Serena Williams was honored as the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Player of the Year today in Miami, and Cara Black and Liezel Huber were honored as Doubles Team of the Year. Other awards given were:
Most Improved Player--Dinara Safina
Comeback Player of the Year--Zheng Jie
Newcomer of the Year--Caroline Wozniacki
Humanitarian of the Year--Ana Ivanovic
Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award--Elena Dementieva
Player Service Award--Liezel Huber
Favorite Premier Tournament--Tennis Grand Prix (Stuttgart)
Favorite International Tournament--Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic (Bali)
I understand that the Tour likes to have its little awards get-together in Miami, but for the life of me I've never been able to understand why you'd hand out season honors almost three full months into the FOLLOWING season... after a grand slam, several Premier events, Fed Cup action and almost 25% of the schedule for the new year have been completed.
ReplyDeleteIt's like handing out the Super Bowl trophy to the winning team in October of the next season.
It'd be so much more of-the-moment and meaningful if this was done at some sort of televised (say, on Tennis Channel) banquet at the site of the SEC, or in New York or Miami immediately afterward. Doing it now has always seemed so anticlimactic.
Well, that makes at least two people who think that way. It makes no sense at all.
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