BEVERLY HILLS, December 22, (THEWILL) – The awards’ season honours for tennis turned up regular favourites from seasons past in an irregular calendar for the sport.
In a year that did not see much of the tennis Swiss icon Roger Federer, who endured two surgeries on his leg, and where Nadal continued his lethal domination on clay at the resumption of sports after 2020 lockdowns, the awards were a refreshing turn.
Federer picked up the ATP’s Fans’ Favourite Award for the 18th consecutive year and Spanish rival Nadal won the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award for the fourth time in the end-of-season awards.
In spite of his absence on the Tour since the Australian Open in January, Federer’s status as the favourite among supporters remains unassailable. There can be no arguments about this as once more, tennis fans have voted him for the award as a stark recognition of that fact.
To give these staunch supporters something to cheer about, the 39-year-old is hard at work to return from injury in time for next year’s Australian Open in February after the date was pushed back to accommodate COVID-19 health and safety protocols. The Swiss has promised that he is “training hard” to be fit enough to feature.
“Hey, it’s Roger here,” Federer introduced himself in a response to the ATP Twitter declaring his win, “I hope you are all doing really well in a difficult year; I want to thank you all for winning the Fans’ Favourite award this year again. Thanks to the ATP, all the tennis fans out there who voted for me, believing in me and wanting to see me back on the Tour.
“I’m training hard to make that possible. I hope I can play in front of all of you guys again very soon. Happy holiday and a happy New Year, and let’s hope it all gets better next year. Just have to be a little bit patient for now, and I can’t wait to see you all again soon.”
On his overall fourth sportsmanship win and for the third straight year, Nadal was recognised for his “fair play, professionalism and integrity on and off the court”. Coming after he equalled Federer in Grand Slam title wins, 20 each, the Spaniard said he wants to be remembered simply as a “good person” and as a “good tennis player”.
“It means a lot for me to have this trophy one more time, the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award. I’m going to put this trophy next to the other ones in a very special place here,” Nadal said.
For the Comeback Player of the Year, ATP players named Canadian Vasek Pospisil as winner, while the Most Improved Player of the Year went to the Russian Andrey Rublev. Rublev’s coach Fernando Vicente won Coach of the Year, and Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz won the Newcomer of the Year.
The imperial Serb Novak Djokovic ended the season as the ATP world No. 1 in the singles ranking, while Mate Pavic and Bruno Soares were the year-end Doubles No.1 team.
