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Barty, Djokovic, Raducanu, Medvedev Lead Laureus Nominees

US Open champion Emma Raducanu is nominated for the 2022 Laureus World Sports Awards. EPA-EFE/JAMES ROSS AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT

Tennis will be a major presence at the annual Laureus Awards.

World No. 1 champions Ashleigh Barty and Novak Djokovic are honored alongside the world’s greatest athletes as Laureus World Sports Award nominees.

The Nominees for the 23rd annual Laureus World Sport Awards, announced Wednesday, spotlight some of the greatest athletes on the planet.

Wimbledon winner Barty, who defeated Danielle Collins to capture the Australian Open last month, is nominated for Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year.

Barty is nominated along with Allyson Felix, who became the USA’s most decorated track-and-field Olympian; swimmers Emma McKeon, whose four gold and three bronze medals tied the record for the most won by a woman at a single Games, and Katie Ledecky, who added two gold and two silver medals to become the most decorated female swimmer in Olympic history; and soccer star Alexia Putellas, Champions League winner with FC Barcelona and the winner of the Ballon d’Or.

Twenty-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic, who won three of the four Grand Slam titles and reached the US Open final in 2021, is honored as a nominee for Laureus World Sportsman of the Year. Djokovic has won Laureus World Sportsman of the Year honors four times previously: in 2012, 2015, 2016 and 2019. 

This year, the 34-year-old Serbian headlines the category that includes NFL GOAT Tom Brady, who led the Tampa Bay Bucaneers to victory in Super Bowl LV; Olympians Caeleb Dressel, who won five golds in the pool, and Eliud Kipchoge, who defended his title in the marathon; Bayern Munich’s star striker Robert Lewandowski and Max Verstappen, who won the Formula One Drivers’ Championship on a dramatic final race day in Abu Dhabi.

Emma Raducanu, who made history as the first player, male or female, to play through qualifying and win a Grand Slam title at the US Open, and Daniil Medvedev, who denied Djokovic’s Grand Slam dream winning the US Open, lead Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award nominees.

The Laureus World Sports Awards will be staged in April.

Last year’s winners included Rafael Nadal (Sportsman), Naomi Osaka (Sportswoman), Bayern Munich (Team), Patrick Mahomes (Breakthrough) and Max Parrot (Comeback) as well as Billie Jean King (Lifetime) and Lewis Hamilton (for the inaugural Laureus Athlete Advocate Award).