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Ivanovic, Moya, Pennetta, Ferrero Lead List of Hall of Fame Nominees

Carlos Moya has been nominated for the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

An accomplished cast of Grand Slam champions are among the International Tennis Hall of Fame nominees.

Ana Ivanovic won Roland Garros, rose to world No. 1 and helped transform Serbia into a tennis superpower.

Now, Ivanovic has a shot at tennis immortality.

Ivanovic joins Carlos Moya, Flavia Pennetta, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Cara Black, Lisa Raymond and Daniel Nestor as one of seven accomplished champions from six nations on the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s 2023 ballot for Hall of Fame induction in the Player Category.

Former world No. 1 Moya, who is Rafael Nadal’s coach, was formerly engaged to Pennetta, which would make for an intriguing induction ceremony if both are elected. Both champions married other partners, with Pennetta happily married to Fabio Fognini.

With the ballot set, the Official Voting Group comprised of tennis journalists, historians, and Hall of Famers, will cast their ballots in the coming months. The ITHF’s annual Fan Voting for the Player Category returns later this week, giving fans around the globe the opportunity to weigh in on which player nominees are deserving of Hall of Fame induction.

From Thursday, Oct. 20 through Sunday, Oct. 30, tennis fans can cast their ballots at vote.tennisfame.com.

The top three candidates in the Fan Vote will receive added percentage points to their vote totals from the Official Voting Group, with first place earning three percentage points, second place two percentage points, and third place one percentage point.

To be elected to the Hall of Fame, candidates must receive an affirmative vote of at least 75% or higher from the combined total of the Official Voting Group result, and any bonus percentage points earned in the Fan Vote.

New to the ITHF ballot for the Class of 2023 is Canada’s Daniel Nestor, a former doubles world No. 1 and winner of 12 major titles in doubles and mixed doubles.

Beginning in 2002 with the Australian Open doubles title alongside Mark Knowles, Nestor paired with three different partners to capture eight majors and a career Grand Slam in doubles over a decade. In mixed doubles, he won three titles at the Australian Open with three different partners, and teamed with Kristina Mladenovic to win the 2013 US Open.

As one of men’s tennis’ most accomplished doubles players, Nestor secured 91 titles during his career and topped the ATP doubles rankings for over 100 weeks. In 2011, he became the first singles or doubles player on tour to win all nine ATP Masters 1000 titles. Five years later, Nestor achieved another ATP milestone as the first player to win 1,000 career doubles matches.

Nestor joins 2021 Fan Vote winner Cara Black, Ana Ivanovic, Carlos Moya, and Flavia Pennetta, all of whom return to the ballot for the second year, and third-year candidates Juan Carlos Ferrero and Lisa Raymond.

Zimbabwe’s Cara Black, world No. 1 doubles player and predominantly a doubles specialist throughout her WTA career, is a winner of 60 career titles.

Black held the No. 1 ranking for 163 weeks, and spent 569 weeks inside the world top-10. She was a 5-time major doubles champion winning three titles at Wimbledon, as well as trophies at the Australian Open and the US Open. Black also won five mixed doubles major titles and is one of three women in tennis history (Open Era, since 1968) to have a achieved a career Grand Slam in mixed doubles.

Ana Ivanović of Serbia won the 2008 French Open title, and had two additional appearances in major finals, reaching the French Open final in 2007 and the Australian Open final in 2008. Ivanović was ranked world No. 1 and spent 91 weeks inside the world top-5.

In addition to the Roland-Garros trophy, Ivanović won 14 career titles, including 3 WTA Premier Mandatory titles. She went on to represent Serbia in Billie Jean King Cup (formerly Fed Cup) competition for nine years, including a run into the finals in 2012. Ivanović is the first Serbian to be nominated for the Hall of Fame.

Carlos Moyá, of Spain is a former world No. 1, and spent more than 200 weeks inside the world top-10. Moyá was the French Open Champion in 1998, and a finalist at the Australian Open in 1997.

Additionally, Moyá won 20 career titles, including three Masters 1000-level events. He was a member of the victorious 2004 Spanish Davis Cup team. Since 2016, Moya has coached fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal.

Italy’s Flavia Pennetta claimed the US Open trophy in 2015 and won an additional 10 singles titles in her career, reaching a career high of world No. 6. Additionally, Pennetta had an accomplished doubles career, achieving the world No. 1 ranking and winning a major doubles title at the Australian Open.

Pennetta was a staple of the Italian Billie Jean King Cup team (formerly Fed Cup team) for more than a decade and was integral in capturing four championship titles. She is the first Italian woman to be nominated for the Hall of Fame.

Juan Carlos Ferrero, also of Spain, reached his first major final at Roland-Garros in 2002, upsetting then world No. 4 Andre Agassi and No. 2 Marat Safin en route. Ferrero returned to the final one year later, winning the 2003 Roland-Garros title. Later that year, Ferrero reached the final of the US Open. His success in 2003 propelled him to the world No. 1 ranking, and he spent 139 weeks inside the world top-5.

In 2000, Ferrero became a hero of the first-ever Spanish Davis Cup championship team when he won the final point in Barcelona against Australia. As a coach, Ferrero has overseen the rise of Carlos Alcaraz, the youngest-ever ATP World No. 1 and reigning US Open men’s singles champion.

American Lisa Raymond won 11 major titles with six different partners over the course of her career. Raymond captured six major titles in women’s doubles, where she has a career Grand Slam, and five in mixed doubles. She also earned a bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics with her mixed doubles partner, Mike Bryan, and was a member of a championship United States Billie Jean King Cup team (formerly Fed Cup). Raymond was ranked world No. 1 in doubles for 137 weeks and reached a career high of world No. 15 in singles. She won 79 career doubles titles.

Raymond’s path to the WTA Tour came after great success at the collegiate level. As a member of the University of Florida women’s tennis team, Raymond won the NCAA singles title twice and led the team to their first national championship.

In addition to the annual induction of the sports’ greatest players, every four years the International Tennis Hall of Fame presents tennis’ ultimate honor to the greatest wheelchair tennis players by induction in the Wheelchair Tennis Category. Candidates must have demonstrated a distinguished record of competitive achievement at the highest international level. Consideration will be given to integrity, sportsmanship, and character.

The year ahead will be a Wheelchair Tennis Category induction year and there are two candidates on the ballot:

Esther Vergeer is one of the most accomplished wheelchair tennis players in history as a 13-time ITF World Champion and 14-time Wheelchair Masters Singles champion. Her reign as world No. 1 in singles extended for 668 uninterrupted weeks from October 2000 to January 2013. In Paralympic competition for her native Netherlands, Vergeer claimed eight medals (seven gold) in four consecutive Games from 2000 to 2012.

Rick Draney began his wheelchair tennis career in 1984, several years before the Quad Division was officially recognized as an Open division alongside the Men’s Open and Women’s Open divisions in the United States. Prior to the advent of the Grand Slam-era in wheelchair tennis, he captured 12 singles titles and six doubles titles at Super Series level, the top tier of wheelchair competition at the time. He was also world No. 1 in the quad doubles ranking for more than 100 weeks.

The Wheelchair Tennis Category will not be part of Fan Voting, but will be decided upon only by the Official Voting Group, which is comprised of wheelchair tennis experts, media, historians, and Hall of Famers.