Nadal Wins No. 1, Sportsmanship Award; Federer Named ATP Fan Favorite

by Staff | November 20th, 2010, 10:04 am
  • 20 Comments

The honors for World No. 1 Rafael Nadal continued to pile up on Saturday. Just a day before the start of the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, the ATP announced it’s 2010 tour awards. ADHEREL

Not surprisingly, Nadal walked away with the No. 1 honors, and he also collected the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award, for the game’s which was voted on by his fellow players.

Chief rival Roger Federer had been the Edberg winner the last six years. But the Swiss wasn’t empty handed. Based on voting at atptennis.com, Federer pocketed the Fans’ Favorite beating Nadal 47% to the Spaniard’s 42%.


The Bryans, Bob and Mike, took home top doubles honors. Tobias Kamke won Newcomber, Andrei Golubev collected the Most Improved Player honor and back from a knee ailment, Robin Haase earned the Comeback Award.

Here’s the full rundown of awards as released by the ATP:

2010 ATP WORLD TOUR AWARDS

ATP World Tour No. 1 (based on South African Airways 2010 ATP Rankings)
Rafael Nadal: The Spaniard won seven titles, including three Grand Slam crowns in a row (Roland Garros, Wimbledon, US Open). At 24 years, 3 months, he became the youngest man in the Open Era and seventh man overall to complete a career Grand Slam with his first title in Flushing Meadows. He also became the first player to win three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay court titles (Monte-Carlo, Rome, Madrid) in the same season. He is the all-time leader with 18 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles. He compiled a 67-9 match record, his fourth straight season with at least 65 match wins.

ATP World Tour No. 1 Doubles Team (based on year-end 2010 ATP Doubles Team Rankings)
Bob Bryan & Mike Bryan: The American twins finished as ATP World Tour Doubles No. 1 for a record sixth time in eight years (2003, ’05-07, ’09-10), compiling an 11-0 finals record. Their titles included the Australian Open, US Open and four ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles (Rome, Madrid, Toronto, Cincinnati). They have won at least five titles in nine straight seasons. The Bryans broke Aussie Hall of Famers Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde’s team record of 61 titles by winning in Los Angeles on Aug. 1. They have a career record of 67-38 in finals.

Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award (voted by ATP players)
Rafael Nadal: Fellow players voted the Mallorca resident as the winner of the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award for the first time, breaking Roger Federer’s mark of six in a row.

Most Improved Player of the Year (voted by ATP World Tour players)
Andrey Golubev: The 23-year-old from Kazakhstan climbed from No. 133 in 2009 to a career-high No. 33 on Oct. 4, highlighted by a personal-high 24 match wins. He captured his first career ATP World Tour title in Hamburg without dropping a set. He defeated World No. 6 Nikolay Davydenko for his first Top 10 win along the way before beating Austrian Jurgen Melzer in the final. He also advanced to the final in Kuala Lumpur in October (l. to Youzhny), defeating No. 5 Robin Soderling and then No. 11 David Ferrer en route.

Newcomer of the Year (voted by ATP World Tour players)
Tobias Kamke: The 24-year-old German made one of the biggest ranking jumps into the Top 75, from No. 254 in 2009 to No. 67. He compiled an outstanding 35-16 Challenger record and two titles. He turned in a Grand Slam-best third round showing at Wimbledon and overall won seven matches on the ATP World Tour. Prior to 2010 he never won a main draw match on tour. He is the third German to earn this award since 2004.

Comeback Player of the Year (voted by ATP World Tour players)
Robin Haase: The 23-year-old Dutchman made a ranking jump of 392 positions from 2009, climbing from No. 451 to a season-best No. 59. He won nine ATP World Tour level matches, highlighted by a quarter-final showing in Basel. He also was 32-8 in Challenger level play with five titles. He underwent right knee surgery in July 2008 and again in May 2009.

Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year
Rohan Bopanna and Aisam Ul-Haq Qureshi: The “Indo-Pak Express” are goodwill ambassadors on and off the court. They are seeking to build a bridge of friendship between their respective countries with their motto ‘Stop War, Start Tennis’. Qureshi was recently named a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador.

ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favourite presented by RICOH (Singles)
Roger Federer: The Swiss, who is admired for his work on and off the court, continues to be a fan favourite by millions of fans around the world, who have voted him as ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favourite presented by RICOH for a record eighth consecutive year. Federer received 47 per cent of all votes, followed by Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favourite (Doubles)
Bob Bryan & Mike Bryan: Twin brothers Bob and Mike Bryan were voted the most popular doubles team on the ATP World Tour for the sixth straight year. The Bryans received 44 per cent of votes to finish ahead of Nestor-Zimonjic and Bopanna-Qureshi.


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20 Comments for Nadal Wins No. 1, Sportsmanship Award; Federer Named ATP Fan Favorite

Nina Says:

It would be nice to know the %


dari Says:

Congratulations to all the winners this year, I really like Fed winning, but also Haase with the comeback!

