Roger Federer wins ATP Fan Favourite Award for the 14th consecutive year

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The ATP Awards for 2016 were announced on Thursday and as expected, Roger Federer was the pick of the lot.

The Swiss, who cut short his season after Wimbledon in July, bagged the honour as the Fans’ Favourite over Andy Murray, Kei Nishikori and Rafael Nadal that’s voted by fans. Federer won 56% of the votes cast. This is the 14th consecutive year that Federer has won this award, since winning it for the first time in 2003.

He also won the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship award that’s voted by his peers, over Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Rafael Nadal who were also nominated in the category. Federer won this award for the first time in 2004 and except for 2010, has won it across all these years.

Federer winning these awards has elated his fans, even as it has raised scepticism about him being picked as the winner since he didn’t play half the season, while the other nominees did.

In the other categories, the Bryan Brothers won the Fans’ Favourite in doubles extending their domination as the audiences’ favourite doubles team for a dozen successive years.

Magnus Norman, Stan Wawrinka’s coach won the inaugural ATP Coach of the Year award. Under the Swede, with whom he has been working since 2013, Wawrinka has won a Major in each of the last three years and peaked at a career high of No. 3 in the ATP singles rankings.

Juan Martin del Potro was selected as the Comeback Player of the Year. The Argentine was ranked outside the top-1000 at the start of the year, battling wrist injury but after a string of good performances has entered the top-40.

Marin Cilic was awarded with the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian award as an acknowledgement for the support his foundation provides to support promotion of education.

Lucas Pouille was awarded as the Newcomer of the Year, while Taylor Fritz was awarded as the ATP Star of Tomorrow. The 19-year-old American is the youngest player in the top-100 of the ATP rankings.

The awards for the year-end No. 1 singles player and doubles team will be determined next week, during the World Tour Finals. Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic are bidding to finish the year ranked in the first place. Jamie Murray and his partner Bruno Soares are meanwhile are engaged in a fight to the finish with the French team of Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who are currently the top-ranked doubles team.

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