Federer Wins ATP Fans’ Favorite, Sportsmanship Award; Del Potro Named Comeback Player Of Year

The ATP announced their year-end awards and walking away with honors were Roger Federer and Juan Martin del Potro. Federer, who missed the last half of the season, took home the Edberg Sportsmanship award and was also named the ATP’s Fans’ Favorite. It was the 12th time and sixth straight year Federer won the Sportsmanship honor.

American sensation Taylor Fritz won Star of Tomorrow, Lucas Pouille earned Most Improved and Stan Wawrinka’s coach Magnus Norman won coach of the year.

The ATP’s No. 1 in singles and doubles will be determined after London.

ATP Awards:

ATP Star of Tomorrow Award presented by Emirates
(determined by Emirates ATP Rankings)
Taylor Fritz: This category in its fourth year, replacing the player-voted Newcomer of the Year, is awarded to the youngest player in the Top 100 of Emirates ATP Rankings as of 7 November. Fritz, who celebrated his 19th birthday at the end of the October, became the youngest ATP finalist since 2008 when he finished runner-up at the Memphis Open. The California native won 15 tour-level matches and reached a career-high No. 53 in the Emirates ATP Rankings in August. Two other contenders in this category, 18-year-old Frances Tiafoe and 20-year-old Jared Donaldson, finished behind their countryman at No. 102 and No. 108 in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

Comeback Player of the Year
(voted by ATP players)
Juan Martin del Potro: The 28-year-old Argentine was previously voted by his peers as the Comeback Player of the Year in 2011 following a successful return from right wrist surgery. He finished back in the Top 10 in 2013, only to be sidelined again – this time by a left wrist injury requiring multiple surgeries. Outside the Top 1000 of the Emirates ATP Rankings early in 2016, del Potro made his return in February with a semi-final effort at the Delray Beach Open and rose to No. 38 by November with a 30-match win effort. Among his season highlights, del Potro beat then-No. 1 Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal en route to a silver medal at the Rio Olympics, made the quarter-finals of the US Open and won his first tour-level title since 2014 at the If Stockholm Open, securing his return to the Top 50. Julien Benneteau, Ivo Karlovic and Florian Mayer were also nominated in this category.

Happy to win the Comeback of the Year Award. Thank you for helping me to achieve it. 😄

— Juan M. del Potro (@delpotrojuan) November 10, 2016

Most Improved Player of the Year
(voted by ATP players)
Lucas Pouille: The 22-year-old Frenchman continued his steady improvement in his fifth professional season, climbing from a No. 91 Emirates ATP Ranking in February to a career-high No. 15 by the end of 2016. Pouille clinched his first ATP World Tour title in September at the Moselle Open, five months after reaching his first tour-level final at the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy in Bucharest. In between, he reached consecutive Grand Slam quarter-finals at Wimbledon and the US Open and an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome. Pouille compiled a 34-22 match record, nearly tripling his match wins total from last season (12-14).

Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award
(voted by ATP players)
Roger Federer: Fellow players voted the Swiss as the winner of the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award for the 12th time and sixth year in a row. He also won the award six straight years from 2004-09. Andy Murray, 2010 winner Rafael Nadal and Stan Wawrinka were also nominated in this category.

Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year
(awarded by ATP)
Marin Cilic: The Croatian established the Marin Cilic Foundation this year. With a goal of supporting educational projects around the world, the foundation has a special emphasis on giving youth in Croatia improved access to school and university education. “The main focus is to try to help kids as much as we can,” Cilic said upon the Foundation’s formal launch in June. “I want to give something back and also give some opportunities for some people and some kids that don’t have as many possibilities to pursue their dreams.”

ATP Coach of the Year
(voted by ATP coaches)
Magnus Norman: Stan Wawrinka’s coach since 2013, the 40-year-old Swede won in this new category over fellow nominees Gunter Bresnik (Dominic Thiem), Ivan Lendl (Andy Murray), Emmanuel Planque (Lucas Pouille) and Mikael Tillstrom (Gael Monfils). Norman, a former World No. 2 and winner of 12 ATP World Tour titles, guided Wawrinka back to a No. 3 Emirates ATP Ranking and four titles, including his third Grand Slam title at the US Open.

ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favourite presented by Moët & Chandon (Singles)
(voted by fans)
Roger Federer: The 35-year-old Swiss has been voted ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favourite presented by Moët & Chandon for a record 14th straight year, receiving 56 per cent of all votes cast. Andy Murray finished second, followed by Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Kei Nishikori.

ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favourite presented by Moët & Chandon (Doubles)
(voted by fans)
Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan: The 38-year-old American twins received 25 per cent of votes to be named the ATPWorldTour.com Fans’ Favourite presented by Moët & Chandon for a record 12th time, edging Jamie Murray & Bruno Soares. Spaniards Feliciano Lopez & Marc Lopez, Frenchmen Pierre-Hugues Herbert & Nicolas Mahut and the Canadian-American duo of Vasek Pospisil & Jack Sock rounded out the top five.

Ron Bookman Media Excellence Award
(awarded by ATP)
Mike Dickson: Dickson has been a tennis correspondent for nearly two decades with the Daily Mail, which has the most visited newspaper website in the world. He has also covered golf, football, rowing and four Olympics Games, and served as the chief cricket writer for nine years. He came up to ‘Fleet Street’ via working as a general news reporter on local newspapers and local radio.