Jannik Sinner has been selected by peers as the Most Improved Player of the Year. It is the Italian’s second ATP Award of 2023 after he won the Fans’ Favourite Award earlier this week.

The Italian entered the 2023 season at No. 15 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, having clinched six tour-level trophies. With hype surrounding the 22-year-old, Sinner went from strength to strength in 2023, meeting and even exceeding lofty expectations.

The 22-year-old claimed four tour-level titles, including his maiden ATP Masters 1000 crown in Toronto, and reached the Nitto ATP Finals championship match. He also won the Davis Cup title with Italy, rose to a career-high No. 4 and advanced to his first major semi-final at Wimbledon.

By going 64-15, he set an Open Era record for most wins by an Italian player in a single season.

Sinner earned a personal-best 13 Top 10 wins in 2023, including two victories against World No. 1 Novak Djokovic and two wins against Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz. He had clinched nine Top 10 wins across the preceding three seasons.

“I think, especially the second half of the year, mentally I was much, much stronger,” said Sinner. “I was not complaining so much on court when things were going in the wrong way. I think these kind of things, they make difference sometimes…

“One of the things where I can be really happy is that I played many, many important matches in the biggest stadiums we have throughout the whole year. This is something [that] hopefully can help for the next season.”

Earlier this week, Sinner’s coaches Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi won the Coach of the Year award for their work with the Italian.

Matteo Arnaldi, Christopher Eubanks and Ben Shelton were also nominated for Most Improved Player of the Year in the 2023 ATP Awards.

The ATP 250 event in Gijon, Spain, which was held in 2022, will return to the ATP Tour calendar in 2024 as the Watergen Gijon Open. The indoor hard-court tournament will be played in Week 45 alongside the Moselle Open in Metz, from 3-9 November. 

Andrey Rublev triumphed in Gijon in 2022, when the field featured stars including Andy Murray, Dominic Thiem, Roberto Bautista Agut and Pablo Carreno Busta. Rublev defeated Sebastian Korda in the final.

Promoted by Watergen in collaboration with the city of Gijon and the Spanish Tennis Federation, the venue for the tournament will be the same as in 2022, the Palacio de Deportes la Gijon.

With Gijon slotting into Week 45, the BNP Paribas Nordic Open in Stockholm will return to Week 42. The ATP 250 event will be played from 14-20 October.

In the same week, the ATP 250 event previously held in Astana will relocate to Almaty. The tournament will be held at Almaty Arena, the largest sports facility in Kazakhstan. The city served as the country’s capital for almost 70 years and is the financial, scientific, cultural, economic, historical and industrial centre of Kazakhstan. 

The Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM in 2024 will be held from 18-22 December. It will be the event’s second edition in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The 2023 season was a breakthrough year for a host of #NextGenATP stars, with Arthur Fils and Hamad Medjedovic earning standout wins at tour-level events.

From Top 10 victories, to career-high Pepperstone ATP Rankings, ATPTour.com looks back at the brightest young prospects of 2022.

Arthur Fils, 19 years old
Arthur Fils started the season outside the Top 250 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings but peaked at a career-high No. 36 in October after reaching the final in Antwerp, where he defeated Top 10 star Stefanos Tsitsipas. The Frenchman’s standout highlight came on home soil in Lyon in May, when he won his first tour-level title. He was the youngest champion on the ATP Tour in 2023.

“I will remember this forever,” Fils said after triumphing in Lyon. “It has been amazing. I am happy with the win and now I want more.”

Fils’ breakthrough season started from day one. He won his first nine matches of the year on the ATP Challenger Tour, including a title run in Oeiras. In February, he made the most of opportunities to play at home, reaching the tour-level semi-finals in Montpellier and Marseille.

He finished the season as strongly as he started, reaching the title match at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM in the first ATP-sanctioned event in Saudi Arabia.

