LONDON, England – Serena Williams has been named ITF Women’s World Champion for the sixth time in her career, it was announced Wednesday, adding the 2015 honors to 2002, 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2014.

The ITF has been naming ITF World Champions since 1978, and Williams is just the third WTA player to win it six or more times after Martina Navratilova (who won it six times – 1979, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1986) and Steffi Graf (who won it seven times – 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1995 and 1996).

“It means a lot to me to be named the ITF World Champion for the sixth time,” Williams said of the news. “I am proud to have achieved my second Serena Slam, in what has been an amazing year for me.

“Thank you for this recognition and for the undying support of the tennis community.”

Williams outperformed everyone on the Grand Slam stage this year, winning three of the four majors (Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon) and reaching the semifinals of the other one (US Open).

ITF World Champion is the latest in a long list of accolades Williams has received after her dynamite 2015 season – she earned the WTA Year-End World No.1 Singles Ranking presented by Dubai Duty Free, she was voted WTA Player Of The Year and Sports Illustrated Sportsperson Of The Year, and last week she reached a more unique milestone, becoming the first WTA player to cross 6 million Twitter followers.

Also coming away with a big honor on Wednesday was the doubles team of Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza, who received the ITF Women’s Doubles World Champions honor. Hingis had won it once before, in 1999 alongside Anna Kournikova, while Mirza received the honor for the first time in her career.

“It is a great honor to be named ITF Women’s Doubles World Champions,” Hingis commented. “Sania and I have enjoyed every minute of the season and we hope to continue in 2016 in the same fashion. We are set to join a long list of champions and it is a privilege to be recognized alongside them.”

“I am very honored to receive this award from the ITF after what has been a great year for me and Martina. It is incredible that we have achieved so much in such a short time playing together,” said Mirza, who also had some powerful and inspirational words for her countrywomen. “I am grateful to everyone that has helped me throughout my career and I hope that my success can inspire other girls in India.”

The ITF’s selection of its World Champions is based on an objective system that considers all results during the year, but gives special weight to the Grand Slam tournaments and Fed Cup by BNP Paribas.

The winners will receive their awards at the ITF World Champions Dinner during the 2016 French Open.

Last season’s numbers make pretty pleasant reading for Karolina Pliskova.

Having started the campaign outside the Top 20, the willowy Czech finished it at No.11, more than doubling her career earnings along the way. A title on home soil in Prague and five more finals further underlined her status as one of the most exciting – not to mention busiest – young talents on tour.

Less than two weeks after teaming up with Barbora Strycova to earn the decisive point in the Czech Republic’s Fed Cup victory over Russia, Pliskova was jetting off to Asia to compete in the International Premier Tennis League, defeating Serena Williams to help the OUE Singapore Slammers walk away with the silverware.

This marked the start of the 23-year-old’s preparation for the new season, a season in which many will expect her to start challenging for the game’s biggest prizes.

A regular in the winners’ circle on tour, Pliskova strangely has found success harder to come by at the Grand Slams, where she has never been beyond the third round in 14 appearances.

“It has been a little pressure from me,” she said before the US Open where she succumbed to qualifier Anna Tatishvili. “It was a new thing. I was playing really well at the tournaments before the Grand Slams. Maybe I came a little tired.

“I am seeded now and that is different. I am getting used to it and hopefully next year I will be different.”

Pliskova is very much the prototype for the modern tennis player, a booming serve – she struck more aces (517) than any other player in 2015 – backed up by equally punchy groundstrokes and a touch that belies her Amazonian frame. Judging by her showings against the WTA’s established stars, she is equally well furnished in the mental department.

In her final WTA outing of the year, Pliskova held her own against a motivated Venus Williams in a high-quality Zhuhai final. And despite being pipped in two tight sets, performing this way in such esteemed company bodes well for her hopes of taking the next step.

“I think, and even my coach thinks this, that this was the best week from the whole year like with the way how I played,” Pliskova said after the Zhuhai final. “Very happy about this week. Obviously it’s going to help me to start the new season next year.”

She had an historic year – nine WTA doubles titles in a breakthrough partnership with Martina Hingis, including her first two Grand Slam women’s doubles titles at Wimbledon and the US Open, as well as rising to No.1 on the WTA Doubles Rankings, the first Indian woman to reach No.1 in the sport.

And now, while the tennis world takes a break to rest up, recharge and gear up for the 2016 season, Sania Mirza has hit another milestone – she crossed 10 million Facebook fans over the weekend.

Here’s the Top 5 most-followed WTA stars on Facebook – Mirza’s the second to hit 10 million:

1. Maria Sharapova (15.2M)
2. Sania Mirza (10.0M)
3. Serena Williams (4.0M)
4. Ana Ivanovic (3.1M)
5. Venus Williams (2.1M)

The Indian trailblazer posted this message on her Facebook page on Monday to thank her fans: