Djokovic is the best tennis player in the tennis industry, that is indisputable. However, he will end 2023 with two titles that he still cannot reach at the 2023 ATP Tour.
Djokovic ended a year full of titles and successfully defended the world No. 1 position. But Djokovic still has two untouchable titles with the ATP’s individual awards: “ATP Sportsmanship” and “Most Popular Tennis Player”.
In terms of achievements, Djokovic will not be inferior to anyone, even difficult to compare with anyone. But the necessary conditions for these two titles are too difficult for the Serbian tennis player when he repeatedly behaves and acts badly in matches, making most fans uncomfortable. That makes it difficult for Djokovic to win the favor of fans for the title of “Most Popular Tennis Player”.
With “ATP Sportsmanship” or “Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship” is an award honoring tennis players with a spirit of dedication, fairness and actively promoting matches through activities outside the court.
However, Djokovic recently showed the opposite criteria above last November. The world’s No. 1 tennis player broke two rackets in the opening match of the ATP Finals and even refused to take a doping test before the Davis Cup match.
Thereby, the “ATP Sports Spirit” category was announced including Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, Grigor Dimitrov and Hubert Hurkacz as the top 4 players nominated by ATP.
It must be known that this title was absolutely dominated by 2 of the “Big 3” for 18 consecutive years. Except for the Serbian tennis player, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal won the award 13 times and 5 times, respectively. And last year, the winner of this award was Casper Ruud.
Besides, Sinner with a successful season ending with No. 4 in the world and continuously defeating Djokovic at the end of the year also helped him participate in the “Most Improved Tennis Player of the Year” award.
Competing with the Italian tennis player are compatriot Matteo Arnaldi and two American players Christopher Eubanks and Ben Shelton in this category. In addition to the above two titles, the ATP Awards 2023 still has other titles such as “Best Coach of the Year”, “Rookie of the Year”,…
The above awards will be determined by a vote of the International Tennis Writers Association (ITWA). Meanwhile, the “Coach of the Year” award will be elected through voting by ATP coaches.
Meanwhile, the “Most Popular Tennis Player” award will be determined through audience voting for singles players and teams until the end of today, December 1.
The winners of these awards will be revealed at the awards ceremony taking place on December 11.