What we learned in tennis in 2014

Another year of tennis is in the books, and, as such, we're all a year wiser. 

Here are some important bits of knowledge the 2014 tennis season has provided us.

The future is now

In sports, there's always a rush to recognize cultural and generational shifts, to celebrate upheaval and toss dirt on the caskets of champions. Part of the fun of watching anything is imbuing what we watch with urgency, and, whether real or imagined, that sense of urgency can be addictive. Which is why it's occasionally been frustrating to be a fan of men's tennis over the past decade or so. All we ever seem to get are red herrings. 

Well, 2014 blew in winds of actual change. The Second Line - as Marin Cilic refers to the group long expected to succeed the incumbent tennis royals - finally cashed in on its promise, and has massed in force at the gates. 

Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic both played in the Wimbledon semis, Ernests Gulbis cracked the final four at the French Open, and of course Cilic and Kei Nishikori played in a historic US Open final. And that's to say nothing of the flashes of brilliance we saw from even younger up-and-comers like Nick Kyrgios and Dominic Thiem.

We've been waiting a long time, but 2015 should be the year this group emerges from the wings and takes center stage. 

Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki are really good friends

Caroline Wozniacki’s resurgence was one of the feel-good storylines of the season, and those warm feelings are at least partially bound up in her budding friendship with Serena Williams. 

When everything was going wrong for Wozniacki, when nobody could talk about her as a tennis player - both because of her much-publicized breakup with erstwhile fiance Rory McIlroy and the fact that on the tennis court, she’d given people very little to talk about - it was Williams who helped shift the focus of the narrative. 

Williams - who'd apparently been planning Wozniacki's bachelorette party - suddenly started popping up all over Wozniacki's social media accounts, supporting her through the breakup, vacationing with her in Miami (a trip Wozniacki said helped pull her out of a funk), and even waiting for Wozniacki at the finish line of the New York City marathon. 

"She's like my little baby sister from a different mother and father and different country," Williams explained.

Williams won all four of their 2014 matches - even though Wozniacki won the first set in three of them - and turned Wozniacki's triumphant return to the US Open final into an utter dismantling. But the on-court disparity never seemed to strain their off-court bond. 

Maybe because Williams was always there to buy drinks afterwards.

Federer still has It

So, about those red herrings. 

Back in May, just before the French Open, I wrote that if Federer ever won another grand slam, it would have to be as an underdog. I was pretty secure in that assumption; 2013 Federer had mostly failed the eye test, and there wasn't really a precedent for guys his age bouncing back after down years. 

What I didn't account for is that Federer has been bucking precedent his whole career. All 2014 Federer did was win more matches than any other player, while amassing the second-best winning percentage and the second-most tournament victories. He climbed back to No. 2 in the world and ended up the presumptive favorite at the US Open. 

No, he won't dominate the sport as he once did (will anyone?). And no, he didn’t end up winning a Grand Slam this season. But at 33, Federer still carries the same aura of legend he did during his peak. If anything, crowds get behind him more vehemently now, for all the roiling vulnerability he emits (or represents) every time he steps on the court. With his time ostensibly running out (as it does for us all), the stakes have never been higher. 

Cilic’s demolition of Federer in the US Open semis was one of the saddest matches of the year. Less for Federer - gazillionaire, international brand, 17-time Slam champ, consensus G.O.A.T. - than for the crowd at Arthur Ashe, who realized they could do nothing to will him to victory, but could only watch and wait. 

Still, if Federer proved anything in 2014 it’s that his window hasn't closed. Underdog or favorite, we'll be hearing plenty from him in 2015.