Hamad Medjedovic, 20 years old
Twelve months ago, not many fans would have heard of Hamad Medjedovic. Today his name will be on many people’s radar after he ended his season by becoming the sixth champion at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM. The Serbian blitzed through the field in Jeddah to become an undefeated champion in Saudi Arabia, taking home a tournament-record $514,000 in prize money.

The 20-year-old, who is coached by former World No. 12 Viktor Troicki, received messages of support from Novak Djokovic throughout the event. The World No. 1 has financially supported Medjedovic through the early stages of his blossoming career.

“He’s been helping me out financially, giving me courts, coaches, whatever I need for my career. He’s helped me a lot for sure,” Medjedovic said earlier this season. “Anything a professional tennis player needs, he covered it all. He paid for it. It’s been helpful. He just helped me out when I needed it and he’s still helping me out in all types of ways. I’m glad he’s there for me.”

Earlier this season Medjedovic reached tour-level semi-finals in Gstaad and Astana, while he clinched three ATP Challenger Tour titles.

“The season together [with Troicki] has been good,” Medjedovic said in November. “The first four or three months I was struggling a little bit. It took time to start doing what we were working on during pre-season. After a couple of months, it all clicked. I played well in India in February. I made my first semis after a long time and then everything started going better. I also played in the semi-finals in Gstaad. It was a big thing for me, beating a couple of players from the Top 100.”

Luca Van Assche, 19 years old
Luca Van Assche joins Arthur Fils as one of France’s most promising talents. The 19-year-old is a clean ball striker and played with courageous determination on court throughout 2023 to earn standout results.

Van Assche, who reached the semi-finals at the Next Gen ATP Finals, won consecutive Challenger Tour crowns in February and captured the first tour-level win of his career in Estoril, where he beat Pedro Sousa. The Frenchman won a set against Novak Djokovic in Banja Luka and reached tour-level quarter-finals in Hamburg (ATP 500) and Metz (250). He also advanced to the second round at his home Slam, Roland Garros, where he won the 2021 boys’ singles crown.

“Two years ago, I was like 1,000-something so I don’t think I would’ve expected to be Top 100 now,” Van Assche said in April. “Last year, I was like 400. I was not expecting this maybe a year or two ago. It was very fast. Of course I was dreaming about it. I’m very proud and I just want to be even better now.”

He ended the season at No. 90, having reached a career-high No. 63 earlier this year.

Dominic Stricker, 21 years old
Possessing a thunderous game, Dominic Stricker reached new heights in 2023.

Stricker, who is a two-time Next Gen ATP Finals competitor, enjoyed a consistent year up until September. He won two Challenger Tour events and earned his maiden major main draw win at Wimbledon. However, he hit the big time in ‘The Big Apple’, advancing to the fourth round at the US Open.

The Swiss stunned Stefanos Tsitsipas after firing 78 winners in a five-set, second-round thriller that lasted four hours, 10 minutes. It was the deep run at Flushing Meadows that propelled Stricker into the Top 100 for the first time on 11 September. The 21-year-old became the youngest Swiss to reach the milestone since 20-year-old Stan Wawrinka did so in 2005.

“I feel better on court than I did last year. I feel like my game has improved again,” Stricker told ATPTour.com in August. “I’m also getting fitter body-wise, so that helps for sure. I think off court everything got a bit more serious. I’m also working maybe a little bit harder than I did before. I think everything is more professional than it was and that helps me for sure.”

The lefty earned another Top 10 victory in October, with this triumph coming in front of Stricker’s home crowd, upsetting Casper Ruud in Basel. Stricker closed the season with a second consecutive semi-final appearance at the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by NEOM.

Read more of our Best of 2023 Series

As we continue to review the best moments of the 2023 ATP Tour season, we bring you a closer look at one of the year’s unforgettable moments, straight from the source.

Holger Rune might have been feeling extra pressure as defending champion at the BMW Open by American Express in Munich this April, but the Dane handled it in stride. After three dominant wins earned him a place in the final, he claimed the opening set against Botic van de Zandschulp to move to the brink of his first successful title defense on the ATP Tour.

