Carlos Alcaraz Awarded 2023 Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award by ATP

Carlos Alcaraz, awarded the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship 2023 award, award for sportsmanship. (ATP)

The circuit has finished and the tennis players, although in their rest weeks, have their sights set on the first Grand Slam of the season in Australia. Before the end of the year, the ATP, like other entities such as F1, recognizes the merit of its athletes, as a gesture of gratitude for their effort and sacrifice throughout the calendar. This time the winner was Carlos Alcaraz. The world number two has been awarded the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award, an appointment that recognizes fair play, professionalism and integrity on and off the court.

His teammates have been in charge of voting Carlitos as the most athletic tennis player of the season. He is the fourth Spanish tennis player to achieve it, behind José Higueras (1983), Álex Corretja (1996 and 1998) and Rafa Nadal (2010 and achieved it consecutively between 2018 and 2021). The latter was responsible for breaking the hegemony of Roger Federer, who was the winner between 2004 and 2009 and between 2011 and 2017. In fact, the Spaniard and the Swiss alternated the award, but they treasured it between 2004 and 2021. In the last season, Casper Ruud won it, in a way in the absence of Rafa Nadal and with Federer already retired. In 2023, the turn is for Alcaraz.

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“I am very happy to win the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award,” declares the Spaniard. “Especially happy that it is an award chosen by my colleagues on the circuit. “It means a lot to me, so thank you very much to everyone,” says the world number two. This season he has won six titles, among which his second major, Wimbledon, stands out in five sets against Novak Djokovic. He also won in Buenos Aires, Indian Wells, Barcelona, ​​Madrid and London (Queen’s Club). With this recognition of sportsmanship, Alcaraz has three ATP awards, along with the Rookie of the Year in 2020 and the Most Improved Player in 2022.

Sending messages of encouragement to their injured rivals or sharing their umbrella with the ball boys during a long delay due to rain in Rio de Janeiro are some of the gestures that the Association highlights in its statement. The Spaniard’s gestures inside and outside the game have been more than enough for him to be recognized with this award, which has meant that “the two-time Grand Slam champion has quickly earned the reputation of being one of the classiest players in the world.” circuit”. He remembers that when Fabio Fognini fell on the track, also in Rio, the Spaniard helped him up. He shared a trophy nomination with Grigor Dimitrov, Hubert Hurkacz and Jannik Sinner.

If anyone can unseat the Serbian, it is Carlitos. No other tennis player not named Alcaraz has managed to take the number one spot from Djokovic for a few weeks and stand up to him in the Grand Slams, especially at Wimbledon, where he caused Nole’s only crack this season. “I still don’t believe it, it’s incredible. Not only have I won, but I have done so against one of the greatest legends in our sport. I started competing in tennis watching you play. You have been winning tournaments since I was born,” Alcaraz told Djokovic.

The Spaniard was not yet aware of the feat achieved in London, beating the tennis player with the most major tournaments won in history. He became, at 20 years, two months and 11 days, the youngest winner in the last 37 years and the third youngest in history after Becker and Borg. The Asian tour dynamited his aspirations, but the Spaniard keeps alive the flame that illuminates him as the tennis player capable of breaking the Balkan hegemony.

2023-12-16 11:04:00
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