WTAhotties Awards 2009 - Player of the year: Serena Williams

There has been a big controversy this season concerning the rankings system as Dinara Safina was No.1 without having won any Grand Slam title, whereas Serena Williams, who was considered by almost everyone the best player, laid at No.2. But at the end of the season Williams has finally achieved both things, the No.1 in the rankings and being considered the best player of the year. Not only her titles at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the Tour Championships, but her leadership, competitivity and her ability to play her best tennis in the big tournaments and decissive rounds, are her merits for this award.

WTAhotties Awards 2009 - Doubles team of the year: Serena Williams/Venus Williams

Williams sisters are not the highest ranked team as they hardly play doubles apart from Grand Slams. But when they do, they are almost unbeateable. This season they have played 6 tournaments and their figures say it all: 4 titles, 24 victories and only 2 defeats. With 3 Grand Slam titles (Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open), team of the year award is well-deserved.

WTAhotties Awards 2009 - Most inspiring performance: ex aequo Jelena Dokic & Kim Clijsters

For this award, voters have been divided between the amazing run of Jelena Dokic in the Australian Open and Kim Clijsters' comeback and US Open title. I think both performances were really inspiring and deserved to win, so I decided to have this Award ex aequo


After 3 consecutive Top-20 finishes in 2001, 2002 and 2003, the career of Jelena Dokic became a series of misfortunes, including nationality changes, arguements with her controversial father, coach changes, injuries and failed combeack attempts. No one really expected a lot from her when she got a wild-card to play in the Australian Open. Despite not winning a Grand Slam match since 2003, with the crowd support and huge attention from the media, Dokic got emotive 3-set victories over Paszek, Chakvetadze, Wozniacki and Kleybanova to reach the quarter-finals. There her fairytale story came to an end, although she put a good fight on 4th seed Dinara Safina.


After two years out of the Tour for creating a family and becoming a mother, Kim Clijsters decided to comeback to the Tour this summer. In a time when most of the top players were not playing at their best, these were really great news. Early she showed that she had trained hard and she was ready to compete at the highest level. And in the US Open, as most of the top players were suffering early defeats, Clijsters, enjoying her matches and playing with no pressure, progressed to the final and captured a 2nd Grand Slam title that she really deserved. The image of a joyful Clijsters celebrating the title with her daughter Jada will be one of the happiest memories of 2009 for tennis fans.

WTAhotties Awards 2009 - Breakthrough player of the year: Sabine Lisicki

20 year old German Sabine Lisicki has broken this season into the Top-25 players in the world. And she has done it not in minor events, but with an schedule almost completely focused on the big tournaments. Highlights of her season were her title in $1M Premier event in Charleston and her quarter-finalist place in Wimbledon, with impressive victories over WTA #3 Svetlana Kuznetsova, WTA #4 Caroline Wozniacki (twice) and WTA #6 Venus Williams. She has shown that on a good day she can be a threat for any player, and if she improves her consistency and regularity, she can reach much higher.

WTAhotties Awards 2009 - Most improved player: Caroline Wozniacki

If 2008 was the year of Caroline Wozniacki's breakthrough, in 2009 not only she has confirmed the expectatives, but she has kept her progression and has done the most difficult step, the one between good players and top players. Starting the year ranked #12, Wozniacki has finished at #4 with the highest number of matches won (67). She got 3 titles and reached the final in 8 tournaments, the most important one in the US Open.

WTAhotties Awards 2009 - Match of the year: Serena Williams vs Elena Dementieva (Wimbledon SF)

In the last few years we haven't had the chance of enjoying very tight Grand Slam finals or epic matches between the top players. This year wasn't an exception, but at Wimbledon we were able to witness a magnificent battle between two of the best players, American Serena Williams and Russian Elena Dementieva. The match was decided in a thrilling third set with both players fighthing desperately to stay in the match and showing the best of their repertoire. Finally Williams took the set by 8/6 after surviving a match point for Dementieva.

WTAhotties Awards 2009 - Special Achievement Award: Kimiko Date-Krumm

When former WTA #4 Kimiko Date-Krumm announced that she was coming back to the Tour in 2008 at the age of 37 and after being retired for 12 years, nobody really expected too much as tennis has become a lot more physical and powerful in the last few years.
But Date has shown that a woman in her late 30s is still able to compete at a professional level, and that experience, mentality, technique and intelligence can compensate the physical handicap. On September 27, one day before her 39th birthday, Kimiko Date-Krumm made history as she captured the title in Seoul and became the second oldest woman to win a WTA title, just after Billie Jean King. And in November she made it to the semifinals of the Tournament of Champions.
For showing that age is no obstacle for keeping physical fitness, for her healthy and sporty lifestyle and for her possitive and fighting spirit, Kimiko Date-Krumm is a great ambassador of tennis and sport and truly deserves our Special Achievement Award.

WTA hotties Awards 2009 nominations!!

From November 29th we will be hosting the WTA hotties Awards 2009 (our first awards ever!). Here are the nominees for the different categories.

Player of the year
* Serena Williams
* Dinara Safina
* Svetlana Kuznetsova

Doubles team of the year
* Cara Black & Liezel Huber
* Serena Williams & Venus Williams
* Maria Jose Martinez & Nuria Llagostera

Most improved player
* Caroline Wozniacki
* Victoria Azarenka
* Samantha Stosur

Breakthrough player of the year
* Yanina Wickmayer
* Sabine Lisicki
* Melanie Oudin

Match of the year
* Jelena Dokic def Alisa Kleybanova 7-5 5-7 8-6 (Australian Open R16)
* Svetlana Kuznetsova def Serena Williams 7-6(3) 5-7 7-5 (Roland Garros QF)
* Serena Williams def Elena Dementieva 6-7(4) 7-5 8-6 (Wimbledon SF)

Most inspiring performance
* Jelena Dokic's run at Australian Open
* Melanie Oudin's run at US Open
* Kim Clijsters' comeback and US Open title

There will also be a Special Award, but I'm keeping this as a secret.

Tell us what your choices would be.