But there would be more twists to come — both literally and figuratively.

One year after van de Zandschulp retired in the Munich final against Rune, the rematch at the ATP 250 overdelivered in both the quality of the tennis and the drama of the scoreline.  

“I knew the final was going to be the toughest match of the tournament,” Rune told ATP Uncovered, speaking ahead of his Nitto ATP Finals debut. “Botic played some of his best tennis in this kind of event, so I knew I had to be really ready. But I was feeling confident.”

Rune entered with clear tactics but was “a little bit confused about the game plan” in the second set, which his opponent dominated. The Dane dealt with several physical issues in the final set, including a twisted ankle, but continued to fight on the red clay despite what he felt was a “three, four per cent chance of winning”.

He trailed 2-5 in the third set and faced two match points in a match that was recognised in ATPTour.com’s Best Of 2023 series.

Watch the full feature above to relive the match — and the dramatic final set — through Rune’s eyes and find out how the exhausted Dane changed his tactics and his mindset to push through the finish.

Read all stories in our Best Of 2023 review.

Andrey Rublev is set to lead the field at the Bank of China Hong Kong Tennis Open in Week 1 of the new season.
 
The No. 5 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings enjoyed a standout 2023 campaign, winning titles at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters and in Bastad to finish in the Top 5 for the first time. He will begin the 2024 season at the ATP 250 in Hong Kong, with the first edition of the tournament since 2002 to begin main-draw play on 1 January.

Other notable names on the entry list include Frances Tiafoe, Marin Cilic, Mackenzie McDonald and Karen Khachanov. 

China’s Shang Juncheng will also compete in Hong Kong. The rising #NextGenATP star broke into the Top 150 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time in 2023 and will now look to hit new heights before his 19th birthday in February.

The latest staging of the Hong Kong event will add to its rich history, with former champions including Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi Michael Chang, Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Jim Courier and Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnozzi have been voted Coach of the Year in the 2023 ATP Awards for their work with Italian Jannik Sinner.

In 2023, the 22-year-old Sinner captured his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title in Toronto, reached the championship match at the Nitto ATP Finals and became the first Italian man to end a season in the Top 5 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

The World No. 4, who finished the year holding a 64-15 record, also reached his maiden major semi-final at Wimbledon under the guidance of Cahill and Vagnozzi. Sinner won four tour-level trophies in 2023 and received the Fans’ Favourite Award earlier this week.

Vagnozzi has worked with Sinner since February 2022 but has been aware of Sinner’s potential for considerably longer.

“I’ve known Jannik from when he was 14. He played against one of my junior players, so I saw him for the first time there,” Vagnozzi told atptour.com earlier this year. “It’s really nice to coach him because he’s a really funny guy. He has a really good character. It’s easy to coach Jannik also because he wants to improve a lot and go on the court always with a smile and everything, so for a coach it’s really good.”

Cahill, who has coached former World No. 1s Andre Agassi and Lleyton Hewitt, joined Team Sinner in June 2022. The Australian has focused on developing the Italian’s mental side.

“My role is more about the experience and how to help him mentally in these big moments, and to make sure that we’re working on the right stuff that eventually is going to get him to the place we want to be,” Cahill said earlier this season.

Cahill and Vagnozzi were nominated for Coach of the Year honours along with Craig Boynton (Hubert Hurkacz), 2022 winner Juan Carlos Ferrero (Carlos Alcaraz), Goran Ivanisevic (Novak Djokovic) and Bryan Shelton (Ben Shelton). Fellow coaches vote on the nominees and winner in this category. 

Sinner has also been nominated two player-voted awards: Most Improved Player of the Year and the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award, The winners for those categories will be announced later this week.

Jan-Lennard Struff has been named Comeback Player of the Year in the 2023 ATP Awards after overcoming injury to catapult from No. 167 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings to a career-high No. 21.

