Offbeat awards

From marquee matches to feisty feuds, to major meltdowns and the tennis Twitter, and all of fashion faux-pas and sexy, skillful shots in between, SI Tennis'

Courtney Nguyen | Dec 18, 2014

Offbeat awards /

From marquee matches to feisty feuds, to major meltdowns and the tennis Twitter, and all of fashion faux-pas and sexy, skillful shots in between, SI Tennis' Year-End Awards have the entire span of the 2014 tennis season covered. Check back throughout the month of December to see the best and worst of the season.

Now that we've covered the essentials -- top WTA and ATP matches, best hot shots and points and MVPs of the year -- let's take a look at the winners of SI.com's unconventional awards of the 2014 season.

Best breakup

Caroline Wozniacki and Rory McIlroy. They both returned to their best form after breaking up in May.

Worst breakup

Andy Murray and Ivan Lendl. Murray eventually rebounded well but those first few months were full of sadness.

Best trophy-winning hat

Grigor Dimitrov at the Mexican Open.

Worst trophy-winning hat

Bernard Tomic at the Claro Open in Bogota. Unfortunately for IvoKarlovic, it was also the worst trophy-losing hat.

Worst ticketholder value

Bernard Tomic. He was on the losing end of both the shortest match of the season (28 minutes to JarkoNieminen at the Sony Open) and the shortest ATP final of the season (53 minutes to Juan Martin del Potro at the Sydney International).

Worst habit

Novak Djokovic double-faults on match point at the French Open for the second time in three years.

Best post-match ATP handshake

Tommy Robredo's double-bird flip after losing to Andy Murray in the Valencia Open final. Murray saved five match points to win, which is precisely what he did against Robredo to win the Shenzhen Open a few weeks earlier.

Best post-match ATP hug

Dudi Sela grabs a chair to even things up with Ivo Karlovic.

Worst post-match ATP handshake

Fabio Fognini at the Shanghai Masters.

Best post-match WTA handshake

Barbora Zahlavova Strycova schools Elina Svitolina on how to give a proper post-loss handshake.

Worst post-match WTA handshake

Eugenie Bouchard'sno-handshake for No. 137 Kristina Kucova at the Fed Cup draw ceremony because she thought the idea of wishing your opponent good luck before the match was "lame.”

Best Shanker

Roger Federer. They don't call him "Shankerer" for nothing. When he misses, he misses big.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/ej-bOcQ8mZw]

Best interview by a dog

Hacker T. Dog sits down with Andy Murray at Wimbledon.

Best commercial

Serena Williams for Beats by Dre. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go hit the gym now.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTD79N5PUN0]

Worst commercial

Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray for HEAD. Who in the world wants to buy a ball you can't hit for a winner?

Engagement that finally happened

Andy Murray and Kim Sears.

Engagement that came out of nowhere

Zeljko Krajan and Polona Hercog.

Saddest GIF:

Roger Federer's single tear after losing the Wimbledon final. Sniff.

Best marathon

The New York City Marathon and Caroline Wozniacki's speedy run of it.

Worst marathon

Fabio Fognini and Gael Monfils terrible and exhaustingly entertaining third round match at the French Open.

Best Photo with Michael Jordan

Roger Federer.

[tweet=https://twitter.com/rogerfederer/status/504056436817539073]

Worst Photo with Michael Jordan

Marinko Matosevic.

Biggest WTA umpiring mistake

During the French Open, Daniela Hantuchova played a ball that was called out. The umpire checked the ball and it was ruled in. Yet somehow Angelique Kerber was awarded the point. [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ip4b4otl-c0]

Biggest ATP umpiring mistake

At Indian Wells, Denis Istomin was disallowed a timely challenge and the point was awarded to Radek Stepanek, despite the fact that he missed the next shot.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/nozroBGhO0s]

Best unnecessary tweener

Federer nails Matosevic in the butt in front of Michael Jordan and pretends to be sorry.

The Most Stereotypically "Tennis" Thing to Happen in 2014

Donald Young gets an audible obscenity warning for yelling "Son of a biscuit!"

