Novak Djokovic among nominees for Sports Personality of the Year along with Tom Brady and Max Verstappen

Novak Djokovic had a truly astonishing year behind himself where he almost achieved a monumental thing in tennis that has not been done since 1970.

No player since Rod Laver ever completed the calendar grand slam and especially in modern tennis, it's something that's much harder to do than before. Djokovic came fairly close losing in the final of the US Open to Daniil Medvedev who was playing some of his best tennis ever. It proved that Djokovic, like the rest of us, is only human but the rest of us are not nominated for the Sports Personality of the Year award.

The BBC announced its Sports Personality of the Year’s World Sport Star of the Year nominees this morning, with its public vote starting now. The World Sport Star of the Year nominees include Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (Mexico, boxing), Rachael Blackmore (Ireland, horse racing), Tom Brady (USA, American football), Novak Djokovic (Serbia, tennis), Elaine Thompson-Herah (Jamaica, athletics) and Max Verstappen (Netherlands, Formula 1).

BBC Sport Personality of the Year 2021 takes place in Salford on December 19.