Roger Federer’s absence hasn’t stopped him for making his mark in this years ATP Awards after he claimed the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship trophy for the 12th time in his career.
The Stefan Edberg Award recognizes players who have displayed significant signs of sportsmanship this year on the tour. Since 2005 Federer has won the trophy every year except 2010 (Rafael Nadal). The winner is decided amongst players on the tour with the player with the most votes winning. This year’s award is however different for Federer, who has won it despite only playing five months on the tour.
Federer also continued his dominance in the ‘fans favourite’ category after winning the award for the 14th consecutive year. This year the 17-time grand slam champion won 56% of the vote, beating his nearest rivals Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
Juan Martin del Potro sealed the Comeback Player of the Year award following his triumphant return to the tour. After being pushed to the brink of retirement in 2015 due to his wrist injury, the Argentine has achieved a win-loss record of 30-12 since returning to the tour in February. Highlights of del Potro’s comeback include winning the Stockholm Open, an Olympic silver medal and reaching the quarter-finals of the US Open.
France’s Lucas Pouille has beaten rivals Dominic Thiem and Alexander Zverev to be voted the ‘Most Improved’ by players on the tour. The 22-year-old is currently at a ranking high of 15th in the world, a rise of 75 places since the start of the year. This season Pouille has reached two grand slam quarter-finals (Wimbledon and the US Open) and win his first ATP title at the Metz Open in September.
For the first time in his career, former US Open champion Marin Cilic has also triumphed at the awards. The Croat has been awarded the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award following the launch of his foundation earlier this year. The Marin Cilic Foundation was created to ‘support educational projects in order to allow young people to enjoy school and university education’. He is the second Croatian to win this award after Ivan Ljubic in 2007.
Finally, Magnus Norman has won the inaugural Coach of the Year award. Norman is the coach of world No.3 Stan Wawrinka and has guided him to four titles in 2016, including the US Open.
The full list of winners can be read HERE.
