Wonderful World of Tennis / Sean Calvert / 21 December 2010 /

Santoro and Moya called it a day, Fish gave up the saturated fats and Nadal and Murray played out a three hour epic. Sean Calvert talks us through the best moments from the second half of the year on the ATP Tour.

While the ATP Tour enjoys its few short weeks off at the end of another gruelling season, we conclude our look back at the key moments in men's tennis in 2010 with my picks from the last six months.

Fish knuckles down

Throughout his career, Mardy Fish was often accused of lacking the necessary desire towards training and nutrition, but all that changed in mid-2010 and the American profited greatly as a result. The realisation at 28-years-of-age that it was now or never saw Fish quit the junk food and train like a Trojan. The leaner Mardy enjoyed a great summer where he reached the final at Queen's Club, won in Newport and Atlanta, and reached the final of the ATP Masters 1000 in Cincinatti. Fish ended the year at a career high of 16 in the rankings and will be targeting a run in Melbourne after his season was ended early by injury.

Fond farewells

This year saw the retirement of two modern day greats of the men's game in Fabrice Santoro and Carlos Moya. The latter ruled the clay courts for a time in the late 90's and the pinnacle of his career was the French Open title in 1998, but he also won three ATP Masters 1000 events, including one on hard courts in 'Cincy'. The Spaniard was ranked number one in the world in 1999 and won at least one title per year from 1995 to 2007 other than in 1999. Santoro of course was a true one-off with a playing style so unorthodox that he bamboozled many top players despite not possessing many of the attributes of the modern day player. Despite officially retiring in 2009, The Magician came back in Melbourne to become the only player to have played Grand Slams in four different decades.

Coaches come and go

Andy Murray's relationship with Miles Maclagan bit the dust in July after a dismal clay court swing and so-so Wimbledon and he ended the season without an official coach. Alex Corretja will carry on in the unofficial role Murray announced this week and other long-term splits included Robin Soderling and Magnus Norman. This could be significant to the Swede's prospects next season, as he begins 2011 with a new coach in Claudio Pistolesi.

It will be interesting to see how the notoriously prickly Soderling develops with the new man at the helm. Roger Federer brought Paul Annacone in as coach in August and looked near his very best towards the end of the year, while Lleyton Hewitt is also back with Tony Roche for 2011, as he targets an unlikely return to the top 10.

Novak's late improvement

The Serbinator struggled badly in the first half of the year, but was transformed from September onwards and won one of my top two matches of the season by beating Federer in the last four of the US Open. From the brink of defeat, Djokovic played one of the best single games that I can remember to stun the Swiss and make the final. He'd shown little on hard-courts in 2010 until then and nobody gave him a prayer at Flushing Meadows, but that win galvanized him and he went on to win in Beijing, reach the final in Basel and best of all, won the Davis Cup with Serbia.

The match of the year

We had to wait until right at the last knockings of the 2010 season to witness an absolute classic match that had it all, but Nadal v Murray in the last four of the ATP Tour Finals in London was worth the wait. The Spaniard prevailed after 192 minutes of breathtaking entertainment involving two tie breaks and Nadal coming from 4-1 behind in the final set breaker to pinch it from the Scot. Murray blasted 22 aces and won more points in the match, but Rafa would not be denied and squeezed the life out of Murray, who later commented that 'matches like this are why I play tennis'. It was arguably Murray's best performance of the year and a real treat for the packed crowd at the O2.

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