Aryna Sabalenka and Ilya Ivashka are recognized the best tennis players of Belarus in 2022, BelTA informs.
So, this year, the world's fifth racket Aryna Sabalenka showed a high level of performance, rising to second place in the world rankings during the season. At the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) final tournament she defeated world No. 1 Iga Świątek and reached the final for the first time in her career. Sabalenka also reached the semifinals of one of the Grand Slam tournaments, the U.S. Open, for the second time in a row. And now she is getting ready for the important starts of the new season, the first of which will be the Australian Open in early January.
Ilya Ivashka is the best male tennis player of Belarus. In 2022 he performed well at prestigious tournaments, competing on equal terms with the leaders of the world tour. In June he reached his best result in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ranking, rising to 40th place.
The best doubles players are Alexander Zgirovsky and Alexander Leonenko. In the "Character of the Year" category a special prize was awarded to Vadim Strelsky, who became the champion of Belarus in wheelchair tennis. Julia Perepekhina and Stanislav Bulbenkov were named the best juniors. Anastasia Shleptsova was named the best among the coaches.
While presenting awards to the winners, the Chairman of the Belarusian Tennis Federation Sergey Rutenko said that this was his first full year as the head of the BTF: "It's been a very difficult year. I am grateful to our tennis players, who in the current difficult situation - visa problems, suspension from some tournaments, post-Covid and other restrictions - managed to perform very well. As they say, hard times make strong people."
