WASHINGTON, December 5, 2020 (by Michael Dickens)
Nominations are out for the 2020 ATP Awards for all of the player-voted categories. These include: Comeback Player of the Year, Most Improved Player of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship award and Coach of the Year.
The ATP Awards winners, which includes Fans’ Favorite and the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award will be revealed later this month. In the meantime, fans have an opportunity to vote for their favorite singles player and doubles team through December 11.
Nominees for Comeback Player of the Year – “the player who has overcome serious injury in re-establishing himself as one of the top players on the ATP Tour” – are: Kevin Anderson, Andrey Kuznetsov, Vasek Pospisil and Milos Raonic.
Nominees for Most Improved Player of the Year – “the player who reached a significantly higher FedEx ATP Ranking by year’s end and who demonstrated an increasingly improved level of performance through the year” – are: Ugo Humbert, Andrey Rublev, Diego Schwartzman and Jannik Sinner.
Newcomer of the Year Nominees:
🇪🇸 Carlos Alcaraz
🇺🇸 Sebastian Korda
🇮🇹 Lorenzo Musetti
🇦🇹 Jurij Rodionov
🇫🇮 Emil Ruusuvuori
🇧🇷 Thiago Seyboth Wild #ATPAwards pic.twitter.com/TqDruhcYhJ— ATP Tour (@atptour) December 2, 2020
Nominees for Newcomer of the Year – “the #NextGenATP player who broke into the Top 100 or Top 150 for the first time in 2020 and made the biggest impact on the ATP Tour this season” – are: Carlos Alcaraz, Sebastian Korda, Lorenzo Musetti, Jurij Rodionov, Emil Ruusuvuori and Thiago Seyboth Wild.
Nominees for the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award – “the player who, throughout the year, conducted himself at the highest level of professionalism and integrity, who competed with his fellow players with the utmost spirit of fairness and who promoted the game through his off-court activities” – are: Rafael Nadal, John Millman, Diego Schwartzman and Dominic Thiem.
Nominees for Coach of the Year – “nominated and voted on by fellow ATP coach members, this award goes to the ATP coach who helped guide his players to a higher level of performance during the year” – are: Gilles Cervara (Daniil Medvedev), Juan Ignacio Chela (Diego Schwartzman), Nicolas Massu (Dominic Thiem), Riccardo Piatti (Jannik Sinner) and Fernando Vicente (Andrey Rublev).
Simon: 2021 WTA prize money below normal levels
In an exclusive interview with Simon Cambers of Tennis Majors this week, WTA chairman and CEO Steve Simon said he didn’t think prize money compensation will be back to normal levels anytime soon.
“I think I have to give both the tournaments and the players a lot of credit in this year,” Simon said. “Prize money compensation will not be back to normal levels, there’s no question. All our players have gone through, obviously, a very tough year financially, just like everybody else and our tournaments have as well. The tournaments that operated last year were operating to mitigate loss, not to produce profit, which is what you want them to be.
“The players have been very understanding and supportive that … we need to keep our tournaments going. We need to keep them healthy, and we need to make sure the financial model works when you’re going to be operating events either without fans or with limited levels of fans, because I don’t think it’s going to be until maybe late in the year that we start to see full stadiums again, it may not even be until 2022.”
Full stadiums may not return to tennis until 2022, which means prize money cuts and redistribution in 2021 – first part of interview with @WTA chairman Steve Simon for @Tennis_Majors https://t.co/Z29E4sLOf8
— Simon Cambers (@scambers73) December 3, 2020
Naomi Osaka – Using fashion to define her creativity
Three-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka has always used fashion as a means of defining her creativity. Since the end of the 2020 season, Osaka has launched a signature line of Nike apparel and now is the face behind a new collaboration of purses and wallets from Scottish luxury fashion company Strathberry.
This week on Instagram, Osaka wrote: “Soooo I’m very excited to announce that my bag collaboration with Strathberry is finally out.”
On its website, Strathberry wrote: “The collection embodies both Naomi’s competitive spirit and the understated elegance of the Strathberry silhouettes, reinvented with a sporty and futuristic touch.”
In an interview with Vogue, Osaka said, “I want to really empower women to claim their moment every time they step out with one of these bags on their shoulder. She pointed out that the bags were designed to be “unique, versatile and fun.”
The Strathberry x Naomi collection includes five purses and two small wallets that come in colors that include lime green, orange and pink.
To mark the collaboration and further support @NaomiOsaka’s causes, Strathberry will be making a donation to her recently launched organization Play Academy, which helps change the lives of young girls through sport. https://t.co/gtXb4UR0J0
— Vogue Magazine (@voguemagazine) December 3, 2020
Stan Wawrinka – Paris Match cover story
Stan Wawrinka pour Paris Match interview et photos 👍 #wawrinka pic.twitter.com/bfkAQ57YLb
— danielle (@dm_mauron) December 4, 2020
Hsieh Su-Wei – She plays for being happy
“I play for the game and something much bigger than myself.”
Hsieh Su-Wei plays for being happy 🥰
#WTAForTheGame pic.twitter.com/PwQyR0YCMB
— wta (@WTA) December 4, 2020
Happy 30th birthday, Dylan Alcott
“I used to have an expectation to win… Now my expectation is to just be the best version of Dylan.”
Love your work, @DylanAlcott. Happy 30th birthday 🏆 🥳 #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/h86rZaHlFo
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) December 3, 2020
What they’re podcasting
On the latest Tennis Accent podcast, Tennis Channel analyst Paul Annacone talks about his journey as a player, coach and broadcaster.
New pod is here.@paul_annacone is the guest. We talk about his playing days, role as an analyst and coaching days with Federer and Sampras.https://t.co/IoM8mnXxYl
— Saqib (@saqiba) December 4, 2020
What they’re sharing on social media
Caroline Wozniacki / New sneakers are 🔥🔥🔥
Thank you @adidasoriginals and @prada ! New sneakers are 🔥🔥🔥#createdwithadidas #adidasforPrada pic.twitter.com/3HvlHllDdj
— Caroline Wozniacki (@CaroWozniacki) December 3, 2020
