Novak Djokovic, Iga Swiatek & Coco Gauff lead the nominations for 2024 Laureus World Sports Awards, while Marketa Vondrousova, Diede de Groot and the Rafa Nadal Foundation also are getting a Laureus nod.
It’s an honour to be nominated for @LaureusSport 2024 World Sportsman of the Year. Novak Djokovic
The most prestigious night in sport will feature tennis in 6 of its 8 categories, with the nominees for this year unveiled this week and tennis, once again, being well represented.
Four-time World Sportsman of the Year winner Djokovic is up for his 5th honour at the 25th edition of the prestigious sports awards, while Swiatek, the World No 1, earned her 2nd consecutive World Sportswoman of the Year nomination, and Gauff, the reigning US Open champion, is nominated for World Breakthrough of the Year.
“It’s an honour to be nominated for @LaureusSport 2024 World Sportsman of the Year,” Djokovic posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, also giving a shout out to the special group of athletes sharing his ballot, soccer stars Erling Haaland and Lionel Messi, Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen, pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis, and sprinter Noah Lyles.
Djokovic, who took home the World Sportsman of the Year award in 2012, 2015, 2016 and 2019, also has the chance to tie 5-time winner Roger Federer for the most times a tennis player has won the category.
The nomination is a well-deserved recognition of Djokovic’s superb 2023 season, which saw him win 3 Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and the US Open, while also reaching the final at Wimbledon.
He finished the year as the ATP World No 1, having racked up 7 titles in total in 2023, including his 7th win at the Nitto ATP Finals.
laureus.com
Swiatek is also recognised with a World Sportswoman of the Year nomination after claiming her 4th Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, 1 of 6 titles she took home last year.
She finished the season back where she started it, as the WTA World No 1, after lifting the trophy at the WTA Finals Cancun.
The 22-year-old from Poland is nominated alongside World Cup champion and Balon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmati (soccer), athletics stars Sha’Carri Richardson, Shericka Jackson and Faith Kipyegon, as well as skier Mikaela Shiffrin, who also happens to be a good friend of Swiatek.
All but 2 of the 8 Laureus World Sports Awards categories feature a tennis nomination, the only exceptions being the Team and Action Sportsperson of the Year Awards.
Since its inception in 2000, at least one tennis player has won an award in all but 5 years, with Federer holding the record for the most Laureus awards with 6, including one for Comeback of the Year in 2018.
Should Djokovic and Swiatek both win their categories, it would also mark the 5th time that tennis players have taken home the evening’s top individual honours, following Federer and Justine Henin in 2008, Djokovic and Serena Williams in 2016, Federer and Williams in 2018, and Rafael Nadal and Naomi Osaka in 2021.
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Gauff, who became the youngest American to win the US Open since Serena Williams in 1999 with her maiden Grand Slam victory, has landed on the ballot for World Breakthrough of the Year.
The 19-year-old lifted 3 trophies in 2023 to finish the year at a career-high ranking of World No 3.
The American is nominated alongside soccer stars Real Madrid wunderkind Jude Bellingham, Salma Paralluelo and Linda Caicedo, as well as Josh Kerr (athletics) and Qin Haiyang (swimming).
Other nominees from the world of tennis include a World Comeback of the Year nomination for Marketa Vondrousova, who became the first unseeded woman to win at Wimbledon in the Open era after battling injuries and coming back from wrist surgeries.
Dutch wheelchair tennis legend Diede de Groot also received a nomination for World Sportsperson with a Disability, having completed her 3rd consecutive calendar-year Grand Slam last year, and remaining unbeaten at the Majors since 2020.
Also, Nadal’s foundation earned a nomination in the Sport for Good category.
All the nominees are selected by a panel of 1,400 international sports journalists, with the winners to be chosen by members of the Laureus World Sports Academy.
The winners will be unveiled at a ceremony in Madrid, Spain on 22 April.
laureus.com
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