The WTA Awards were announced today and for the seventh time in her career Serena Williams was named the WTA Player of the Year. Other big awards announced were Doubles Team of the Year (Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza), Most Improved Player of the Year (Timea Bacsinszky), Newcomer of the Year (Daria Gavrilova) and Comeback Player of the Year (Venus Williams).
ROGER FEDERER ENDS COACHING RELATIONSHIP WITH STEFAN EDBERG
Roger Federer announced that Stefan Edberg will not be part of his coaching staff in 2016. Former ATP pro (and Federer friend) Ivan Ljubicic will join the team, with Severin Luthi remaining as head coach of Team Federer. Ljubicic had been coaching Milos Raonic for the last two years,
DOUBLES PAIRINGS FOR 2016 RIO OLYMPICS COMING INTO FOCUS
Federer has agreed to play Mixed Doubles at the 2016 Rio Olympics with Martina Hingis, who is part of the current Best Doubles Team of the Year. Federer famously won the Men's Doubles With Stan Wawrinka at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, so one would think that they would have a good chance in 2016 now that the team has 19 major singles titles between them. Additionally, the Women's Doubles team of Belinda Bencic (or Bacsinsky) with Hingis would be hard to beat. Could Switzerland sweep the doubles medals next year?
Swiss sweep Rio tennis - quite an opportunity.
ReplyDeleteAs to Ivan joining up with Roger, I always wondered why he had not previously.
But his work with Raonic added nothing to Milos' skills - in fact, Raonic fell out of the top 10 on Ivan's watch - not saying teaching was the only cause, because injuries were definitely part of the reason.
But the Williams sisters and the women's doubles were the true highlights of the WTA last year.
But now as to the ATP?!