Novak Djokovic won his third Australian Open by beating Rafael Nadel in the longest-ever major championship match – five hours and 53 minutes. © Gallo Images

Victoria Azarenka won her first Grand Slam title in Australia by beating Maria Sharapova in the final. She finished the year as World No 1 and has been top for 44 weeks in 2012. © Gallo Images

Rafael Nadal won a record 7th title at Roland Garros, but then his injury-plagued year ended after he lost to Lukas Rosol in the 2nd round of Wimbledon. He finished outside the top two in the year-end rankings for the first time in 8 years. © Gallo Images

Maria Sharapova won her 4th Grand Slam title at Roland Garros and became the 6th woman in the open era to achieve the career Grand Slam. She went on to lose the Olympic final against Serena Williams. © Gallo Images

Roger Federer won a record-equalling 7th Wimbledon title, beating home-favourite Andy Murray in the final. Then on 16 July he became No 1 for the 287th week, breaking the previous record of Pete Sampras © Gallo Images

Serena Williams won her 14th Grand Slam and fifth Wimbledon crown in July, moving level with her sister Venus in terms of titles won on the hallowed turf of SW19. © Gallo Images

Andy Murray became the first British man to win the Olympic singles gold medal since 1908 by crushing Wimbledon champion Roger Federer in the final. He also claimed a silver in the mixed-doubles final with Laura Robson. © Gallo Images

What a year for Serena Williams. She won both the singles and doubles gold medals at the Olympics (pictured here with her sister Venus), and became the first tennis player, male or female, to hold a career Golden Slam in singles and doubles (singles and doubles titles from all the Slams, and the Olympics). She also became the only tennis player in Olympic history to win four medals. © Gallo Images

Andy Murray became the first British male to win a Grand Slam title in 76 years by beating Novak Djokovic in five sets at the US Open in New York. Throw in his success at London 2012 as well, and this was a career-best year for the Scotsman. © Gallo Images

Serene Serena. The younger Williams sister hugs the US Open trophy in victory for the fourth time, her 15th Grand Slam title. Unsurprisingly, she went on to be named World Champion for 2012 by the International Tennis Federeation. © Gallo Images

Novak Djokovic won his second ATP World Tour Finals in London in November, defeating Roger Federer in the final. He finished the year as world No 1 for the second consecutive year, and was named World Champion for 2012 by the International Tennis Federation. © Gallo Images

The Czech Republic won a second straight Fed Cup by beating Serbia 3-1 in the final. © Reuters

The 100th Davis Cup final was between Czech Republic and Spain, and went down to the final rubber – Radek Stepanek v Nicolas Almagro - before Stepanek's four-set win sparked wild home celebrations. It was the Czech Republic's second Davis Cup victory, with the last one in 1980, and also handed the country the Fed Cup-Davis Cup double. © Gallo Images

Not a great deal to get excited about as far as SA players were concerned, but there was a victory for Kevin Anderson in a 250 event at Delray Beach, Florida, in February. Here he plays a return shot to Richard Gasquet as he went on to defeat the in-form Frenchman at the Paris Masters in October. © Gallo Images