The only people who care that Rafa time delays and receives coaching from toni are the fans! The fans of those other than nadal, that is. This is voted by other players, so those “cheating” aspects did not have enough bearing on the players minds’ to keep them from voting him the winner. This has me thinking a lot, and I am a little pissed, but cannot deny the weight of this PEER-voted honor.
This group of smart and extremely talented men have spoken and they think Rafa reflects fairness, good sporting spirit, etc, but most importantly, they admire this kid for beating the snot out of a lot of people and being a “good sport” about it! Wow. And the hyper-humility Rafa exhibits probably helps.
As someone who has criticized Rafa for his on-court coaching, time-delaying, and possibly using medical TO’s strategically, i must say this award quells my cries just a bit because the very individuals who are DIRECTly affected by these behaviors do not give a damn. Or at least not enough of them! Why should I, then?
We all know Sod didn’t vote for him, so let’s thank Andy Murray for his deciding vote in the competition! Ha!


dari Says:

Never gonna happen, but I would LOVE to see the ballots for the edberg award!


Kimberly Says:

WoW!!! COngrats to Nadal on his first Edberg Award and Congrats to Fed on the Fan Favorite. And Congrats to the Bryans of course.


i am it Says:

Congrats to Rafa for becoming the 2nd ACTIVE player to win Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award (voted by ATP players).
It was long due.


i am it Says:

Congrats to Federer, Golubev, Kamke, Bryans, and all other winners.
It proves Fed still has the largest fan base. Rafa is gaining popularity from fellow ATPers.
It’s all good.


Kimmi Says:

congrats to all the winners. so, federer still the fan favorite, good to see..i think next year nadal will get it.


FedEnd Says:

Now that Rafa has won the sportsmanship award the FEDTARDS “would LOVE to see the ballots for the edberg award!”

But was there any such calls when Federer was winning this award ?

How did Rafa win this award ?
May be Rafa and his uncle drugged the authorities and changed the ballots .

Wow….i love u FEDTARDS !!!


dari Says:

Fedend, this is the first time I’ve ever read a post/ posted about the edberg award on this website, so you have no prior reference for my specific comment. I bet if you dug around, which you didn’t, you could find a post from someone expressing their curiosity in the ballots in the years fed won in the past. To know whom each player respects as a sportsman the most would be a juicy tid bit of info no matter the winner. Surely you agree.


Nina Says:

Federer won the Fan favorite Award, which in my opinion is the most important one. Because really what makes a player a better sportsman than the other? I think players vote the guy that dominates the tour that year and it’s well known that Rafa is probably the most liked guy on tour. So case closed. Congrats to Rafa, I like him too.

As for the favorite fan award, not surprise here: Federer has the largest fanbase yet. Though Rafa was very close, 43%. And Novak was third but it doesn’t say which % he got and I’d like to know!!! Good on Nole.


rcm Says:

It’s great to be reminded that there is an award for Good Sportsmanship. Congrats to whomever wins this vote by their peers.

There’s no such award for blog commenters, but calling people “FEDTARDS” doesn’t exactly reflect that value, eh?


jane Says:

Nina thanks for the additional details. Congrats to all the winners.


Fot Says:

Congratulations to all the winners. They all deserve it. Glad to see Roger not shut-out, and glad to see that Rafa won an award as well. I’m happy that Roger had won the sportsmanship for – what – 6 years running? And I’m not sad that Rafa won it this year. Congrats to all the winners and their fans!


Benjamin Roberts Says:

oh yeah, only 5more sportsmanship awards, 8more fan favorite awards and 4laureus awards.

that will be a breeze in the park for rafatards? guess not.


mitch Says:

As big a fan of Rafa as I am, I don’t think that he deserved the award this year, given his admitted on court coaching during the US Open, and a similar warning during Wimbledon.


Trevor Says:

Obviously, the so called “on-court coaching” affects the fans more than it does the players…you guys are the only ones fussing over it. I mean, come on, it is an “ATP-player voted on award” and the ATP players themselves voted for Rafa, so obviously they don’t have a problem with it, otherwise why else would they have voted for him? You guys obviously are making more out of it than Rafa’s peers, give it a break already, Federer can’t win everything.


fan4tennis Says:

People obviously don’t see that denigrating Rafa’s win of this award is also denigrating fed’s wins of the award by calling into question the validity of the award. For 6 years running, all we heard was that this award was the best because it was voted on by his peers. Now that he didn’t win it, the fan fave award is the best because it is voted on by fans. Make up your friggin minds!!!!!!!!!!


RZ Says:

Nice to see the “Indo-Pak Express” get the humanitarian award.


fern Says:

Frankly, I think too much is made of Rafa’s on-court coaching, what difference does it make to the outcome of the match, even if Uncle Toni tells him to serve to the forehand or backhand or whatever else, Rafa still has to execute it. Mirka sometimes mutter things to Federer like move your feet, is that coaching?

The WTA allows on court coaching sometimes and I doubt if it makes the slightest bit of difference to anything, just like coaching in DC makes no difference whatsoever to the results.

As for time wasting between serves, the umpire actually told Simon when he complained about Rafa that Rafa was within the time, he said that he gave him (Simon) 7 secs to get ready to receive serve then gives Rafa the 25 secs after that, so when people are timing him, they have know idea when the umpire starts counting.

Federer admitted to taking a toilet break to break Davy’s rythm and to allow the sun to pass through, why does no one ever mention that. Many times Federer questions a call that is obviously correct because the ball is about a foot out, just to break the rythm of the other player.


karpo Says:

Congrates all the winners. My special congrates to Federer for wining the favourite fans award. Hope u will regain the No. 1 spot of tennis in 2011 and become the king of tennis in the world. good luck and best wishes for the upcoming events.

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