The WTA announced the winners of the 2010 WTA Player Awards and Kim Clijsters was honored both for her tennis achievements and her off-court kindness.
Clijsters’ five titles in 2010, which include the US Open and the WTA Championships in Doha, earned her the Player of the Year award for the second time in her career (the first time she won it in 2005).
Clijsters was also given the Player Service award, which recognizes the player who has done the most to support her fellow players through the WTA Players’ Council or other initiatives. What more can you ask for than to be honored by your colleagues the same year you had such great career results.
Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta, who clinched seven titles together in 2010, won the Doubles Team of the Year award. They are the No.1-ranked team in the year-end rankings and those seven titles include the WTA Championships in Doha.
Other award winners:
Newcomer of the Year – Petra Kvitova
Comeback Player of the Year – Justine Henin
Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award – Elena Dementieva
Humanitarian of the Year – Maria Sharapova
Most Improved Player – Francesca Schiavone
There were also awards based on fan votes, and as you can see Maria Sharapova basically won all of them:
Fan Favorite Singles Player – Maria Sharapova
Fan Favorite Doubles Team – Venus Williams & Serena Williams
Most Fashionable Player (On Court) – Maria Sharapova
Most Fashionable Player (Off Court) – Maria Sharapova
Most Dramatic Expression – Maria Sharapova
Humanitarian Of The Year – Maria Sharapova
As for tournaments, players voted the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart as their favorite Premier event, while Pattaya City is their favorite International stop.
I guess I can’t complain because I’m a Maria fan, but what exactly has she done to warrant her getting the Humanitarian Award?!
Benjamin, Maria actually did a lot. The award is for her role as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador. In 2010, Maria visited Chernobyl while pledging $250,000 to the United Nations Development Program.
Here’s a video from her visit: https://womenstennisblog.com/2010/08/23/maria-sharapova-visits-her-old-neighborhood-in-russia/
And the best dancer of WTA is:
http://www.video.mediaset.it/video/lets_dance/clip/195829/vogue-e-smash.html#tc-s1-c1-o1-p1
🙂
Migi, haha definitely!
Congratulations to all the girls who won awards especially to Kim. But maybe Serena should won some award too – she won two Grand Slam titles (for second consecutive year). I like Italian “dancers” – they are so charming girls 🙂
The Italian team rocks :-)! Kim must be very popular on the tour 🙂
I think Kim really deserve the awards, she seems really a nice person 🙂 …I’m also glad for Flavia and Gisela, they had a fantastic year together!
Yesterday evening I saw live our dancers and the expression of Francesca made me die laughing, she’s always so ironic and unpredictable!!
Thanks for the link, Marija! I actually wasn’t very aware that she was an ambassador!
🙂
Andrea Petkovic – best on court dancer
Serena Williams – worst sportsmanship award, biggest slacker, least tournaments played
Marija – best tennis blog ever
JohnnyB, haha now I earned it! 😀
Really pleased for Kim and for Flavia/Gisela, fully deserving of the awards.
Kvitova ‘Best Newcomer’ though? She’s been on tour for 3 years! On that basis Date Krumm would have been more deserving of the ‘Comeback’ award than Justine!
Roll on January!! Can’t wait for the new season to start 🙂
While I’m here – Merry Christmas and a happy healthy new year Marija 🙂
Love the site, keep up the good work 🙂
I guess I always have to be the dissenting voice around here. I am trying to figure out why the WTA feels the need to have an award based on a player’s expression during play. How is that significant and how appropriate is it for a professional woman?
As for Clijsters, tweeting all the time about calling players when they are down and out, I guess eventually everyone will vote for you because you are so nice. Give me a break already.
The fact that one of Sharapova’s fans had to find a link to figure out why she got a humanitarian award says it all. It is instructive that her video about her visit to Chernobyl was aired endlessly, not on the Tennis Channel like Serena’s where half the tennis watching public never gets, but on ESPN during the USO. Serena really needs to get with the marketing programme.
Sharapova visited Chernobyl and donated US$250,000. Serena has built 3 schools in Africa and has partnered with her sponsor, HP to provide ongoing funding for educational needs. I always told give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach a man a fish, you feed him for life.
TennisAce just openly say you’re angry because some other person criticised Serena Williams 🙂
Tony, it’s Christmas for you already? 🙂 Thank you for being here for me and my blog.
TennisAce, I don’t think it’s bad Clijsters is supporting her fellow players through tweets, why not. And about Serena, her efforts in Kenya are very significant, but what Sharapova did is also great, so both of them could have won the award. And I was the one who shared the link, simply because it was best described on the Tour’s site.
Kim is phony and about her winning POY its all about politics and WTA wants to promote pova and Kim a lot.I think Serena has done more for charity than Maria.WTA and Serena are not friends and its clear where the interests of the WTA CEO lie,in the blondes on tour.I think 2011 will disappoint Stacey because the girls she is expecting to push out Serena will fail to deliver.
Serena will win a slam next year even though she will be coming back from injury.
Kim will try to dominate the tour but will fail when it really counts.
Good luck Serena,Venus,Wozniacki and Azarenka!