Struff was nominated in the Comeback category alongside three other players who have overcome injury to re-establish themselves as a major force on Tour — Dominik Koepfer, Gael Monfils and Alexander Zverev. 

 

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Struff started the season outside the Top 150 but soared after standout ATP Masters 1000 results. He reached the quarter-finals in Monte-Carlo before he became the first lucky loser in history to reach a Masters 1000 final at the Mutua Madrid Open. 

A run to the title match in Stuttgart followed in June, before a hip injury forced the 33-year-old to miss three months of the season, with Struff not holding a racquet for seven weeks.

He made a winning return in Zhuhai in September, though, edging Cristian Garin in three sets in his first match back before he advanced to his third tour-level semi-final of the season in Sofia in November. He ended the year at No. 25.

“I couldn’t have expected this, going this fast up to the Top 30 from outside the Top 150,” he said. “It was crazy how fast it went.”

Nominees are determined by an International Tennis Writers’ Association (ITWA) vote, and the winner is selected by players from the shortlist.

ATPTour.com highlights five doubles teams whose chemistry also produced consistency to enjoy standout seasons in 2023.

Dodig/Krajicek Finish Year-End No. 1
The surface or conditions did not matter, Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek were a winning machine in 2023. Tied for a season-leading five tour-level titles, the Croatian-American team finished as Year-End ATP Doubles No. 1 presented by Pepperstone for the first time.

The right-handed Dodig and lefty Krajicek won their first major title together at Roland Garros one year after reaching the championship match in Paris. The duo claimed all five of its titles at or above the ATP 500 level and won on all three surfaces, triumphing in Rotterdam, Monte-Carlo, London/Queen’s Club and Beijing.

Finishing 2023 with a 39-15 record, 38-year-old Dodig and 33-year-old Krajicek also made finals at ATP Masters 1000 Miami, Adelaide-2 and Eastbourne, and advanced to the semi-finals of the US Open.

“We had a great year, played very consistent,” Dodig said. “All the hard work we put in this year, it’s just amazing to finish the year as the number one team and really proud and happy about that.”

Ivan Dodig/Austin Krajicek” />
^{Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek celebrate after clinching the Roland Garros title. Credit: Emannuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images}
Ram/Salisbury Earn US Open Hat-trick, Defend Turin Title
If the stakes are high, you better watch out for Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury, who find their best level when it matters most. Prior to the US Open, the American-British duo had endured a modest season by their standards. They held a 20-16 record on the year heading into the season’s final major and were 16th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings.

Ram and Salisbury then made history at the US Open when they became the first team in the Open Era (since 1968) to win at Flushing Meadows three consecutive years.

The four-time major champions extended their New York winning streak to 18 matches and maintained their form for a late-season surge. Ram and Salisbury collected the Vienna crown and successfully defended their title at the prestigious Nitto ATP Finals, where they survived three Match Tie-breaks.

“This partnership is really special. It has been five years and we have gotten pretty close,” Salisbury said. “Especially on the court and we know we are going to give it our all. Fight hard and give it our best until the very end.”

Bopanna/Ebden Prove Age Is Just A Number
Quick success and history made.

Teaming for the first time this year, Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Ebden wasted no time entering the winners’ circle. The Indian-Australian pair triumphed in Doha and at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, where the 43-year-old Bopanna became the oldest ATP Masters 1000 champion.

“Even at our ages we’re still improving, still gelling as a pair, our execution, our chemistry,” the 36-year-old Ebden said in March.

In the second half of the season, Bopanna and Ebden made deep runs at almost every tournament they competed in, making the final at the US Open, in Shanghai and Paris. At the season’s final major, Bopanna became the oldest Grand Slam doubles finalist in the Open Era. Not bad for someone with no cartilage in his knees.

The duo also reached the last four at Wimbledon, where Ebden won in 2022 alongside Max Purcell, and at the Nitto ATP Finals.

