Grand slam champions Sloane Stephens and Roger Federer has been named the best tennis players over the past 12 months at the 2018 ESPY Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
Hosted annually since 1993, ESPY stands Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Award. Once players are shortlisted for their respective categories, an online vote in conducted to pick the winner. The vote was held on sports website ESPN.
World No.3 Stephens has been named the best female tennis player. Becoming the first American tennis player, other than the Williams sisters, to receive the award since Lindsay Davenport back in 2000. At the US Open Stephens defeated Madison Keys to win her first grand slam title at the age of 24. Then at the French Open, she finished runner-up to Simona Halep. Outside of the grand slams, Stephens also won the Miami Open in March. Halep and Caroline Wozniacki was also nominated for the award.
Thank you @espn and #ESPYS for awarding me BEST FEMALE TENNIS PLAYER OF THE YEAR! 🎾 ♥️🎾 #butwaittheresmore pic.twitter.com/u5u4tdzzsy
— sloanestephens (@SloaneStephens) July 19, 2018
In the men’s category, Federer was named the best male player of the past 12 months. Over that period he has featured in nine ATP Finals. Winning grand slam titles at the 2017 Wimbledon Championships followed by the Australian Open in January. Also nominated was Rafael Nadal and Marin Cilic. It is the eighth time Federer has won the accolade in what is a record. He was previously tied with Pete Sampras at seven. Three of the big four have previously won the award. The only exception is Andy Murray.
Earlier this year the Swiss No.1 became the oldest player to history to reach No.1 at the age of 36. Contributing to him also winning the ESPY Best Record-Breaking Performance this year.
Snowboarder Chloe Kim and NHL player Alex Ovechkin was voted best female and male athlete of 2018.
The full list of winners can be seen here.
