Near-perfect Djokovic

It can be argued that no athlete, in any sport, had the year that Novak Djokovic had. No athlete was as consistent, as dominant or as complete. And it's almost a certainty that no athlete faced the level of competition that Djokovic did.

The Serbian won 11 titles, including three Grand Slams. Through the easy fixtures and the tough, Djokovic seemed unstoppable. Although he was stopped 6 times out of 98, the year he had will undoubtedly go down as one of the best in modern tennis history.

Nothing came easily to him either; in fact Djokovic beat top-10 players 31 times in order to have the year that he did. Of those top 10 players, many will go on to become legends while a few have already cemented their place in the annals of tennis history.

While Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have had fantastic years in their own right, an argument can be made that none of them had to face the level of competition which Djokovic faced in this 'golden age' of men's tennis.

Djokovic was so dominant that he reached the final of every event that he played, except for the Qatar Open, which ushered in 2015. After a surprise defeat in the quarterfinals of that event to Croatian Ivo Karlović.

However, he bounced back by not dropping a single set throughout the first five rounds of the Australian Open on his way to clinching the trophy. With an unstoppable demeanour, he became only the third man in the Open era, which began in 1968, to reach the finals of each Grand Slam.

The only blight on Djokovic's year was the fact that he was beaten by Stan Wawrinka in the final of the French Open, a loss that meant that the honour of being the second person after Rod Laver in 1969 to complete a Calender Grand Slam in men's tennis eluded him. Wawrinka, who had cracked 60 winners in that final, admitted after the match that he had played 'the game of his life'. That is the kind of level a player had to be at to stop Djokovic. Unfortunately, few ever came close to that.

Djokovic comfortably finished the year at No. 1 in the rankings of the Association of Tennis Professionals -- his third year consecutive year at the top -- and his total of 16,585 ATP ranking points is the most ever accumulated, and more than what No. 2 Andy Murray and No. 3 Roger Federer combined accumulated.