Twenty-time tennis grand slam champion Roger Federer has won the 2017 Laureus World Sportsman of the Year and Comeback of the Year awards.

The 36-year-old Swiss won the Australian Open and Wimbledon titles in 2017 after seven years without a major.

“I didn’t believe I would ever come back to this level,” said Federer. “The year I had was something else.”

Serena Williams took the World Sportswoman of the Year award after winning her 23rd grand slam in 2017.

“This means the world to me,” added world number one Federer.

“The comebacks are always extremely emotional. Last year was a dream come true.”

Formula 1 constructors’ champions Mercedes picked up the Team of the Year accolade, and wheelchair athlete Marcel Hug won Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability.

“There’s so much expertise in all parts of our team, I feel so proud to be a part of it,” said Mercedes’ world champion Lewis Hamilton

Also at the ceremony in Monaco, golfer Sergio Garcia secured the Breakthrough prize following his Masters success, while recently-retired Roma forward Francesco Totti clinched the Laureus Academy Exceptional Achievement award.

Brazilian football club Chapecoense were given the Best Sporting Moment of the Year for their response in adversity following a plane crash in 2016 in which they lost the majority of their team.

Winners:

Sportsman of the Year award

Roger Federer.

Also nominated: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) football, Mo Farah (GB) athletics, Chris Froome (GB) cycling, Lewis Hamilton (GB) Formula 1, Rafael Nadal (Spain) tennis.

Sportswoman of the Year award

Serena Williams.

Also nominated: Garbine Muguruza (Spain) tennis, Caster Semenya (South Africa) athletics, Allyson Felix (US) athletics, Katie Ledecky (US) swimming, Mikaela Shiffrin (US) alpine skiing.

Team of the Year

Mercedes.

Also nominated: France’s Davis Cup team (tennis), Golden State Warriors (basketball), New England Patriots (American football), New Zealand’s America’s Cup team (sailing), Real Madrid (football).

Breakthrough of the Year

Sergio Garcia.

Also nominated: Anthony Joshua (GB) boxing, Kylian Mbappe (France) football, Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) tennis, Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece) basketball, Caeleb Dressel (US) swimming.

Comeback of the Year

Roger Federer.

Also nominated: FC Barcelona (Spain) football, Valentino Rossi (Italy) motorsport, Sally Pearson (Australia) athletics, Justin Gatlin (US) athletics, Chapecoense (Brazil) football.

Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability

Marcel Hug.

Also nominated: Yui Kamiji (Japan) wheelchair tennis, Oksana Masters (US) cross-country skiing, Bibian Mentel-Spee (Netherlands) snowboarding, Jetze Plat (Netherlands) ironman, Markus Rehm (Germany) long jump.

Action Sportsperson of the Year

Armel Le Cleac’h.

Also nominated: Tyler Wright (Australia) surfing, John John Florence (US) surfing, Anna Gasser (Austria) snowboarding, Mark McMorris (Canada) snowboarding, Nyjah Huston (US) skateboarding.

Best Sporting Moment of the Year

Chapecoense.

Also nominated: The Iowa Hawkeyes and the ‘Kinnick Wave’ (US) American football, Bradley Lowery and his special bond with Jermain Defoe (GB) football, Kimi Raikkonen and his six-year-old fan Thomas Danel (Finland) Formula 1, Billy Monger (GB) motorsport.

Top seed Grigor Dimitrov suffered a shock exit to veteran wildcard Malek Jaziri in the opening round of the Dubai Duty Free Championships.

The Bulgarian took a first-set lead but Tunisia’s Jaziri, ranked 117th in the world, rallied to beat the world number four 4-6 7-5 6-4.

Jaziri, 34, will now play Dutchman Robin Haase in the second round.

“You have days like this that you can’t really do much else,” said Dimitrov, runner-up in Rotterdam a week ago.

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t play my game to the extent that I was looking for. My movement was not good over the court. I thought I served OK for a little bit, but then I lost my rhythm again.”

Jaziri said it was a “great feeling” to win his first match against a top-five player, adding: “I am really happy for that. I tried to fight every point since the beginning. It was so tight.”

Britain’s Gabriella Taylor is set to break into the world’s top 200 for the first time days before her 20th birthday after a strong start to 2018.

Taylor has won three of her last four tournaments on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) circuit.

Coaches Xavier Budo and David Sunyer have been working with the 19-year-old, from Southampton, since November.

“They’ve helped change my mindset,” Taylor told BBC Radio Solent. “That’s helped me both on and off the court.”

Budo previously guided Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro to the world’s top 10 in early 2016.

Taylor has enjoyed tournament victories either side of Christmas in Perth, Launceston and Mumbai since working with him.

“It’s been an absolutely great start to the year,” she said. “We’ve all clicked together as a team.

“They’ve shown me that at the end of the day, it’s not all about winning or losing, but taking the positives from every match and focusing on your future goals and game plans.”

Taylor unexpectedly made headlines when a mystery illness forced her to withdraw from the girls’ singles at Wimbledon in July 2016.

She spent four days in intensive care at Southampton General Hospital as claims she had been poisoned were investigated by Scotland Yard.

“Now that’s in the past, I try not to think about it and just move on,” Taylor said. “It did take it out of me for a couple of months when it happened.

“Last season, I also missed two months at the end of the grass court season with glandular fever, so it’s great to be back out on the court playing the game I love.”