Doping rows take sheen off stellar season

'Stress and anxiety'

On the women's tour, Swiatek dazzled with five titles, which included her fourth French Open trophy, but was leapfrogged to the top ranking by Australian Open and US Open winner Aryna Sabalenka, and ended the season with a one-month ban.

The Pole tested positive for trimetazidine, but authorities accepted it was caused by contamination of her sleep medication melatonin, prompting 2019 Wimbledon champion Simona Halep to slam doping authorities after she had to battle to have her own ban reduced from four years to nine months.

"Both me and my team had to deal with tremendous stress and anxiety. Now everything has been carefully explained, and with a clean slate, I can go back to what I love most," Swiatek said.

There were pleasant surprises, too, as Barbora Krejcikova won her second major at Wimbledon, Zheng Qinwen bagged Olympic gold, Coco Gauff wore the WTA Finals crown in its new home of Riyadh and Jasmine Paolini led Italy to glory in the Billie Jean King Cup.

Golden Games

Perhaps no triumph meant more to a player than Djokovic winning Olympic gold, with the 37-year-old recovering after tamely losing to Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final to outlast the Spaniard in the Paris Games showpiece.

Victory reduced the Serb to an emotional wreck on the Roland Garros clay, and once he managed to come up for air, he described the feat as his "greatest achievement".

With a career Grand Slam in the bag, the 24-time major champion will now look to eclipse Margaret Court's haul under the guidance of old rival and new coach Andy Murray, who ended his glorious career in Paris after an emotional farewell at Wimbledon.

There were more tears as 22-time major champion Nadal joined Murray in retirement, leaving Djokovic as the last active member of the "Big Three" that also included Roger Federer.

Nadal will be confident that the sport is in good hands, as heir apparent Alcaraz cemented his spot in the all-surface elite with magnificent French Open and Wimbledon wins to emerge as Sinner's main challenger.

REUTERS