2017 ATP World Tour Awards
LONDON – The winners of the 2017 ATP World Tour Awards presented by Moët & Chandon were revealed Thursday night as the year’s best eight singles players and doubles teams gathered at the Tower of London for the 2017 Nitto ATP Finals Official Launch, presented by Moët & Chandon.
Rafael Nadal was recognised for his achievement of clinching the year-end No. 1 Emirates ATP Ranking for the fourth time in his career, while the No. 1 doubles battle between Lukasz Kubot/Marcelo Melo and Henri Kontinen/John Peers will come down to the upcoming season finale, to start Sunday at The O2. Nadal will be presented the No. 1 trophy on court at the conclusion of the opening session.
Four other players competing at the Nitto ATP Finals – Roger Federer, Bob and Mike Bryan, and Horia Tecau – accepted their ATP World Tour Awards as part of the Official Launch festivities. #NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov, who was competing this week at the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan, and South African Neville Godwin sent video messages acknowledging their honours.
The 36-year-old Federer increased his record tally of ATP World Tour Awards to 36, adding three new trophies to his collection Thursday. He was selected by his peers as Comeback Player of the Year for the first time and as the recipient of the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award for the 13th time. Federer, along with the Bryans, extended their reigns as the singles and doubles ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favourite presented by Moët & Chandon, winning the popular vote from fans for respectively a 15th and 13th straight year.
Eighteen-year-old Shapovalov also won multiple honours in the 2017 ATP World Tour Awards. He was voted by fellow players as the Most Improved Player of the Year, and will also be honoured as the ATP Star of Tomorrow presented by Emirates when he visits The O2 on Saturday, 18 November to collect his trophies in an on-court ceremony.
Tecau was named the recipient of the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award for his efforts in championing children’s rights and education in his home country of Romania, while Godwin won Coach of the Year after guiding countryman Kevin Anderson to his first Grand Slam final at the US Open earlier this year.
The ATP World Tour’s best tournaments in their respective categories were also honoured, with the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells (Masters 1000), the Abierto Mexicano Telcel in Acapulco (500) and the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha (250) announced as the Tournaments of the Year.
Meanwhile, Argentina’s Guillermo Salatino was named the first Latin American journalist to win the Ron Bookman Media Excellence Award.
The evening also featured the official group photos in front of the iconic White Tower, where guests inside enjoyed a reception following a tour of the Tower of London grounds by Yeoman Warders. Players then took the stage in the New Armouries building in front of VIP guests, including President, CEO & COO, Nitto Denko Corporation, Hideo Takasaki, for the robin-robin group introductions and a short Q&A with Andrew Castle.
The Nitto ATP Finals welcomes more than 250,000 fans to The O2 arena each year, as well as generating a global TV viewership of more than 100 million, as the ATP’s best eight singles players and doubles teams compete over eight days at the biggest indoor tennis tournament in the world.
2017 ATP World Tour Awards Presented by Moët & Chandon
ATP World Tour No. 1 presented by Emirates
(determined by Emirates ATP Rankings)
Rafael Nadal: The Spaniard will finish as the year-end No. 1 Emirates ATP Ranking for a fourth time. Nadal, who replaced Great Britain’s Andy Murray at No. 1 on 21 August, has enjoyed a stellar season, capturing six titles – including two Grand Slams and two ATP World Tour Masters 1000s — from 10 tour-level finals. At 31, Nadal is the oldest player to finish year-end No. 1 in Emirates ATP Rankings history (since 1973). Having previously finished at the top in 2008, 2010 and 2013, Nadal is the first player to finish No. 1 four times in non-consecutive years. The nine-year gap between his first year-end No. 1 season (2008) and his last (2017) is also a record.
ATP World Tour No. 1 Doubles Team presented by Emirates
(determined by Emirates ATP Doubles Team Rankings)
Lukasz Kubot/Marcelo Melo and Henri Kontinen/John Peers will compete to finish as the season’s No. 1 duo this coming week at the Nitto ATP Finals. Kubot/Melo can clinch it with two round robin wins this week at The O2. The Polish/Brazilian team has won six titles this season, highlighted by a perfect grass-court campaign with triumphs at ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Halle and Wimbledon and three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crowns (Miami, Madrid, Paris). Kontinen/Peers, who enter The O2 as the defending champions, have a 4-0 record in finals this season, winning the Australian Open, the Shanghai Rolex Masters and ATP World Tour 500 titles in Washington and Beijing.
