Category Sports

If the men’s game has been dominated by the Big Three, Serena Williams has for decades now been the flag bearer for women’s single tennis. She’s 38-years-old and a mother now, but that hasn’t stopped her from winning titles.

Having won her first singles Grand Slam title at the 1999 US Open, she won her most recent major at the 2017 Australian Open, while she was pregnant! If you combine singles, doubles and mixed doubles Grand Slam titles that she has won, then her current tally is 39.

Twenty three of these are singles titles, as she continues her pursuit of Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 Grand Slams.

When she won the Wimbledon title in 2015, she held all four majors at the same time for the second time in her career, becoming only the third player – after Rod Laver and Steffi Graf – to achieve the feat.

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If you have to name one team that truly owned the NBA in the last decade, then the question can be answered without any hesitation. For the Golden State Warriors truly had a golden era, dominating the sport and notching up titles.

They have reached the NBA Finals in each of the last five years, winning the title in 2015, 2017 and 2018. Along the way, they notched up the best regular season in NBA history, most wins (regular and postseason combined) in a season and the best postseason run as well.

Four of the five NBA Finals that Warriors competed in the last decade was against the Cleveland Cavaliers. In fact, the two franchises faced off in the final for four consecutive years a record in the NBA.

While Warriors hold the upper hand with respect to the results, having won three of those four finals, the Cavaliers too had something to cheer. The manner in which they won the 2016 title made it all the more remarkable. After trailing 3-1 in the seven-match NBA Finals series, the Cavs won the last three in a row, lifting the title in the process. It capped a remarkable comeback as the Cavaliers became the first team in NBA history to win the NBA Finals after trailing 3-1 after four games.

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For some time now in men’s tennis, there has been speculation about when the next generation of players will usurp the current crop. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic – referred to as the Big Three – ensured that it didn’t happen last decade as they won 33 of the 40 Grand Slam events that took place.

Federer took his majors tally to 20 by the end of the last decade, the most by any man in singles history. At 38, he is certainly not getting any younger, but continues to be at the top of the game.

Nadal, who is second in the all-time list of singles Grand Slam titles for men with 19, is not called the King of Clay without reason. Twelve of his 19 majors have come in the French Open, including eight in the last decade. Apart from 2015 and 2016, Nadal has won the French Open every year in last 10 years.

Djokovic has 16 Grand Slam singles title in his kitty. With a record seven Australian Open titles, including six in the previous decade, Djokovic became only the third man – and the first since Rod Laver in 1969 – to hold all four majors at the same time, when he won the French Open for the first time in 2016. Djokovic is also the only male player to have won all nine Masters 1000 tournaments – a feat he achieved in 2018.

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The decade was marked by some good news for India on the badminton court. While the men had middling and intermittent success, the women have been consistent in their excellence.

Saina Nehwal was India’s poster girl at the start of the decade and she won herself and the country a bronze at the 2012 London Olympics. She also became the first Indian female – and only the second after Prakash Padukone – to hold the world number one ranking, when she achieved the feat in 2015. Silver and bronze medals at the 2015 and 2017 World Championship have further swelled her reputation and she still remains a force to reckon.

PV Sindhu, however, has become the top female badminton player in the country by the end of the decade. Apart from her unforgettable silver from the 2016 Rio Olympics, Sindhu also became only the second woman to claim five or more World Championship medal. Following bronze medals in 2013 and 2014, silver medals in 2017 and 2018, she finally won gold at the 2019 event in Basel, becoming the first Indian World Championship winner.

Among the men, Kidambi Srikanth became only the fourth player to win four Super Series titles on a year in 2017. He also briefly held the world number one ranking in 2018.

B Sai Praneeth, meanwhile, did himself proud with a bronze at the 2019 World Championships.

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In 2010, Spanish racer Marc Marquez won the 125cc World Championship. In 2012, he captured the Moto2 World Championship. Participating in the premier MotoGP class for the first time in 2013, he won the title in his debut season itself! With that, Marquez became one of four riders to have won world championship titles in three different categories.

Racing for Honda’s factory team since his MotoGP debut, Marquez has moved from strength to strength through the decade. He won the MotoGP title in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 as well, losing out only in 2015, when Jorge Lorenze won the title.

At the age of 26, Marquez is already a six-time world champion, the youngest to win the title (when he won in 2013) and holds the record for most points and podiums ever for a rider in a single season (420 points and 18 podium finishes from 19 races in 2019).

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The decade started with a FIFA World Cup in 2010. Spain’s winning streak post Euro 2008 continued and they went on to win their first ever World Cup in 2010. Their dominance continued for a few more years as they defended their Euro title in 2012.

Spain, however, were knocked out of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil in the group stages itself. Germany became the first European nation to win a World Cup in South American soil and they did it in style. Their 7-1 victory over hosts Brazil and 1-0 extra-time win over another South American powerhouse Argentina in the final gave them the title for a fourth time.

However, Germany was knocked out in the group stages in the 2018 World Cup IN Russia. France, who had entered the tournament as one of the favourites, went on to win the title, defeating a determined Croatia side 4-2 in the final.

The previous decade also witnessed unprecedented growth in the women’s game. While U.S. finished runners up to Japan in the 2011 World Cup, they won back to back titles in 2015 and 2019. All this when more people than ever before were thronging the stadiums to support their stars.

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