In the aftermath of the biggest tsunami to ever hit the Wimbledon Championships, some players either took a break, sacked their coach or played extra matches to regain their confidence after being struck down early at the All England Club.

Welcome to Part III of the tennis season in review. In Part I, we reviewed the Australian Open series right through to Miami, and in Part II we covered the clay court season and the aforementioned injury and upset ravaged Wimbledon Championships, won in the end by Andy Murray and Marion Bartoli.

To kick off, Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic, both unexpected second round casualties at the All England Club, sacked their coaches, Thomas Hogstedt and Nigel Sears, respectively.

Sharapova’s dismissal of Hogstedt was a big surprise, given the Russian had just reached the peak of her career which culminated in her completing the Career Grand Slam, briefly returning to the world number one ranking and winning Silver at the Olympic Games in London.

The Russian subsequently hired Jimmy Connors in a partnership which would last just one match.

Ivanovic, in contrast, was unable to rediscover the form which saw her win the French Open and reign as world number one for three months in 2008 under Sears, though she was able to achieve some important results such as reaching the US Open quarter-finals in 2012 and reaching the last four in Madrid this year.

Back on court, and making an appearance at a small clay court tournament at Bastad was world number one Serena Williams, who appears to have rediscovered her love for clay courts as evidenced by her sweeping the European clay court swing in May and June.

But she wasn’t finished yet. She won her seventh title for the year, and the first International-level tournament of her career, by defeating home favourite Johanna Larsson in the final.

Roger Federer also made the decision to enter two small clay court tournaments, in Hamburg (which he won four times when the tournament was at Masters level) and Gstaad, though he was unable to win either.

Meanwhile, in the United States, the first of the US Open series tournaments kicked off and it started in Stanford, where Dominika Cibulkova gained revenge for the double-bagel loss inflicted upon her by Agnieszka Radwanska back in Sydney by defeating her in three sets to win the title.

The following week, Samantha Stosur won her first title since winning the 2011 US Open, displaying her best tennis all year and defeating Radwanska and Victoria Azarenka en route to winning Carlsbad.

Elsewhere, Juan Martin del Potro picked up his second title of the year by triumphing in Washington, which he also won shortly before winning the US Open in 2009.

The big names returned for the all-important tournaments in Montreal/Toronto and Cincinnati. Rafael Nadal usurped Novak Djokovic as the two-time defending champion to win his third Rogers Cup title (and second in Montreal), while Serena Williams thrashed Romania’s Sorana Cirstea (who defeated Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Jankovic, defending champion Petra Kvitova and Li Na en route) to win her eighth title of the year in Toronto.

The Rogers Cup saw the full-time return to the Tour of Alisa Kleybanova, who on her 22nd birthday in 2011 revealed she was fighting a bout of cancer which saw her ranking plummet down to the 300s.

For those who don’t remember her, you may remember her as being the player whom Jelena Dokic defeated in a thrilling fourth round showdown at the Australian Open in 2009.

That match is one I still remember well, as Dokic (who by the way is trying to earn a wildcard for next year’s Australian Open) regained the respect and graciousness of the Australian public following her well-publicised injuries and clashes with her father.

In Cincinnati, Nadal once again unseated the defending champion, this time Roger Federer, whose tough season continued with a third (of four) loss to the Spaniard already in 2013.

Nadal went on to win his first title in the Ohio capital, and so too did Victoria Azarenka, who edged out Williams in a thrilling championship set tiebreak to claim her second victory over the American in 2013, and her first title in six months.

During this tournament, Marion Bartoli, winner of Wimbledon back in July, announced her sudden retirement from the sport, citing continual injuries and the inability to continue on.

Maria Sharapova also announced her withdrawal from the US Open, citing a shoulder injury, the same one which caused her ranking to drop to as low as 126 in May 2009.

It was also at this time in which her partnership with Jimmy Connors ceased, following her loss to Sloane Stephens at Cincinnati.

In New York, Samantha Stosur fell victim to Haiti earthquake survivor and world number 296 Victoria Duval in the first round, continuing a tough season for the Australian.

But there were no similar disasters for the other big names, though Sara Errani was upset in the second round by compatriot Flavia Pennetta, and Petra Kvitova made a swift exit when she fell to unheralded American Alison Riske in the third round.

As expected, Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka lined up a second consecutive final showdown, and again it was Williams who prevailed, in the process successfully defending her US Open title for the first time.

On the men’s side, Roger Federer missed out on a quarter-final showdown against Rafael Nadal when he lost to Tommy Robredo in the fourth round, and Andy Murray also made a swift exit from Flushing Meadows when he was thrashed by Stanislas Wawrinka in the quarter-finals without forcing even a single break point.

But the early rounds will be remembered for the fighting run to the last 16 by 2001 champion Lleyton Hewitt, who turned back the clock to send Juan Martin del Potro crashing out in round two.

Rafael Nadal eventually capped off his dominant American summer by winning his second US Open title at the expense of world number one Novak Djokovic, in the process also closing the gap on him in the world rankings.

The final Premier 5 tournament of the year saw Petra Kvitova defeat Angelique Kerber in the first left-handed Premier final since 1993, while Serena Williams picked up her third consecutive Premier Mandatory title by thrashing Jelena Jankovic to win in Beijing.

Novak Djokovic also continued his dominance in the Chinese capital, gaining some revenge on Nadal for the US Open defeat and the loss of his world number one ranking to the Spaniard by defeating him in the final.

Meanwhile, back in Tokyo, Juan Martin del Potro picked up his third title of the year, defeating Milos Raonic in the final.

Andy Murray then announced an abrupt end to his season, opting to undergo back surgery shortly after guiding Great Britain back to the Davis Cup World Group.

Australia, led by Hewitt and Bernard Tomic, also guided their country back to the World Group at the expense of Poland, who were missing Wimbledon semi-finalist Jerzy Janowicz through injury.

In Shanghai, Novak Djokovic successfully defended his title, and again he did it the hard way – whereas last year he saved five championship points against Andy Murray, this time he was forced to overcome Juan Martin del Potro, conqueror of recently recrowned world number one Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals, in the final in a championship set tie-break.

Elsewhere, Samantha Stosur and Angelique Kerber won small titles in Osaka and Linz respectively as they geared up for their qualifications for Sofia and Istanbul respectively.

It was also after Shanghai in which Roger Federer dismissed his coach, Paul Annacone, following his tough fall from the top.

At the final Premier tournament before the year-end championships in Istanbul, Simona Halep continued her impressive season by defeating Stosur to win in Moscow, which Richard Gasquet also won to strengthen his World Tour Finals bid.

The top eight women (in fact, eight of the top nine after Maria Sharapova’s withdrawal) then descended onto Istanbul for season-ending bragging rights, and once again it was Serena Williams who reigned, coming from a set down to defeat Li Na in the championship match.

The Chinese, upon defeating Petra Kvitova in the semi-finals, guaranteed herself a career-high world ranking of number three, displacing Agnieszka Radwanska (who dropped to number five) in the top four, which had previously reigned unbroken since Wimbledon last year.

The following week, the final line-up for the men’s World Tour Finals in London would be finalised at the Paris Masters, and after Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s second round exit, the final eight was set in stone.

That final eight would fill the quarter-final line-up, and it was Novak Djokovic who would win his second title in the French capital at the expense of defending champion David Ferrer, who had defeated Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals.

In Sofia, Simona Halep capped off her breakthrough season by defeating Stosur (again) to win her sixth title of the year and have her within a few rankings points of cracking the world’s top ten.

Halep has barely anything to defend in the first few months of next season (including at the Australian Open, where she lost in the first round this year), so do not be surprised to see her crack the top ten sometime soon.

Meanwhile, Sara Errani led Italy to their fourth Fed Cup since 2006 with a 4-0 destruction of injury-hit Russia in the Fed Cup final.

Eight of the top nine men in the world, led by Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, and missing Andy Murray, then descended onto London for the ATP World Tour Finals.

Nadal was looking to win the tournament for the first time, which would see him join Andre Agassi in achieving the Super Slam (that is, winning all four Grand Slams, the Olympic gold medal, the Tennis Masters Cup/World Tour Finals and featuring in a Davis Cup winning team).

In the semi-finals, he defeated Roger Federer for the fourth time in the year (the most against him since 2006), but this was his first victory over the Swiss indoors.

However, it was Novak Djokovic who would have the last laugh, denying the Spaniard his first World Tour Finals title and successfully defending it himself.

The Serb then maintained his undefeated streak since the US Open final loss by winning both of his rubbers for Serbia against the Czech Republic in the Davis Cup final, but it would not be enough as the Czechs, led by Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek, successfully retained the Cup they won last year.

Rankings-wise, Rafael Nadal ended the season ranked world number one, a remarkable achievement considering he missed the Australian Open and had his ranking fall to as low as fifth at the same time.

Djokovic, David Ferrer and Andy Murray round out the top four, while Federer finishes at a lowly sixth, down from his year-start ranking of number two (behind Djokovic).

His phenomenal season led to him being named Player of the Year and Comeback Player of the Year, the latter title of which is usually reserved for players who have had to come back from long-term injuries or a serious fall down the rankings, such as Juan Martin del Potro, who in 2011 finished that season ranked 11 after being as low as 485 in February.

Despite the tough season, Roger Federer still continued to be popular among the fans, and was recognised as the Fans’ Player of the Year for a remarkable eleventh year in a row.

No real surprises in the women’s, with Serena Williams finishing the year ranked on top for the first time since 2009 and with an unassailable lead over Victoria Azarenka and Li Na, who finish as two and three respectively.

Maria Sharapova, despite her early end to 2013, remains in fourth position, with Agnieszka Radwanska being bumped down to number five following her poor showing in Istanbul.

Williams can extend her lead at the top of the rankings by winning the Australian Open, where Azarenka and Li Na have over 1,000 points to defend as opposed to the American who has only 500 to defend, in 2014.

Likewise, Nadal can extend his lead at the top of the men’s standings should he triumph Down Under for the first time since 2009. His lead over Djokovic could balloon out to more than 3,000 rankings points should the Spaniard win the title.

And so that was Part III of the tennis season in review.

Next, I will have a look at who was hot and who was not in 2013.