It's award season on the ATP Tour and four players have been nominated for the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award.
The award is for the player who, throughout the year, conducted himself at the highest level of professionalism and integrity, who competed with his fellow players with the utmost spirit of fairness and who promoted the game through his off-court activities. Obviously, several names come to mind when you read the description of the award with
Rafael Nadal at the forefront.
The Spaniard has always tried to maintain a certain composure on the court as well as off the court noting the importance of being a very good role model for younger generations. Not many players have taken that part so seriously as him which is why he is nominated and they are not. Besides Nadal, we have
Casper Ruud as well, another player that rarely losses his cool on the court.
It's not a surprise cause Ruud trained at the Nadal Tennis Academy for a while now and has looked up to Nadal quite a bit.
Frances Tiafoe is another nominee with the American widely considered as one of the most genuine tennis players on the Tour. Many spoke favourably about him many times and the American while prone to lose his cool always shows respect to his fellow players.
The final nominee is
Felix Auger-Aliassime who is another tennis player who carries himself very professionally considering he is fairly young still. The Canadian is graceful even in defeat which is not something you can say for many tennis players.