won over del Potro.  Despite Federer’s ambition to win the finals, he was too rock steady, and Federer lost in straight sets, albeit closely.

The following week the Czech Republic used the duo of Stepanek and Berdych to upset the Spanish team.  Although Ferrer did his part by winning both singles, Almagro lost both his singles, and the Czech team upset the Spanish duo that had won the doubles title at London just the week before.

In other news, Berdych and Tsonga had solid years while Monfils was missing for large chunks.  Tipsarevic continued to stay in the top ten.  Nishikori made a move up the ranks.  Querrey slowly regained some of his rank.  Andy Roddick, Ivan Ljubicic, and Juan Carlos Ferrero retired.  Andy Roddick did it in style at the US Open.  Lukas Rosol had a brief but significant splash.  Martin Klizan won a title out of nowhere.  Jerzy Janowicz came out of nowhere to reach the finals of Paris.  Brian Baker made a surprising run in a few tournaments despite having been off the tour for 6 years due to injury.  Almagro had his best year yet.  Mardy Fish struggled with health issues and watched his ranking drop.  Radek Stepanek made a foray back to doubles with Leander Paes and won a Slam with his Indian partner.  Tommy Haas had enough oomph to play and even win a tournament and move his ranking to around 20 in the world.  Raonic and Nishikori both made the top 20.  Tomic, who started off the first month playing very well, fizzled as personal issues intruded on his professional life.  Grigor Dimitrov played solid, if unspectacular tennis, making steady gains, but not living up to the name “baby Federer”.

We head into 2013 with questions.  Is Nadal ready to return?  Is Soderling ever going to return?  Can del Potro make a move up?  Does Federer still have the moves after turning 31?  Can Murray returning to his winning ways?  Will Ferrer start to contend for majors?  Will there be any surprise moves up?  Perhaps Raonic?  Maybe Janowicz?  Or maybe someone completely new?  Or will Djokovic show that he’s still the number 1 player.  Many questions and only days away from the start of a new year and answers to those questions.