After a record nine first-round retirements in the singles draws of the Australian Open,[28] the ATP considers adding an extreme heat policy to mediate extreme temperatures on court.[29]
By winning her third round encounter against Daniela Hantuchová, women's top seed Serena Williams broke Margaret Court's record of 60 match victories at the Australian Open; however, she was subsequently defeated in the next round by Ana Ivanovic in three-sets.[30]
Doubles top seed, Mike Bryan and Bob Bryan made their earliest exit at the Australian Open in 11 years after they were defeated by the unseeded duo of Eric Butorac and Raven Klaasen in the third round.[31]
After fourteen consecutive losses to Novak Djokovic, Stanislas Wawrinka defeated the three-time defending champion in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. He followed up this win by going on to defeat world number one Rafael Nadal in the final for the first time in thirteen career meetings with the Spaniard. It was Wawrinka's second title of the year after winning the Aircel Chennai Open earlier in January.
Peng Shuai made history and became the first Chinese number one in any tennis discipline, male or female, by reaching the top spot of the WTA's doubles rankings.[32]
Marin Čilić continued his impressive start to the year by reaching his third consecutive ATP Tournament final. He defeated Kevin Anderson in the Delray Beacch final to add to his fourth Zagreb title he collected earlier in February. The win meant that Čilić led the tour in match wins with an 18–4 record.[33]
Two ATP tournaments, four WTA tournaments, and the second week of Davis Cup were scheduled in March.
Due to their deep runs at Indian Wells, Simona Halep and Roger Federer reached the number five ranking on their respective tours. This was Halep's top five debut[34] while Federer re-entered the top five after a twelve-year low ranked number eight.[35]
The results of Indian Wells caused a considerable shift among the ATP Tour Top Ten Rankings.[36] Along with Federer's return to the top five, Tomáš Berdych fell to number seven, John Isner made a return to the top ten, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga fell out of the top ten for the first time in nearly three years.
Being led by former world number one, Roger Federer, and Australian Open champion, Stanislas Wawrinka, Switzerland pulled off another upset against the eighth seeded Kazakhstan to reach the semifinals of the Davis Cup. They will face off against Italy on the bottom half of the draw while the first and fifth seeded teams of Czech Republic and France will meet in the other semifinal.
17-year-old Belinda Bencic reached her first WTA semi-final at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston. Due to the result, Bencic is the first player to be born after 1996 to enter the WTA top 100.[37] The tournament also saw Serena Williams upset in her opening round match against Jana Čepelová. The upset snapped a 28-match winning streak Williams had on clay courts.[38] Čepelová would be the eventual finalist of the tournament.
^ Djokovic becomes the second man after Federer to win the Indian Wells-Miami double twice.[39] This was Djokovic's fourth title in Miami.
^ This was Hingis' first tournament title since making her doubles comeback in 2013.[40]
April
Seven ATP tournaments, six WTA tournaments, and the second week of Fed Cup were scheduled in April.
Dominika Cibulková led the WTA in match-wins after winning her 22nd match of the season at the Malaysian Open.[41] She would raise that total to 24 before falling in the final to first-time WTA titlist Donna Vekić.
The Czech Republic reached its third Fed Cup final in four years after defeating defending champions, Italy, in the semifinals. After a 22-year final drought, Germany also advanced to the final with a win over Australia.[42]Russia, Canada, France and Poland earned places in the 2015 World Group. This will be Canada and Poland's first time contesting in the World Group.[43] For the first time in the tournament's history, the United States was regulated to World Group Two after its loss to France.[44]
^ This was Wawrinka's first Masters 1000 title of his career. The win also propelled him to the top spot of the race to the ATP World Tour Finals.[45]
^ This was Sharapova's third consecutive title in Stuttgart and the 30th career title of her career. It was also the first time Sharapova had won a tournament three different times.[46]
May
The French Open along with four ATP tournaments and four WTA tournaments were scheduled in May.
Defending champion and tournament favorite Serena Williams was upset in the second round of the French Open a day after Li Na was defeated in the first round. This marked the first time in the Open Era that the top two seeds in the women's singles main draw were knocked out before the third round of a Grand Slam.[49] More history was made when third seeded Agnieszka Radwańska was upset in the third round, marking the first time in the Open Era that a top three seed did not advance to the second week of a major.[50]
For the first time in her career, Maria Sharapova came back from a set down to win three consecutive matches at a tournament en route to her third consecutive French Open final.[51] She would go on to win a 20th consecutive three-set match on clay by defeating Simona Halep in the championship match.[52] This was Sharapova's fifth Grand Slam title and her second at the French Open.
Rafael Nadal made history by becoming the first player to win a ninth title at a single major championship by defeating Novak Djokovic in the French Open final.[53] This was also Nadal's fifth straight title at Roland Garros and his 90th match win at the tournament as well.
The Wimbledon Championships along with four ATP tournaments and three WTA tournaments were scheduled in June.
The top women seeds were on the wrong side of history yet again at a Grand Slam. Serena Williams and Li Na were both upset in the third round. It is the first time in the Open Era that the top two seeded women lost in the first week of Wimbledon.[54]Agnieszka Radwańska and Maria Sharapova, the tournament's fourth and fifth seeds, were also defeated before the quarterfinals.
