In her latest Sky Sports column, Gigi Salmon takes a trip down memory lane reflecting on the best moments from 2024 and looks ahead to what the New Year may bring.

While for most of us Christmas is the finish line to the working year, for professional sportsmen and women – thinking in particular about tennis and football, which I have covered for a number of years – it’s just another working week.

I remember years ago while working for Chelsea, we would head to work to watch and report on the players training on Christmas Day morning for the daily news programme, then for the players it was home to have an early Christmas lunch, then back a few hours later to the training ground to head off to a hotel in preparation for the Boxing Day match.

For tennis players it’s similar, although for most December 25 will be spent far away from loved ones, with holidays in the Maldives long since come and gone and the season getting underway in New Zealand and Australia before the year comes to an end.

With just a few days left of 2024 I wanted to look back on what has been a very special year with the launch of Sky Sports Tennis, a channel dedicated to a very special sport.

We began in the rain in Doha for the WTA 1000 event, opening up the channel with Emma Raducanu wrapped up against the unseasonably cold weather. And what a year to launch, one that has involved a bee invasion, multiple retirements, failed drug tests by the respective world No 1s and a Grand Slam semi-final run by the British No 1.

After launching in Doha we were next on site in Indian Wells, the first part of the Sunshine Double set in Palm Springs – a favourite stop on the tour for most players but not one where you expect to come across a bee invasion, which is what happened not long into the men’s quarter-final between Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev.

I’ve since learnt that March is ‘swarming season’ in California and it just so happened that the Queen Bee took a liking to the spider cam on stadium one.

The day was saved by celebrity beekeeper Lance Davis, who – barehanded – removed the swarm. I spoke to Alcaraz after the match who admitted that it was scary, he didn’t know what was going on and that he was stung a few times.

A few days later the Spaniard would win the title.

Retirements to remember

It was also a year for retirements. We had 18 in total and most of which we saw coming, but it didn’t make it any easier when the time came.

Andy Murray made his final tour appearance at Wimbledon with his brother Jamie in the doubles before hanging up his racquet at the Olympics, an event which also saw us wave goodbye to former world No 1 and Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber.

Former US Open champion Dominic Thiem said goodbye in Vienna, former world No 1 Garbine Muguruza confirmed that her year-long sabbatical was becoming permanent and lastly Rafael Nadal, whose body could take no more, bowed out representing Spain at the Davis Cup finals.

Superstar Sinner headlines in 2024

It was also the year of Jannik Sinner which saw the 23-year-old Italian win 73 matches and lose just six, winning at least a set in all 79 matches played, resulting in eight titles – including his first two Grand Slam crowns in Australia and New York.

What made it so extraordinary is that he achieved most of this having failed two drug tests in March, which didn’t become public knowledge until the end of September – a week before the US Open.

He would subsequently be cleared of any ‘fault or negligence’, something that WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) is currently appealing at CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport), with a result expected in the New Year.

The year would end with Iga Swiatek, world No 1 at the time, failing a drug test for a contaminated supplement and serving a ‘silent’ one-month ban.

And for Aryna Sabalenka, what a year finishing as year end No 1, something she told us at the WTA Finals had been a dream of hers for as long as she can remember.

She is the best player in the world right now in the women’s game on a hard court, winning both the Australian Open and US Open titles – two of the four titles she would win in 2024 while coming back from personal tragedy off the court and an injury which led to her missing Wimbledon.

Looking ahead to the New Year

To 2025 and we have so much to watch out for and look forward to. I’m excited to see how Raducanu will do.

A few of us were lucky enough to have some time to chat with her in pre-season and it all sounds very positive. In addition to coach Nick Cavaday, she has added renowned strength and conditioning coach Yutaka Nakamura to her team.

Expectations will always be high for Raducanu – she has no control over that after rising to fame with her stunning US Open win in 2021 – but she seems better prepared both physically and mentally for what lies ahead.

As does British No 1 Jack Draper after a breakthrough season that saw him reach a career-high ranking of 15, win his first two career titles and go on a run that took him to the semi-finals of the US Open.

Expectations will rise and the pressure will change but he seems ready for what’s to come and believes he has learnt from past experiences.

The slight cloud over pre-season was a hip injury he picked up which led to his withdrawal from the season opener, the United Cup.

British No 1 Katie Boulter goes into 2025 at her career high with new pressures to face, titles and points to defend and a feeling that she will never be satisfied.

Looking ahead to the first Grand Slam of the year and Great Britain will (as I write this) have seven direct entrants into the singles draws: Katie Boulter, Raducanu, Sonay Kartal, Jodie Burrage, Draper, Cameron Norrie and Jacob Fearnley.

A further eight players are set to run the gauntlet of qualifying: Harriet Dart, Francesca Jones, Heather Watson, Lily Miyazaki, Billy Harris, Dan Evans, Jan Choinski and Paul Jubb.

And let’s not forget that we will be seeing Murray once again at the Australian Open but this time in a coaching capacity alongside Novak Djokovic, who is in search of a history-making 25th Grand Slam title and what would be an 11th at Melbourne Park.

What’s more, the outspoken Nick Kyrgios is back after, in his words, a “brutal” couple of years out injured to give it “one more shot” at winning a Grand Slam singles title.

As to who will win the Grand Slam titles in 2025, I’m still thinking that through so watch out for my predictions in columns to come!

In terms of players to watch out for, Brits aside, I would say keep a close eye on Arthur Fils. I thought 2024 would be his year but I think I went a year too early, as well as Jakub Mensik and Matteo Berettini, if he can stay healthy.

On the women’s side, Diana Shnaider had a breakthrough 2024. Can she build on that momentum and confidence? It will be interesting to see how the partnership of Elena Rybakina and Goran Ivanisevic comes together.

Gigi’s 2024 highlight reel

My personal firsts for 2024 as part of the Sky Sports Tennis team: being taught how to escape from a crocodile in Miami, surviving ‘hell week’ at Barry’s Bootcamp, completing a 10k with Laura Robson hours before the semi-finals in Doha, getting Martina Navratilova and Annabel Croft to dance live on the channel and riding on the same camel as Laura up a sand dune in Riyadh.

Sky Sports Tennis will be back on the road again and the wonderful thing about the tennis tour and the tournaments we cover is that each one has its own personality, is enjoyable for different reasons and I also get the chance to work alongside and have a lot of fun with some great people

What a year it’s been with the launch of the channel keeping our loyal tennis base company, informed and entertained and opening up the sport we love and follow to a new audience, something we are looking forward to doing more of in the New Year.

And while Raducanu said she didn’t have a particular New Year’s resolution, mine on a tennis front will be to be better at predictions as mine were truly shocking at times!

One question to leave you with before I sign off for the year: if I asked you to pick your most surprising piece of 2024 tennis news, the news that made you stop in your tracks and wonder if it could really be true, would it be the news of Sinner failing two drug tests, Swiatek failing one drug test or Djokovic hiring Murray as his new coach?

It’s a tough call as they were all pretty jaw-dropping.

Sky Sports+ has officially launched and will be integrated into Sky TV, streaming service NOW and the Sky Sports app, giving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost. Find out more here.