Wimbledon winner Angelique Kerber has been nominated by the WTA for the “Player of the Year” award. In the “Most improved Player of the Year” category, Julia Görges is up for election.
Kerber had already won the title as “best player of the year” in 2016 after triumphing with the majors in Melbourne and New York and becoming the first German after Steffi Graf to take the top spot in the world rankings.
This time the race could get closer, because besides the 30-year-old the three other Grand Slam winners are nominated in 2018: Dane Caroline Wozniacki (Australian Open), Romanian industry leader Simona Halep (French Open) and Japanese Naomi Osaka (US Open).
Petra Kvitova from the Czech Republic, who has already won five titles this season, completes the field of candidates. Voting is open to journalists from all over the world. Steffi Graf had won the award eight times, Serena Williams seven times.
In Julia Görges a second German player is nominated. The Regensburg native had reached the Wimbledon semi-finals in 2018 and had advanced to the top ten of the WTA ranking for the first time.
In the “Most improved Player of the Year” category, the following are also available: Kiki Bertens (Netherlands), Daria Kasatkina (Russia), Elise Mertens (Belgium), Qiang Wang (China) and Aliaksandra Sasnovich (Belarus).
In addition, the winners in the categories “WTA Newcomer of the Year”, “WTA Comeback Player of the Year” and “WTA Doubles Team of the Year” will also be sought. The winners will be awarded at a gala shortly before the start of the WTA Final in Singapore (from 21 October) on 19 October.