Nick Kyrgios stunned Rafael Nadal in the fourth round of Wimbledon resulting in three players born in the 1990s being in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.[55] Kyrgios joined Milos Raonic and Grigor Dimitrov in the last eight and the latter two would ultimately reach the final four as well.
The women's final at Wimbledon was the first Grand Slam final to be contested between two players born in the 1990s. Petra Kvitová would remain as the only Grand Slam champion born in this decade by capturing her second Wimbledon title. In the final, Kvitová defeated Eugenie Bouchard, who was Canada's first Grand Slam finalist.[57]
Novak Djokovic denied Roger Federer an unprecedented eighth Wimbledon title by defeating the Swiss in the championship final. This was Djokovic's second Wimbledon title of his career and his seventh major title overall.
^ This was Ivanovic's first title on grass and her fourteenth title overall. The win was also a tour leading 37th match win-three more than the closest contender.[58]
July
Ten ATP tournaments and seven WTA tournaments were scheduled in July. July also marked the beginning of the US Open Series.
When the new rankings were released on July 7, Novak Djokovic officially became the first man to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals in November.[59]Rafael Nadal became the second man to qualify in the following week.[60]
For the first time since 2004, former world number one Lleyton Hewitt won multiple titles in a single year by defeating Ivo Karlović in the Newport final, adding a fifth different grass court title to his career total.[61]
The first ATP World Tour final contested between two players born in the 1990s occurred in Kitzbühel where David Goffin defeated Dominic Thiem to claim his first career title. Days later, more history was made at the Citi Open by Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil. Not only was the matchup the second ATP World Tour final between two players born in the 1990s, it was also the first ever all-Canadian final on the ATP World Tour.[62]
The US Open along with three ATP tournaments and three WTA tournaments were scheduled in August. August also marked the conclusion of the US Open Series.
Venus and Serena Williams revived their sixteen-year rivalry in the semifinals of the Rogers Cup. In just their second meeting in the past four years, Venus snapped a five match losing streak to the current world number one and booked her place in the final.[63]
In a dramatic three-set encounter, Ana Ivanovic defeated Maria Sharapova in the semifinals of the Western and Southern Open. The win meant that Ivanovic would enter the US Open with a tour-leading 47 match wins and a return to the top ten in the WTA Tour rankings.[64]
Novak Djokovic's bid to become the first man to win all nine Masters 1000 titles was cut short in the round of sixteen at the Western and Southern Open.[65] The world number one enters the final Grand Slam of the year with a 2–2 win loss record in the US Open Series.
After withdrawing from all other summer hard court events, defending champion Rafael Nadal also withdrew from the US Open due to a right wrist injury.[66]
Due to a recent rule change in which a player's point total is doubled by accumulating points from at least three different tournaments, Milos Raonic was the men's winner of the 2014 US Open Series despite not winning either of the two Masters 1000 titles. The rule did not affect the outcome of the women's winner in which Stanford and Cincinnati champion, Serena Williams was rewarded first place.
The US Open women's top seeds had yet another disappointing showing at a Grand Slam event. For the third consecutive major tournament, three of the top four seeds failed to advance to the quarterfinals. The results matched those of the French Open in that three of the top four seeds failed to reach the second week of a Grand Slam. Agnieszka Radwańska was seeded fourth and lost in the second round while the third round resulted in upsets for the second seeded Simona Halep and the third seeded Petra Kvitová.
Mike and Bob Bryan won a monumental 100th tour level title by capturing their fifth US Open championship in the men's doubles.[67]
By virtue of advancing to the US Open final, Serena Williams became the first woman to qualify for the season ending championships in Singapore.[68] In the final, Williams defeated Caroline Wozniacki to win her third straight US Open title and 18th Grand Slam title overall. The win was monumental in many aspects: it placed Williams in a three-way tie for second most Grand Slam titles in the open era with Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert and it also tied her with Evert for most US Open titles in the open era with six.[69]
For the first time since the 2005 Australian Open, neither Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, nor Novak Djokovic were present in a Grand Slam final. In the semifinals, Kei Nishikori knocked out top-ranked Djokovic, while Marin Čilić upset Federer to set up a historic final at the US Open. Čilić would go on to take the title, defeating Asia's first Grand Slam finalist, Nishikori, in straight sets.
^ Due to his results in Cincinnati, Federer became the third man to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals. This was his record thirteenth consecutive year in which he qualified for the year end championships.[70]
September
Six ATP tournaments, eight WTA tournaments, and the third week of the Davis Cup were scheduled in September.
Maria Sharapova became the second woman to qualify for the year-end Championships on September 9.[71]Simona Halep joined Sharapova in the eight woman line-up on September 15.[72]
Australian Open champion Li Na announced her retirement from the sport on September 19.[74] Li was the first Asian Grand Slam singles champion, male or female, and was ranked number 6 at the time of the announcement.
^ Due to her results in Wuhan, Kvitová became the fourth woman to qualify for the WTA Tour Championships. This was her fourth consecutive year qualifying for the event.[75]
Serena Williams wins the WTA Finals dominating Simona Halep in the final after having already been beaten by her in the Round Robin stage and nearly getting knocked out of the semifinals against Caroline Wozniacki to end the year at No. 1 for the fourth time.