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbarCmH5fR8]

Best goofy Victoria Azarenka moment

That time she dressed up as a police officer and umpired a Rally for Bally charity exhibition.

Worst goofy Victoria Azarenka moment

That time she awkwardly tried to get the Ashe crowd to join her in wishing Gael Monfils a happy birthday.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0hbvyktmcc]

Best response to an antagonistic crowd

Novak Djokovic and his dot.

Worst response to an antagonistic crowd

Sara Errani shushes the New York crowd after beating Venus Williams 6-0, 0-6, 7-6 at the U.S. Open.

Best confirmation of a relationship

Flavia Pennetta and Fabio Fognini tweet from bed.

Worst confirmation of a relationship

Sloane Stephens and Jack Sock's discussion of birth control in Elle Magazine.

Best shoulder tap

Serena Williams interrupts Alize Cornet's post-upset revelry to remind her they're supposed to walk off the court together.

[tweet=https://twitter.com/IdemoAna/status/544707947763220480/photo/1]

Best response to a shoulder tap

Cornet walked off court with Serena, then returned to take her curtain call anyway.

[tweet=https://twitter.com/silverslam/status/483203240381534209]

Best retirement send-off

Nike builds an entire campaign around Li Na's closing words in her retirement letter: Be the bird that sticks out.

Worst retirement send-off

During Dinara Safina's retirement ceremony at the Madrid Open, Maria Sharapova congratulated Safina for quitting tennis to start a family. Which she wasn't.

Craziest picture of Jerzy Janowicz

Well that's easy:

Worst press conference

"Congratulations."

Best Nurse Jackie impersonation

Maria Sharapova.

Best old-man moment

Roger Federer forgets the score and doesn't realize he's won against Kei Nishikori in Halle.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/EnPrni4cYzI]

Feel-good story of the year

Mirjana Lucic-Baroni. She beat Simona Halep to advance to the fourth round of the U.S. Open, the first time she's been that deep at a Slam in 15 years. Then a few weeks later she beat Venus Williams to win her first WTA title in 16 years.

Best body blow

Sloane Stephens vs. Victoria Azarenka

Worst body blow

The series of head-hunting shots exchanged by Alla Kudryavtseva/Anastasia Rodionova and Letisha/Angel Chan in a heated match at the Family Circle Cup. Rodionova took a shot in the head early and it was retaliation attempt after retaliation attempt until Rodionova had to retire due to a head injury.

Best Twins, Adult Edition

Bob and Mike Bryan.

Best Twins, Kids Edition

Charlene and Myla Rose Federer.

Best celebrity appearance at a tennis tournament

Prince and his scepter, obviously.

Best Petko Dance

Pam Shriver on ESPN after Andrea Petkovic (who has tried to put the dance behind her) won the Family Circle Cup.

[tweet=https://twitter.com/Renestance/status/543516877524586496]

Best Andy Murray moment

Murray can't help but crack up when he overhears Serena Williams talking about his on-court demeanor on the ESPN set.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2FfuEXceuA]

Worst collapse in a match

Leonardo Mayer at the Shanghai Open. There are worse ones on paper, but after playing the match of his life to earn five match points on his idol, Mayer played nervous tennis, couldn’t convert and eventually lost to Federer 7-5, 3-6 ,7-6(7). He was inconsolable afterwards. Here was his most soul-crushing match point miss:

[youtube=http://youtu.be/zsxlkGMznEU]

Most inspiring over-40 player who also happens to endorse non-alcoholic beer

Kimiko Date Krumm wins this by a landslide for the second straight year.

Published Dec 18, 2014

COURTNEY NGUYEN

Contributor, SI.com Nguyen is a freelance writer for SI.com, providing full coverage of professional tennis both on and off the court. Her content has become a must-read for fans and insiders to stay up-to-date with a sport that rarely rests. She has appeared on radio and TV talk shows all over the world and is one of the co-hosts of No Challenges Remaining, a weekly podcast available on iTunes. Nguyen graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 1999 and received a law degree from the University of California, Davis in 2002. She lives in the Bay Area.