Rafael Nadal and Caroline Wozniacki to be awarded with 2010 ITF World Champions title
Caroline Wozniacki and Rafael Nadal have been crowned the International Tennis Federation's World Champions for the season 2010 on Tuesday. It is the second occasion that the world number one Rafael Nadal has taken the honour, whereas, Caroline has registered
her name as the first tennis player from Denmark to receive a senior ITF award.
The top ranked tandem of Mike Bryan and Bob Bryan from the United States of America were named men's doubles World Champions for a record seventh time. In the women’s side, Flavia Pennetta from Italy and Gisela Dulko of Argentina also became women's doubles
World Champions on the very first occasion in their careers.
World number one Rafael Nadal despite of having a slow start to the year finished his career best season ranked number one in the South African Airways ATP list. He started his 2010 campaign by playing at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha where he finished
runner up to Nikolay Davydenko of Russia in three sets. The final match score was 6–0, 6–7(8), 4–6. He made his way into the finals after getting the better of Simone Bolelli, Potito Starace, Steve Darcis as well as Viktor Troicki.
His other season highlights include title victories in Monte Carlo Rolex Masters, 2010 Internazionali BNL d'Italia, Madrid Open, French Open, Wimbledon, United States Open, Rakuten Japan Open, runner up effort in Barclays World Tour Finals, semi final appearances
in BNP Paribas Open, Sony Ericsson Open, Rogers Cup, PTT Thailand Open and quarterfinal showings in Australian Open and AEGON Championships.
While commenting on his recent ITF World Champion award, the 24-year-old Rafa said on Tuesday, "It is an honour to be named ITF World Champion for the second time. After a difficult year in 2009, it was an amazing feeling to regain the number one ranking
and finally win the US Open. My goal all the time is to keep improving and be a better player each year than I was the previous year."
The 20-year-old Caroline, on the other hand, who started the season at Australian Open, registered her name as the fourth-youngest woman after Martina Hingis, Monica Seles and Steffi Graf to secure the season end number one rankings on the tour.
The professional tennis player from Denmark was the most consistent contender on the circuit, winning a tour high six crowns, in Tokyo, Ponte Vedra, Beijing, New Haven, Copenhagen and Montreal.
She also reached the final in Indian Wells, semi final round in the United States Open and quarterfinal in Warsaw and French Open.
The Monte Carlo resident, who made her debut on the WTA tour back in 2005, while commenting on her ITF World Champion award on Tuesday reflected, "What an honour it is to be named ITF World Champion. To be listed with all the former ITF World Champions is
something I am really proud of. I had a great year in 2010 and I am training hard to have an even better year in 2011."
In other ITF awards, Youth Olympic winners of Daria Gavrilova from Russian and Juan Sebastian Gomez of Colombia were named as Junior World Champions, whereas, the ITF Wheelchair World Champions for 2010 are Shingo Kunieda of Japan and Esther Vergeer from
Netherlands.
The ITF World Champions will be awarded at the annual ITF World Champions Dinner during French Open on May 31 in Paris.
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