Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Emma Raducanu, Serena Williams, Andy Murray in bold tennis predictions for 2022

How many major titles will Novak Djokovic win in 2022? Will Serena Williams finally win her 24th Grand Slam title? Will Naomi Osaka add to her Grand Slam collection? And what’s next for Emma Raducanu?

The 2022 tennis season is shaping up to be an intriguing one.

And with the start of the 2022 Australian Open just weeks away, it’s time to gaze into the crystal ball and make some bold predictions for the year ahead…

When was the last time that happened I hear you ask.

You have to go back to 2014 to when Stan Wawrinka, Rafael Nadal, Djokovic and Marin Cilic all lifted majors for one of the few occasions this century that four different men have lifted a Grand Slam trophy in the same season.

So who’s going to win them in 2022?

Daniil Medvedev is going to go one better than last year and win the Australian Open, whether Djokovic is there or not. Stefanos Tsitsipas is also going to get some revenge on Djokovic by winning the French Open, followed by a 21st Grand Slam title for Djokovic at Wimbledon. And the US Open? Alexander Zverev will follow in the footsteps of Medvedev and Dominic Thiem by making his major breakthrough in New York.

It’s all about No. 24 for Serena Williams, it has been for some time.

Williams has hardly played on the WTA Tour over the last few seasons except for when she has been gearing up for a major. That approach is unlikely to change in 2022 as she is recovering from injury and will be looking to focus all her energy on one last shot at another Grand Slam title.

Her best chance to tie Margaret Court’s record will clearly be at Wimbledon, where she seemed as though she would have a good shot this summer before an unfortunate injury saw her retire in the first round. If Williams does win Wimbledon then that seems as good a place as any to call it a day. Yes there would be the potential carrot of trying to break the all-time record at the US Open, but Williams hasn’t won her home major since 2014, and physically it could be a tough ask. Instead it would be fitting if she called time on her fabulous career with an eighth Wimbledon title, which would make it her most successful Slam.

A 2021 season that started so well for Naomi Osaka, winning her fourth Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, ended with her uncertainty over her future in tennis.

Osaka played just eight matches after withdrawing from the French Open following her decision not to attend press conferences. She announced after her third-round exit at the US Open that she would be taking an indefinite break from tennis, but looks set to return in Australia.

Osaka has entered an Australian Open warm-up event in Melbourne, where she will be looking to get into form ahead of the first major of the season.

It appears an ideal place for Osaka to get back on court. She has played some of her best tennis at the Australian Open and the media spotlight will not be on her as fiercely at the ‘happy Slam’ as it is at some of the other top-tier events. If Osaka is fit and healthy she will be a contender in Melbourne and that may set her up for a big season.

With a new coach corner in her corner and a new season coming up, it feels like the start of a fresh chapter for Emma Raducanu.

The 19-year-old will hope to put her post-US Open results firmly behind her – two wins from five matches – and focus fully on her first full year on the WTA Tour. What is reasonable to expect from Raducanu in 2022? If she can find the same level that she showed in New York then there is no doubt she will go deep in tournaments, it will be up to new coach Torben Beltz to help her do that.

There may be less pressure on her at the first two majors of the year as she will be competing at both for the first time, but Wimbledon and the US Open provide the comfort of familiarity. With a hard-hitting game that can cause damage against any opponent, Raducanu will make the last four of one of the Slams this year.

Mats Wilander reckons Andy Murray will break into the top 10 again, which is a very bold prediction, but to do that he needs to start making deep runs at tournaments.

So far his attempts to do so have been hindered by tough draws and inconsistent performances, but Murray has shown that he still has the quality to mix it with the very best in the world. This looks as though it will be a pivotal year for him and if he has a strong off-season then he should be able to find another level.

It would be nice to see him in the second week of a Slam again – he hasn’t done that since Wimbledon 2017 – and it would be great to see him challenging for silverware again. He might not get a shot at the biggest prizes but he will make a final next year.

When Federer gave an update on his health last month it was not too surprising that he confirmed he was going to miss the Australian Open.

But his comment that he would be “extremely surprised” to make Wimbledon was…surprising.

Federer has not played since losing to Hubert Hurkacz in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon this year and it was expected that he would target a return at the All England Club after a third knee surgery. However, that now looks uncertain, even if he has made some positives noises about his fitness recently.

Federer will turn 41 next August and seems to be setting himself for a farewell tour. If he doesn’t get back in time for Wimbledon then does not it make sense to return on hard courts in the US and potentially risk further injury? Or will he opt to ensure he is at peak fitness before hitting the tour again for one final time in 2023? The latter option seems most likely.

It's been pretty much a given over the last 15 years that Nadal would win at least, probably two, clay-court titles a season. But his powers appear to be waning and neither of his two titles on the dirt this year were easy as he was pushed to three sets by Djokovic in the Italian Open final and Tsitsipas in the Barcelona Open final.

While Djokovic still appears to be ahead of the Next Gen, Nadal seems to have slipped back and is now on a par with them. That, combined with uncertainty over his fitness, means that this year could be a difficult one for Nadal.