Sinner the big winner of 2023 ATP awards

Winners of the 2023 ATP Awards were announced earlier this month. As expected, Jannik Sinner was the big story.

Sinner was named the tour’s Most Improved Player after climbing from 15th in the rankings to fourth. The 22-year-old’s season was highlighted by his first Masters 1000 title in Toronto plus three other titles and runner-up showings in Rotterdam, Miami, and at the Nitto ATP Finals. Ben Shelton, Chris Eubanks, and Matteo Arnaldi were also nominated for this award.

Sinner was also named the Fans’ Favorite for singles, while the Russian duo of Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov was the Fans’ Favorite doubles pairing. Meanwhile, Coach of the Year honors went to Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi–the coaches of…you guessed it…Jannik Sinner.

The category that had the least suspense was Newcomer of the Year. Arthur Fils was by far the highest-ranked player of the nominated group at No. 36, so to the surprise of no one he was the recipient of the award. The 19-year-old Frenchman captured his first ATP title in Lyon and finished runner-up at the recent NextGen ATP Finals. Luca Van Asshe, Flavio Cobolli, Alex Michelsen, and Dominic Stricker were also in the running.

Jan-Lennard Struff was named Comeback Player of the Year. After missing three months last season and falling to No. 167 in the world, Struff surged back up to 25th. That means he will be seeded for the 2024 Australian Open. Alexander Zverev, Gael Monfils, and Dominic Koepfer were also considered.

The Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award went to Carlos Alcaraz, while Felix Auger-Aliassime earned Humanitarian of the Year honors. As for Tournaments of the Year, Indian Wells was the winner among Masters 1000s, Queen’s Club won for ATP 500s, and Bastad brought home ATP 250 honors.

The year-end No. 1 awards, of course, had already been determined. Novak clinched it for singles during the Nitto ATP Finals, while Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek did the same for doubles. 

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand. You can follow him on Twitter at @Dimonator.