By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, December 18, 2018
Stefanos Tsitsipas played airborne attacker on Wimbledon's lawn.
Photo credit: Getty Images
Welcome to the inaugural Tennis Now 25, where we celebrate the best popcorn moments of the 2018 tennis season, and award 25 “Popcorn Awards” to honor the most breathtaking and memorable performances of 2018.
About the Awards:
The #TN25 is designed not simply to remember the best matches, comebacks or Grand Slam performances. What we aim to accomplish here is to dig deeper into the archives so that we may celebrate some of the more offbeat and difficult-to-quantify performances.
This is our first time doling out these awards, and our attempt to veer away from the typical year-end rundown is genuine in that we feel it echoes the season of giving. What we aim to give is praise and thanks to those who made the season memorable on many levels...
Surely, with this being a new process for our editorial staff, there will be a few bumps along the road. Here and there we suspect that our valued readership may find a few things to disagree with (surprise!). If that’s the case, take to social media using the hashtag #TN25 and tell us what we missed or where we could have done better.
As the players like to say after they win their titles—none of this would have been possible without you guys, and that’s why we are going to put some of the awards to a Twitter vote in December, so stay tuned for that.
But for now, we must get to the awards…
Best Net Crasher: Stefanos Tsitsipas
The Net Crasher Award goes to the player who boldly and stylishly goes where few singles stars dare to venture these days—the frontcourt.
And the winner is... Stefanos Tsitsipas
Fearlessness is a key to flying high on the ATP Tour.
Combining the daring of a cliff diver with the body control of a gymnast, Tsitsipas went airborne for several stunning diving volleys this season.
In just his second Wimbledon appearance, the 19-year-old Greek embraced the grace with this explosive leap of faith that closed out the seventh game of his 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3 victory over American Jared Donaldson.
Even in a losing effort, Tsitsipas gave us reason to smile with this dynamic diving winner against John Isner.
The SW19 swoops came after Tsitsipas hovered above the Halle lawn with this spectacular plunge, scrambling to his feet to knock off the finishing volley.
Not only did Tsitsipas make the outrageous dive to keep the point alive against Kudla, he also recovered in time to snag the put-away volley winner.
Magical hands, body control, and an elastic reach emanating from his lanky six-foot-four frame are all keys to Tsitsipas' pulsating net play.
It also helps that the Rogers Cup runner-up plays with a one-handed backhand and is willing to transition from baseline to net.
Asserting his all-court skills, Tsitsipas rocketed up the rankings from No. 91 at the start of the season to his current rank of No. 15.
Honorable Mention
Benoit Paire tuned into the shot-making muse in Madrid, pulling off the no-look, high-backhand, drop volley winner with casual cool against compatriot Lucas Pouille. It was Paire's first win in four meetings with Pouille.
The King of Clay is in the amazing business.
Rafael Nadal's net skills are highly underrated, but the 17-time Grand Slam champion has won 11 doubles titles, including partnering Marc Lopez to capture the 2016 Olympic doubles gold medal in Rio.
Showcasing one of the sport's best overheads, Nadal thumped this amazing, athletic over-the-shoulder smash during the second set of his first-round match with Dudi Sela of Israel on Day 2 at Wimbledon.
Ranked No. 622, Liam Caruana wasn't exactly a household name when he delivered this dazzling dive volley against Taylor Fritz today in Milan.
The shot was so mind-blowing that even Tsitsipas, watching while warming up in the locker room, couldn’t believe it.
Playing amid the immense pressure of a decisive Davis Cup match, two veterans delivered the dazzle in Valencia.
David Ferrer and Philipp Kohlschreiber took cat-and-mouse to Matrix levels with this astounding exchange with both men showing mesmerizing touch around net.
This finesse duel came three hours and 24 minutes into the pair's decisive fifth match of the Spain vs. Germany Davis Cup quarterfinal.
Feliciano Lopez showed plenty of life in his 36-year-old legs with a trip to the dead zone.
Watch the Spanish left-hander bamboozle Kei Nishikori delivering a drop volley that was DOA in Rome.
Lopez had his front-court moments, but Nishikori was too tough from the backcourt posting a 7-6 (5), 6-4 victory.