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Nadal, Venus Top Players in 2008 Poll;
Sexiest? The Eyes Have It: Ana, Marat for Fourth Straight Year
Radwanska, Wozniacki Tie for Newcomers; Del Potro Wins In Landslide;
Murray, Safina Most Improved; Gasquet, Vaidisova Busts
TennisReporters.net readers are nothing if they are
not consistent. See their votes at the bottom of this page.
For the fourth straight year, Serbian siren Ana Ivanovic and Russian
lady-killer Marat Safin were voted the Sexiest Player of the Year, edging
Maria Sharapova and Rafael Nadal respectively in the 2008 TennisReporters.net
poll.
Cynthia Lum/WireImage.com
Ana Ivanovic's New Year card with images of Players
of the
Year Rafael Nadal and Venus Williams, along with
Marat Safin,
who joins Ivanovic as a four-time sexiest player. However,
the muscular Spaniard Nadal, who won two Grand Slams this year at Roland
Garros and Wimbledon and finished the year at No. 1, overwhelmed his
chief rival, Roger Federer for male Player of the Year honors, winning
91.2% of the vote.
Ivanovic, who won her maiden Slam title at the French Open, didn’t
fair nearly as well in women’s Player of the Year honors, surprisingly
finishing with a skimpy 2.7% and in a tie for fourth with Olympic gold
medallist Elena Dementieva.
American and five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams grabbed the honor
with 52.2%, overcoming No. 1 Jelena Jankovic and US Open champion Serena
Williams. Venus was the only player to have won two of the Big Six tournaments
(the four Slams, the Olympics and the Sony Ericsson Champions-Doha), winning
the year-end Championships for the first time in her stellar career.
The male Newcomer of the Year went to young Argentine sensation Juan
Martin Del Potro (88.%), the 20-year-old who had a major breakthrough
this past summer when he won four consecutive ATP titles. No one was
even close as Ernests Gulbis was second with only 7.1%.
For the first time in poll history, two players tied for an honor when
teens Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland and Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark
each grabbed 42.5 percent of the vote in the women’s Newcomer
category. The 10th-ranked Radwanska, the youngest member of the Top
10 at age 19, won three titles this year, while the 18-year-old Wozniacki
also won three crowns and finished at No. 12.
The Most Improved Player awards on the men’s side went to Scotland’s
Andy Murray, who won two Masters Series crown this year and reached
the US Open final. Murray took 43.3% of the vote to edge France’s
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (31%), who reached the Australian Open final and
won his first Masters Series shield.
Russia’s Dinara Safina (94.7%) crushed the competition for Most
Improved woman. No. 3 Safina’s stellar spring and summer
run, which included three titles, a visit to her first major final at
Roland Garros and an Olympic silver medal, sealed the deal.
Russia’s steady Nikolay Davydenko and Venus Williams won Veteran
of the Year awards, while Wimbledon came up huge in the Match of the
Year categories, as the historic Nadal v. Federer final and the Williams
sisters’
final round clash were selected. For the match dubbed "greatest match
ever" by many commentators, the Nadal v. Federer match drew 88.5%, overwhelming
but not historically dominant.
Busts of the Year when to the talented Czech Nicole Vaidisova, who has
fallen from a career-high No. 7 ranking to No. 41 and failed to win
a 2008 title, and France’s Richard Gasquet, another onetime No.
7 and a '07 Wimbledon semifinalist who fell to No. 25 and was also title-less.
How Sexy? The Eyes Have It
Always the most popular category, fans rushed in to vote
for the year’s
Sexiest Players and despite a number of new entries, Ivanovic and Safin
reigned supreme again.
Ivanovic, who has done a ton more photo shoots this year in order to
broaden her image, won 42.5% to 20.4% from Sharapova, the world’s
wealthiest and most well-known women’s athlete. Another Russian,
Maria Kirilenko, finished with 14.2%, while Serena and Russian Elena
Vesnina grabbed 6.2 percent respectively.
The 28-year-old Safin, who has been discussing retirement, didn’t
garner as many votes as Ivanovic did, but still managed to win 31.9% to
20.4% from Nadal and 12.4% from American Andy Roddick, who is engaged
to swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker.
| Totals below are percentages.
Some voters did not cast votes in all categories. |
|
Player of the
Year/men
Rafael Nadal
Roger Federer
Novak Djokovic
Andy Murray
|
91.2
4.4
3.0
.9
|
Newcomer of the
Year/men
Juan Martin Del
Porto
Ernests
Gulbis
Marin Cilic
|
88.5
7.1
2.7 |
Most Improved
Player/men
Andy Murray
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Gilles Simon
Stan Wawrinka
|
43.4
31.0
23.0
.9
|
Veteran of the
Year/men
Nikolay
Davydenko
David Nalbandian
James Blake
|
84.1
8.8
1.8
|
Match of the Year/men
Nadal v. Federer,
Wimbledon
Djokovic v. Roddick,
US Open
Baghdatis v. Hewitt, Australian Open
Murray v. Federer, Tennis Masters Cup
|
88.5
4.4
3.5
0
|
Bust of the Year/men
Richard Gasquet
Marat Safin
Andy Roddick
Donald Young
Lleyton Hewitt
|
65.5
11.5
8.8
8.0
4.4
|
Sexist Player/men
Marat
Safin
Rafael Nadal
Andy Roddick
Fernando Verdasco
James Blake
Feliciano Lopez
Tommy Haas
Simone Bolelli
Juan Carlos Ferrero
Fernando Gonzalez
|
31.9
20.4
12.4
8.8
5.3
5.3
4.4
4.4
1.8
0.9
|
|
Player of the
Year/women
Venus
Williams
Jelena Jankovic
Serena Williams
Elena Dementieva
Ana Ivanovic
|
52.2
21.2
19.5
2.7
2.7 |
Newcomer of the
Year/women
Agenieszka Radwanska
Caroline Wozniacki
Alize Cornet
Victoria Azarenka
Dominika Cibulkova
|
42.5
42.5
8.0
5.3
0 |
Most Improved
Player/women
Dinara Safina
Victoria Azarenka
Caroline Wozniacki
Katarina Srebotnik
|
94.7
8.8
1.8
0 |
Veteran of the
Year/women
Venus
Williams
Elena Dementieva
Serena Williams
Flavia Pennetta
Vera Zvonareva
Nadia Petrova
|
45.1
23.0
17.7
7.1
4.4
1.8
|
Match of the Year/women
Serena
v. Venus, Wimbledon
Safina v. Sharapova,
Roland Garros
Ivanovic v. Jankovic, Roland Garros
Dementieva v. Safina, Olympics
|
59.3
15.0
13.3
9.7
|
Bust of the Year/women
Nicole
Vaidisova 56.6
Anna Chakvetadze
20.4
Svetlana Kuznetsova 17.7
Shahar Peer 4.4
|
56.6
20.4
17.7
4.4
|
Sexiest Player/women
Ana
Ivanovic
Maria Sharapova
Maria Kirilenko
Elena Vesnina
Serena Williams
Sorana Cirstea
Dominika Cibulkova
Carolina Wozniacki
Ashley Harkleroad
Alize Cornet
|
42.5
20.4
14.2
6.2
6.2
3.5
2.7
2.7
0.9
0
|
|
© TennisReporters.net
2008
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