ATP Star of Tomorrow Award presented by Emirates
(determined by Emirates ATP Rankings)
Most Improved Player of the Year
(voted by ATP players)
Denis Shapovalov: The 18-year-old Canadian started 2017 at No. 250 in the Emirates ATP Rankings before he went on to crack the Top 100 on 14 August and the Top 50 on 23 October. Shapovalov made an emphatic mark on the ATP World Tour in August at the Coupe Rogers, when, as a wild card, he defeated Rafael Nadal and Juan Martin del Potro en route to becoming the youngest semi-finalist in ATP World Tour Masters 1000 history. Backing up his run in Montreal, he won through qualifying at the US Open and defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga en route to his maiden Grand Slam fourth round appearance (l. to Carreno Busta). He was the youngest player to reach that stage at a major since Marat Safin at 1998 Roland Garros. The ATP Star of Tomorrow Award presented by Emirates is awarded to the youngest player in the Top 100 of the Emirates ATP Rankings as of 6 November.
Comeback Player of the Year
(voted by ATP players)
Roger Federer: The Swiss wins in the Comeback Player of the Year category for the first time. Federer started 2017 at No. 17 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, having missed the second half of 2016 to recuperate from knee surgery, and has risen to No. 2 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. He has claimed seven titles during his comeback campaign, including two Grand Slams (Australian Open, Wimbledon), three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (Indian Wells, Miami, Shanghai) and a pair of ATP World Tour 500s (Halle, Basel).
Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award
(voted by ATP players)
Roger Federer: Fellow players voted Federer as the winner of the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award for the 13th time and seventh year in a row. He also claimed the award six straight years from 2004-09. Marin Cilic, Juan Martin del Potro and 2010 winner Rafael Nadal were also nominated in this category.
Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year
(awarded by ATP)
Horia Tecau: The doubles star has been honoured for his efforts in championing children’s rights and education in his home country of Romania. The 32-year-old, who says all children should have access to kindergarten and school, was named a national ambassador for UNICEF in Romania this past April. “Horia Tecau is more than a world tennis champion, he is also a champion for the children. He has been campaigning for many years for children and their access to quality healthcare and education,” UNICEF representative in Romania, Sandie Blanchet, said at the time.
ATP Coach of the Year
(voted by ATP coaches)
Neville Godwin: Kevin Anderson’s coach for four years, the 42-year-old South African guided his compatriot back into the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings and to his first Grand Slam final at this year’s US Open. Godwin is a former World No. 90 and won the 2001 Newport title.
ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favourite presented by Moët & Chandon (Singles)
(voted by fans)
Roger Federer: The 36-year-old Swiss wins the fan-voted award in the singles category for a record 15th straight year. Rafael Nadal finished second in the voting, followed by Novak Djokovic, Grigor Dimitrov, Juan Martin del Potro and Alexander Zverev.
ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favourite presented by Moët & Chandon (Doubles)
(voted by fans)
Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan: The 39-year-old American twins extend their record reign in the doubles category to a 13th straight year, edging Spaniards Feliciano Lopez & Marc Lopez. Jamie Murray/Bruno Soares, Pierre-Hugues Herbert/Nicolas Mahut and Rohan Bopanna/Pablo Cuevas round out the top five.
Ron Bookman Media Excellence Award
(awarded by ATP)
Guillermo Salatino: Salatino has covered tennis for multiple media platforms in Argentina since 1976, attending more than 130 Grand Slam tournaments and more than 25 ATP Finals. He has written two books on tennis and has been the editor of four different magazines. He was a founding member of the International Tennis Writers Association in 2000. He is the first Latin American journalist to win the Ron Bookman Media Excellence Award.
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Tournament of the Year
(voted by ATP players)
BNP Paribas Open (Indian Wells): The BNP Paribas Open extends its reign in this category after first receiving the distinction in 2014. Prior to the 2017 tournament, the Indian Wells Tennis Garden underwent extensive renovations designed to enhance the overall fan experience, including substantial upgrades to Stadium 1 – ranging from a massive expansion of the Stadium Plaza to renovating all the suites and hospitality spaces to adding 21 new restaurants and concessions.
ATP World Tour 500 Tournament of the Year
(voted by ATP players)
Abierto Mexicano Telcel (Acapulco): Ten years after first receiving this award, the Abierto Mexicano Telcel has once again been named the ATP World Tour 500 Tournament of the Year. The event, held at the Acapulco Princess Mundo Imperial, switched to blue hard courts in 2014 after 20 years on clay. It will celebrate its 25th edition in 2018.
ATP World Tour 250 Tournament of the Year
(voted by ATP players)
Qatar ExxonMobil Open (Doha): The Qatar ExxonMobil Open reclaims the Tournament of the Year award in the 250 category after sharing the honour two years ago. Held in the opening week of the ATP World Tour season, the 2017 edition set new attendance records under the continued guidance of Tournament Director Karim Alami, a former player.