Rafael Nadal likely to usurp top tennis honour held by Roger Federer over the years

As the historic and truncated 2020 season comes to an end, the Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP, has released its nominees for its annual ATP awards. There are 12 official award categories: Player of the Year, Doubles Team of the Year, Coach of the Year, Tim Gullikson Career Coach Award, Most Improved Player, Newcomer of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, ATPTour.com Fans' Favorite, ATPTour.com Fans' Favorite Team, Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award, Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of the Year and the Tournaments of the Year. The winners for all awards  - except fan favourites - are decided by the players/coaches themselves

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ATP Sportsmanship award

The biggest name on the nominees' list this year is Rafael Nadal, who is on track to win the prestigious Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award in 2020. The award goes to the player who, throughout the year, conducts himself at the highest level of professionalism and integrity and who promoted the game through his off-court activities. Rafa - a three-time winner in this category - will be going up against Australian John Millman, Argentine Diego Schwartzman, and Austrian Dominic Thiem for his fourth title.

The Spaniard, who won his maiden ATP Sportsmanship award in 2010, will be hoping to complete his hattrick with a win this year. In fact, he is the only player except Roger Federer to have won this award at any time since 2004. 31-year-old John Millman is the only new addition to last year’s nominees' list, as a replacement for Roger Federer. With his reputation, it is no surprise that Federer has won the honour a record 13 times. 

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ATP Awards nominees' list

World No.9 Diego Schwartzman is the only player to have received multiple nominations this year - finding himself nominated for the Most Improved Player of the Year category. The award is given to the player that reached a significantly higher ATP ranking at the end of the year. He will go up alongside Frenchman Ugo Humbert, Russia's Andrey Rublev and Italian wildcard Jannik Sinner for the honour. Schwartzman started this year at No.13, dropping down to No.15 before finishing the year at No.9. 

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Nominees for the 'Return of the Year', given to a player who has overcome a serious injury to re-establish himself as one of the best players on the ATP Tour, are Kevin Anderson, Andrey Kuznetsov, Vasek Pospisil and Milos Raonic. The newcomer of the year is given to the NextGenATP player who entered the top-150 for the first time in 2020 and made the biggest impact on the circuit this season. This year's nominees are Carlos Alcaraz, Sebastian Korda, Lorenzo Musetti, Jurij Rodionov, Emil Ruusuvuori and Thiago Seyboth Wild.

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Image Credits: AP