The Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award is given annually to the player who, throughout the course of the year, acted with the utmost professionalism and integrity, engaged in competition with his fellow players in the spirit of the greatest fairness, and advanced the game through extracurricular endeavours.
Casper Ruud has received the most votes as the player for 2022. Ruud breaks an 18-year run in which either Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer won it each year—Nadal five times and Federer 13 times (2004 to 2009, 2011 to 2017). (2010, 2018 to 2021).
The most recent recipient of the honour outside of Federer or Nadal was Thai player Paradorn Srichaphan in 2003.
“I just wanted to say a big thanks to everyone who voted for me for this year’s ATP Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award.I feel very, very honored and happy to win this prize this year. I will try to keep my mood in the right place for next year. Can’t wait to be back on court.
I wish everyone a great holiday, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year when that time comes. So, see you back again on court soon, and as I said thank you again to everyone who voted and for ATP for giving me this prize.”
RUUD SAID IN A VIDEO MESSAGE.
This year, Frances Tiafoe, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Rafael Nadal, and Ruud were the other four nominees for the prize. The International Tennis Writers’ Association (ITWA) selected the nominees, while the ATP players selected the winner.
Since Stefan Edberg won it four times in 1989, 1990, 1992, and 1995. The Norwegian is the first player from Scandinavia to receive the honour. In 1996, the prize was renamed in honour of the Swede. Ruud, who finished the 2022 season in third place. He is the first man from Scandinavia to do so since Edberg in 1992.
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Nadal Replaces Federer as Fan’s Favourite after Nearly 2 Decades
Rafael Nadal is the winner of the ATP Fans’ Favorite Award for the first time in his career. This broke Roger Federer’s winning streak for the last 19 years in a row from 2003 to 2021.
The players who were still competing during the week of November 7th in the Top 100 of the ATP rankings qualified as Fans’ Favorite nominees. Federer lost his eligibility for the prize this year after he slid off the ATP rankings and the Top 100 in July. The Fans’ Favorite award was first given out in 2000 and Nadal is just the fourth player ever to win it, after Gustavo Kuerten (2000), Marat Safin (2001-2002) and Federer (2003-2021).
Additionally, he is one of the contenders for this year’s Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award, which will be presented later this week.
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