Koolhof/Skupski Win Maiden Slam
In just two seasons as partners, Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski enjoyed great success. Last season, the Dutch-British duo captured seven-tour titles and finished as the year-end No. 1 doubles team. Yet one thing was missing from their trophy cabinet: a major title. Until this year’s Wimbledon, where they dropped just one set en route to winning the grass-court major.

“I don’t know what to say,” Skupski said in disbelief. “Growing up watching this amazing championships, starting off a young boy at Palmerston Tennis Club in Liverpool. Going out there with my dad, and then obviously growing up with my brother [Ken Skupski] who has been very influential in my career.

“This feeling at the moment doesn’t get better. Me and Wesley came together 18 months ago, and this year this was one of our goals, to win a Grand Slam. Now we’ve done it, it feels very special.”

Skupski became the first Briton to triumph in the Wimbledon men’s doubles since Jonathan Marray in 2012, while Koolhof was the first Dutchman since Jean-Julien Rojer in 2015.

Hijikata/Kubler Treat Home Crowd To Title
For the second consecutive season, a wild card Aussie duo embarked on a fairytale run to triumph at their home Slam. After Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis’ secured the Australian Open title in 2022, Rinky Hijikata and Jason Kubler followed in January.

Despite teaming for the first time, Hijikata and Kubler dropped just two sets across six matches to be crowned champions. With vocal home support feeding off Hijikata and Kubler’s energy, the duo became just the fifth unseeded team to win the Australian Open trophy.

“[Rinky] was the reason we teamed for this tournament,” Kubler said. “I wasn’t sure and then Rinky asked me and I said yeah and decided to play. Two weeks later and we have the trophy, so a big thank you to Rinky.”

Read all stories in our Best Of 2023 review.

Former doubles World No. 1 Leander Paes is set to become the first Indian player to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. 

The eight-time men’s doubles Grand Slam champion, who first reached the summit of the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings in 1999, will receive tennis’ ultimate honour at a ceremony in Newport on 20 July 2024. He will be joined by broadcaster and promoter Vijay Amritraj and renowned journalist Richard Evans, who are both set to be inducted in the Contributor Category.

Paes and Amritraj will become the first two Indians to be induced into the Hall of Fame, and the first Asian men to be elected in their respective categories.

“It has been my life’s honour to play for my country for over three decades in a sport that has given and taught me everything,” said Paes, who won a Davis Cup record 45 doubles rubbers in addition to an Olympic bronze medal in men’s singles in 1996. “This acknowledgment is indeed the ultimate accolade for every tennis player. Induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame belongs not just to me, but to our billion-plus Indians. Receiving this honour culminates a professional journey of a lifetime, standing on the shoulders of greats and sets the tone for other youngsters in Asia and around the world.”

Paes spent a total of 462 weeks inside the Top 10 of the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings, including 37 weeks as No. 1. With 10 mixed doubles Grand Slam titles in addition to his eight in men’s doubles, he is one of only three men in tennis history to capture a career Grand Slam in both disciplines. His 10 mixed crowns are tied with his former partner, Hall of Famer Martina Navratilova, for the most in history.

Amritraj, a former Top 20 player, has become the face of tennis broadcasting in Asia and the Middle East. He has also helped expand professional tennis in India as an administrator, following a playing career that helped popularise the sport and inspire a new generation of players in his nation.

Evans has been a preeminient voice on tennis for more than six decades. A historian of the sport, he has reported on over 200 Grand Slams and wrote 23 books in his career. Evans was also a key player in the ATP Tour’s growth in the early stages of the Open Era; he became Wimbledon’s first press officer in 1973, served as ATP European Director from 1974-77 and was voted onto the ATP Board of Directors for two years in 1977.

“I am thrilled to congratulate Leander Paes, Vijay Amritraj, and Richard Evans on their election to the International Tennis Hall of Fame,” said Hall of Fame president and Class of 2017 inductee Kim Clijsters. “These three legends have served as trailblazers in their impact on tennis, and in spreading the sport worldwide. We are excited to celebrate the Class of 2024 in the coming year.”