Rafael Nadal
There's only one choice for my player of the year: it has to be Rafael Nadal. He's dominated men's tennis this year and - at a time when we were worried about his knees holding up - has simply gone from strength to strength.
He's managing his knees much better now, and is constantly improving.
I think he could really threaten Roger Federer's all-time Grand Slam record over the next couple of years, and we could well be talking about 'the best player who ever lived' being followed by 'the best player who ever lived'!
We already knew about Nadal's strength, and we knew about his extraordinary fitness and staying power, but what he's added now is a truly devilish serve.
He's also added a greater variety of tactics to his game, but it's the serve that's really made him a quite frightening prospect to play now.
His dominant serve means that he has really been able to take some of the pressure off his knees, as he's capable of picking up three points in a game right off the serve. He can win matches much faster than he was before this year - and that'll be a major benefit over the next couple of years.
Roger Federer
It's not been the best year for Roger Federer, but it does look like he has found his motivation again. While I don't think that Federer's victory over Nadal in the World Tour finals will be too significant to the status quo at the top of the rankings, I do think it's a sign that Roger is going to push Nadal harder.
He's got his mojo back, and he's playing as well as he has at any point in the last three years, which is bad news for Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic, but it isn't bad news for Nadal - he's just too good.
While I do think that 2011 will see Nadal take three of the Grand Slams again, Federer will take the other. The top two play at a level in Grand Slams that the chasing pack can't reach, and I don't see anyone else getting a look in.
Novak Djokovic
One thing I've been really heartened by this year is Djokovic's renaissance - that has really surprised me.
He had a couple of bad years after a change of racquet, and he really suffered because of that. He was on the slide, and it looked like it might be terminal.
However, he's reversed that decline and came back to be a real contender this year.
He was wonderful for Serbia, winning the Davis Cup, and he was simply fantastic in New York - beating Federer in the US Open last four before falling to Nadal in the final.
It's still hard to see Djokovic consistently beating Federer or Nadal, but he'll run them very close, and I'm really heartened by that.
Andy Murray
I still see Murray as the logical successor to Nadal and Federer, if either gets picked off in a Grand Slam, and he's certainly a better player now than he was when he lost to Federer in the Australian Open final in January.
That said, Murray still hasn't been able to reach the level of the big two when it counts - in Grand Slams.
It's still possible that he will win a Grand Slam. It's not probable, though.
He's left no stone unturned in his path to becoming a Grand Slam champion this year, and he deserves it. I'd rejoice if he makes it next year, but I just don't see it happening any time soon - not with Nadal looking so dominant.
- - -
There's no great surprise in my selection for the top players this year, but that just goes to show how disappointing a year it has been for players trying to break through. I don't know if they're daunted, or not working hard enough, or that the guys at the top are just too good, but there's no one coming through to threaten the top players.
I thought Ernests Gulbis of Latvia might be the guy this year, but it didn't happen. Robin Soderling has constantly improved, but I think his current fifth-place ranking is absolutely right.
Hopefully someone will burst through out of nowhere next year, but the top four are just too good for the guys below at the moment. Furthermore, there's no sign of any impending crisis for Nadal's fitness, which will be a crisis for everyone else next year.