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The prestigious Laureus Sports Awards have released their nominations list for the year and four tennis players are part of the nominees.
Tennis has a significant representation in the nomination list at the 2023 Laureus Awards, as four players have been listed in different categories.
The prestigious award was first held in 2000, honours the greatest and most inspirational sporting triumphs of the year, and showcases the work of Laureus Sport for good.
Here's the list of the tennis players nominated in their different categories.
Sportswoman of the Year
Iga Świątek is the only player in this category. The Polish professional player is currently ranked world No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and posted a record win-loss 67–9 in 2022 - the most wins in a single season since Serena Williams in 2013.
She is a three-time Grand Slam singles champion, having won the French Open in 2020 and 2022 and the US Open in 2022. She is also the first player from her country to win a major singles title.
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Świątek started the year 2023 as only the fourth woman in WTA history to be ranked world No. 1 for 40 or more consecutive weeks in their first stint as the top-ranked player.
She also successfully defended her title at the WTA Qatar Open, a WTA 500 event, not dropping a set throughout the tournament. It was her first title of the year and the twelfth of her career.
Sportsman of the Year
The Spanish tennis legend won an exceptional fourteenth Roland Garros title, as well as the Australian Open crown in 2022.
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His Grand Slam victory in Australia made it a total of 22 in his career, the highest by a tennis player in history.
Breakthrough of the Year
This category has two players in; Carlos Alcaraz and Elena Rybakina.
Alcaraz ended the year 2022 as the No. 1 tennis player in the world, winning the US Open title and becoming the youngest ever men's World No. 1 at 19 years, and the first teenager in the Open Era to top the men's rankings.
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Rybakina became the first woman from Kazakhstan to win a Grand Slam after winning the 2022 Wimbledon title.
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She is also the first to be ranked in the world's top 10, with a career-high ranking of No. 10 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and the current Kazakhstani No. 1 player in women's singles.
Voting procedure
There are shortlists for seven categories which are Sportswoman, Sportsman, Team, Breaakthrough, Comeback, Action and Sport for Good, and are created by votes from more than 1,000 sports media from over 70 countries.
The shortlist for World Athlete of the Year with a Disability is provided by the International Paralympic Committee.
The Laureus World Sports Academy (a unique group of sporting legends) votes for the winners in each shortlisted category and The Academy also has the ability to grant discretionary awards, such as the Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award.
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