Tennis Canada Rewards Top Players for Excellence
November 30, 2009
Nestor and Wozniak Win Male and Female Players of the Year, respectively Tennis Canada announced Monday the recipients of the 2009 Excellence Awards for high performance professional athletes. These awards, which were introduced in 1982, are presented annually to the country’s top tennis players, coaches, officials, communities and administrators in recognition of outstanding contributions made to Canadian tennis.
After arguably the best season of his 18-year career, Daniel Nestor was named Male Player of the Year for the seventh time and Male Doubles Player of the Year for the eighth consecutive year. Capturing a career-high nine titles in one season, Nestor and Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic won five ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events (Monte Carlo, Rome, Madrid, Cincinnati, and Paris) and successfully defended their Wimbledon title, bringing Nestor’s Grand Slam trophy collection to five. They were also champions at Tour events in Rotterdam, Barcelona and Basel, reached the finals at Doha and Sydney, and were semifinalists at Roland Garros. The Toronto native finished the season with a 58-16 win-loss record and the No. 2 team ranking on the ATP World Tour. With his ninth title of the season in Paris, Nestor became the first Canadian player of all time to surpass the $1 million dollar mark in official prize money in a single year as well as the first player in singles or doubles to capture all nine Masters 1000 championships. Nestor also continued his devotion to playing for his country at the 2009 Davis Cup where he participated for the seventeenth year. Playing with recently retired partner Frederic Niemeyer (Sherbrooke, Quebec) the duo went 2-0 in doubles play at ties against Ecuador and Peru. The pair owns the Canadian record for best doubles team at 12-1, while Nestor continues to hold the records for most total wins, most doubles wins, most ties played and most years played.
On the women’s side, Canada’s top-ranked singles player Aleksandra Wozniak netted the awards for Female Player of the Year and Female Singles Player of the Year for the second straight season. Wozniak’s ascension to the elite tier of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour continued in 2009 where she reached the third Tour final of her career at Ponte Vedra Beach and two semifinals at Eastbourne and the Bell Challenge in Quebec City. Over the course of the season Wozniak defeated Top 15 players on four different occasions including No. 10 Nadia Petrova at Ponte Vedra Beach, No. 5 Caroline Wozniacki at Tokyo and French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova at Eastbourne. At Roland Garros in May, the Blainville, Quebec native reached the fourth round making her the first Canadian since 1992 to make the final 16 at Paris, and first in 10 years to reach the fourth round in singles at any Grand Slam. She achieved a career-high ranking of No. 21 on June 22, 2009 and will finish the year ranked inside the Top 40 for the second season in a row. Wozniak also added to her stellar Fed Cup record by going 4-1 in singles play to bring her overall total to 28-6.
The Male Singles Player of the Year award went to Niagara Falls, Ontario native Frank Dancevic for the sixth time. The top-ranked Canadian male singles player reached his second career ATP World Tour final at Eastbourne in June as a qualifier. He defeated two Top 50 players en route (Igor Andreev and Fabrice Santoro) and fell to world No. 27 Dmitry Tursunov of Russia in the championship match. Dancevic followed up that performance with an impressive run to the semifinals at Indianapolis, the site of his first Tour final appearance in 2007. There, he defeated American Bobby Reynolds and Tursunov, two players who he was previously winless against. Dancevic also participated in all four Grand Slams in 2009 and posted a 1-1 Davis Cup singles record in the tie versus Ecuador in March.
Vernon, British Columbia’s Vasek Pospisil made a remarkable late season push to capture the award for Most Improved Male Player of the Year. The 19-year-old stormed his way to four consecutive championships in October and November at the Italy F29 and F30 Futures as well as the Mexico F12 and F14 Futures. He then reached the semifinals at the Mexico F15 Futures bringing his match-win streak to an end after 23 straight victories. Pospisil reached one additional singles final and four semifinals at 2009 Futures events. He currently sits at a career-high singles ranking of No. 340 on the ATP World Tour, 792 spots higher than where he finished 2008. In doubles, he was the champion at five tournaments, a four-time finalist and reached four additional semifinals propelling him to a career-high doubles ranking of No. 195 on October 12, 2009.
The Female Doubles Player of the Year honouree is Marie-Eve Pelletier of Repentigny, Quebec. Canada’s top-ranked female doubles player at a career-high No. 66, Pelletier reached two Tour semifinals at Estoril and s’Hertogenbosch with Frenchwomen Julie Coin and Nathalie Dechy, respectively. She was also the champion with Coin at $100,000 Challenger events in Cagnes-sur-Mer and Poitiers, France. She reached two additional doubles finals on the ITF Challenger circuit, four semifinals and reached the second round of the US Open.
Toronto’s Sharon Fichman was the recipient of the Excellence Award for Most Improved Female Player of the Year. After finishing 2008 ranked No. 302 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, Fichman currently sits at a career-high No. 124. In 2009, Fichman reached back-to-back finals at Florida Challengers in Boca Raton and Lutz to be named the ITF Featured Player of the Month for January. She captured the title at Lutz and went on to win a second title at the $25,000 Osprey Challenger. She was also a finalist at the $100,000 Biella Challenger and a semifinalist at two Canadian events, the $75,000 Vancouver Challenger and the $50,000 Tevlin Challenger in Toronto. Fichman qualified for her first main draw at a Tour event in Estoril and repeated the feat at Budapest and Bad Gastein. The 18-year-old saw similar improved success in doubles where she captured two Challenger trophies and reached her first Tour final at Estoril. She was a semifinalist at two additional Tour events (Bad Gastein and Budapest) and a finalist at two Challenger tournaments to reach a career-high doubles ranking of No. 95 after starting the year at No. 432.
“The 2009 season was outstanding for Canadian tennis on the international stage,” said Hatem McDadi, vice-president, tennis development, Tennis Canada. “With a record number of players reaching career-high rankings, our athletes achieved a remarkable level of success which will now serve as a new benchmark to surpass heading into 2010. Tennis Canada is thrilled to recognize the 2009 Excellence Award winners and congratulates them on their accomplishments.”
The Tennis Canada Excellence Awards for high performance athletes are selected by a committee comprised of high-ranking Tennis Canada personnel and the country’s top national coaches. The remaining 2009 Excellence Awards for junior players, wheelchair athletes, coaches, officials, tennis communities and administrators will be announced at a later date.