Tennis review of 2024: Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka and Jack Draper up for awards

It’s tennis award season time, so we sat Gigi Salmon, Tim Henman, Laura Robson and Jonathan Overend around a table to debate who wins top honours in 2024.

There are six categories with winners from the ATP and WTA Tours, so without further ado, let’s gets down to handing out the prizes…

WTA Player of the Year

Robson: Aryna Sabalenka: Winning Aussie Open, winning US Open, you can’t ask for much more.

Gigi: Sabalenka is year-end No 1 for a reason. She’s the best player in the world. She is happy on court and off court.

Henman: I agree with everything that has been said… so far!

Overend: It’s Aryna Sabalenka – of course it is! Who else could there possibly be? The only other candidate could be Jasmine Paolini.

ATP Player of the Year

Henman: Jannik Sinner winning the Australian Open and US Open. It’s his Grand Slam breakthrough and he’s finished No 1 by quite some margin.

Overend: The way he got to No 1 and then consolidated his position. We’ll see more of his rivalry with Carlos Alcaraz in 2025. Sinner is far and away top of the ranking pile, not just in Grand Slam achievements, but mopping up on the ATP Tour.

To do what he did in the summer with everything that was going on in his life was very, very impressive.

Gigi: I’ve also gone for Sinner but the clincher for me was how he handled himself in the summer.

Robson: I’ve gone for Alcaraz purely based on the summer he had by winning the French Open and Wimbledon. Then straight after that, he got to the Olympic final and he was very close to coming home with a gold medal.

ATP Match of the Year

Overend: It was the Tokyo final between Artur Fils and Ugo Humbert. Fils beat the No 1 seed Taylor Fritz, Ben Shelton and Holge Rune. He somehow plays the set of his life to win the title.

Robson: I’m going to go Novak Djokovic and Alcaraz in the Olympic final. It was the best best-of-three I’ve ever seen in my life. The highlight reel was out of control. Both of them were crying at the same time.

Henman: I’m going to go for Daniel Evans and Karen Khachanov at the US Open. Evans had won so few matches going into it. He was two sets down and then just refused to give in. He was 4-0 down in the fifth with treble break points and then won six games in a row. It was the longest match in US Open history!

Gigi: I’m going Alcaraz beating Sinner in the Beijing final. They absolutely bring out the best in each other.

WTA Match of the Year

Robson: I’m going Paolini and Donna Vekic in the Wimbledon semi-final – a monster match! The other one was Iga Swiatek and Sabalenka in the Madrid final.

Gigi: I’ve also gone for Swiatek and Sabalenka in Madrid. I was stood courtside for that and we just kept looking at each other thinking ‘this is incredible, can it get even better?’ But it kept getting better. It was mind-blowing.

Henman: I love it when these rivalries grow in sport and that’s why it was my choice as well.

Overend: It was my choice as well. I hope it isn’t, but I felt like it was the peak of their rivalry.

ATP Point of the Year

Overend: I’ll give you a game when you could have chosen any of the winning shots – the ridiculous game between Djokovic and Fritz in the Shanghai semi-final at 2-2.

Robson: I’ve gone Fritz and Alexander Zverev at the US Open. I think it was the fourth game of the second set and it was a brutal point.

Henman: I have to go with Sinner and Alcaraz from Miami. It looked like an arcade game!

Gigi: I’ve gone for Hugo Gaston in Antwerp against Alex de Minaur. It has been viewed millions of times.

WTA Point of the Year

Robson: I’m going Karolina Muchova at the US Open – shot behind the back. I think it was against Katie Volynets.

Henman: Muchova is one of the favourite players to watch. She has so much variety, which is why I agree with you.

Gigi: I was along the lines of Muchova and Volynets. I just hope Muchova stays fit and healthy.

Overend: We need more Taylor Townsend in our discussion. It was deep in her long match that she played against Elena Rybakina in Miami. The defence she got into, then a lob followed by a searing forehand winner.

ATP Surprise of the year

Henman: Jacob Fearnley. He’s a top 100 player now but I didn’t see it happening for him that quickly.

Overend: I thought this was the year Zverev was going to break his Grand Slam duck.

Robson: The Sinner drugs test. It’s what everyone was talking about at the US Open.

Gigi: It was the bees at Indian Wells!

WTA Surprise of the year

Overend: Jasmine Paolini. She was 30 in the year and then won Dubai, reached the final of the French and Wimbledon, and won Olympic doubles gold. Now she’s at a career-high No 4.

Gigi: Yes, same! It’s astonishing and I really hope she continues her run in 2025.

Robson: Paolini is most improved but the surprise for me is Lulu Sun making the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.

Henman: Sonay Kartal winning a 250 and breaking the top 100. I thought that was just brilliant!

Most improved player

Henman: It’s Jack Draper. I’ve no problem in singing his praises. He was really struggling last year with injuries but he had a couple of good results to finish 2023 but the way he’s come through, winning a tour title, first Grand Slam semi in New York.

Robson: Considering last summer he missed that whole grass-court season. He was so gutted about it but we can now see what he’s capable of and he’s been able to do it consistently because he’s healthy, which has been a great sign and long may that continue.

Gigi: Jack Draper for me and he’s such a lovely young man.

Coach of the Year

Henman: I’m going for ‘Trotters’ – James Trotman. He’s put in the hard yards when things haven’t been going so well. He’s shown a wise head to make sure they move in the right direction.

Overend: For Jack to say ‘I like just the one voice and that voice is going to be James Trotman’ – that says a lot.

There is live tennis from the ATP Next Gen Finals at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah between 18-22 December, before the 2025 United Cup from 2am on December 27 staged in Perth and Sydney.