Tennis: Highlights and lowlights

By Jon Wertheim, SI.com

Player of the decade

The 2008 Wimbledon final was the height of the Federer-Nadal rivalry -- and the peak of tennis this decade. Julian Finney/Getty Images More 2000s: By Sport NFL MLB Pop Culture NHL NBA College Basketball College Football Golf Tennis Soccer Olympics Boxing MMA Auto Racing Horse Racing Cycling High School Decade across sports

• Men: Roger Federer. He's alone atop the mountain, not just for the past decade but for always. Put simply, he is the GOAT, the greatest of all time. Since Wimbledon of 2003, Federer has won 15 of the 26 majors he's entered -- including each of the four at least once -- to set the all-time record. Plus, he has done it with a singular combination of will and grace.

• Women: Serena Williams. The best by a healthy margin. She won 11 major singles titles -- including titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. And she played as well in 2009 as she did in 1999, the year she first broke through. Bonus points for her excellence in doubles, her success at the Olympics and her unrivaled competitive fire. The critics -- the "Hatorade drinkers," as she might put it -- will point to her selective scheduling, mysterious absences and penchant for drama. But maybe that helped inform her success.

Click here for Jon Wertheim's top male and top 10 female players of the decade

Best match

• Men: Rafael Nadal vs. Roger Federer, 2008 Wimbledon final. The match had it all: context, gravitas, swings in momentum, injury, recovery, sportsmanship, acts of God. And some of the highest quality tennis ever played. In the end, it was a five-hour infomercial for everything right and virtuous about the sport. Nadal ended up prevailing 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7, but those prone to cliché had it right: Tennis was the real winner that day.

• Justine Henin vs. Jennifer Capriati, 2003 U.S. Open semifinal. A memorable contrast of styles (aesthetic, personal, physical, emotional), heavy-hitting tennis, a partisan crowd and a third-set tiebreaker. Henin was so depleted after her 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4) victory that she needed an intravenous drip afterward. Not that it stopped her from beating Kim Clijsters in the final the following night.

Signature shot

• Men: Fed's trickery. Leave it to Federer to elevate the between-the-legs shot from a fugue of showmanship to a bona fide weapon.

• Women: Venus serving at 129 mph. You want progress? This was twice as fast as some top players were serving just a generation earlier.

Under-the-radar story

• Men: Relentless globalization. There is only one American currently in the ATP's top 10. Just as there is one Brit, Frenchman and Argentine. Spain, with Nadal and Fernando Verdasco, is the only country with multiple players in the top 10. The days of national powerhouses are over. The sport's ability to adjust to this reality will go a long way in determining its future success.

• Women: Sister dominance. Imagine if Tiger Woods had a brother, Lion, whom he battled for supremacy. The Venus and Serena Williams narrative has been well told, but it's still among the most underrated stories in sports. To repeat: Two sisters, who grew up in Compton, Calif., spent most of the decade batting the biggest titles back and forth.

Biggest upset

Robin Soderling toppled the King of Clay. Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images

• Men: Robin Soderling over Nadal, 2009 French Open fourth round. That Nadal lost at Roland Garros for the first time was upset enough. That, as the four-time defending champ, he lost to Soderling -- a modest clay-courter ranked outside the top 20 at the time -- was an all-time shocker. This result laid bare just how competitive men's tennis has become. It also gave some context to Federer's streak of 22 Grand Slam semifinal appearances.

• Women: Jill Craybas over Serena Williams, 2005 Wimbledon third round.The 30-year-old Craybas, ranked No. 85, a first-round loser in 17 of 24 Grand Slams she had played and owner of zero career victories against top 10 players, stunned an out-of-form Serena in straight sets. Craybas faced Venus in the next round and won two games.

Biggest overachiever

• Men: Andy Roddick. No, really. Andy Roddick. He was blessed with an elephant gun of a serve, a potent forehand and ... not much else. He's gone to extreme measures to improve, wringing everything from his game, bouncing back from demoralizing losses and remaining in the top echelon for most of the decade. Plenty of players endowed with much more have done much less.

• Women: Justine Henin. In an age when a "Big Babe physique" (attribution: Mary Carillo) became a virtual prerequisite for success in the women's game, up stepped Henin, who's only 5-6 but walks among giants. Funny thing is, she sure doesn't get outhit much.

Biggest underachiever

• Men: Mark Philippoussis. Marat Safin gets a pass with his two major titles. So we'll go with Philippoussis, a talented and physically hulking Australian, who squandered his gifts and his money in equal measure.

• Women: WTA leadership. The obvious choice is Anna Kournikova, who made millions but -- all together now -- never won a singles title. But what about the WTA corporate leaders in the early 2000s, who were unable to monetize a rich and diverse cast of players, in flush economic times no less?

Best rivalry

• Men: Federer vs. Nadal. Just as "styles make fights" in boxing, the same goes for tennis. Federer-Nadal encompasses No. 1 vs. No. 2; righty vs. lefty; grace vs. power; elegance vs. grit. About the only thing missing is personal animus. On the other hand, this is the rare sports rivalry for which rooting for both sides seems perfectly reasonable.

• Women: Williams family vs. tennis establishment. From the day they burst on the scene, everything about them resisted convention. So it wasn't surprising that Venus and Serena Williams -- and their antagonistic father -- were frequently in the crosshairs. With a theme of race seldom far from the surface, there were feuds with other players, allegations of fixed matches, tournaments boycotts, accusations of faked injuries, disputes with televisions personalities, lawsuits and boos. But to the extent that the Williams sisters brought an "us against them" mentality to the sport, "us" tended to fare pretty well.