ITF: Nadal and Muguruza are ITF World Champions

The 16-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal and Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza have been named the best tennis player of the year by the World Tennis Federation ITF.

The two Spaniards, Pete Sampras and Lindsay Davenport (1998) are the first athletes to come from a single country to be jointly honored as ITF World Champions since the Americans Pete Sampras and Lindsay Davenport (1998).

For Nadal, who had won the French Open for the tenth time in 2017 and the US Open for the third time, it is already the third ITF award after 2008 and 2010. Muguruza succeeds Angelique Kerber from Kiel and receives the award for the first time.