So here we are. The first of three rounds of votes to whittle our field down to one player of the season for 2023.
28 players, 14 women and 14 men, form 4 groups of 7. All the groups are evenly spread as far as possible and should be even in terms of type and level of player.
From the 7, the top 3 will proceed to the semifinals, 12 in total across the groups. IF there is a tie for being in the top 3, the tied players (however many) will be put into a subsequent rapid tie break vote to take place after this vote closes.
This vote will run through to SATURDAY 1005PM ( I have realised I am out Saturday night, haha).
The list of players is below in this Group is below - vote for one who you believe is the player of the season from the group, and please give a reason and tell us who you vote for, it helps draw attention to the voting process and is more interesting:
A
2022 Ranking
2023 Ranking
2023 Win/Loss Record
Titles
Other
Dan Evans
27
38
18-25 (42%)
ATP 500 Washington
Aug and Sept Player of the Month
Katie Boulter
124
55
40-20 (67%)
WTA 250 Nottingham, W60 Canberra
June Player of the Month
Mark Ceban
UNR
778
37-10 (79%)
J30 Chisinau, TE U14 Les Petits As, TE 14 Bolton
Jan PoM RU
Lily Miyazaki
214
169
33-29 (53%)
W60 Nantes Doubles, W25 Roehampton Doubles
Aug PoM RU
Neal Skupski
1
9
51-24 (68%)
Wimbledon, ATP 250 's-Hertogenbosch
Jul PoM RU
Andy Lapthorne
6
8
19-11 (65%)
3 x ITF Series 2 singles titles; French Open Doubles
Katy Dunne
1018
360
25-19 (57%)
W25 Foxhills
-- Edited by JonH comes home on Thursday 7th of December 2023 10:55:53 PM
I was ultimately torn between voting for 2 people in this group -
I so much enjoyed Andy Lapthorne winning the French Open doubles this year, but it wasnt enough to get in those 2 for me.
Katy Dunne, I was so pleased she reached the PoS vote, but again, that was the height for me.
Lily had a great summer season and I hope she does well in the AO
Mark Ceban looks like a talent for the future and winning Les Petits As demonstrates that, but one for another year
Neal Skupski won Wimbledon, and in many other years that would be enough.
But it came down to Katie and Dan for me.
Katie winning a WTA 250 in any other season would be right up there and be enough. British number one woman as well, and June Player of the Month off the back of that Nottingham title.
But Dan...his ranking fell, his win loss was less than 50% but boy, when he hit the heights, it was memorable - ATP 500 title in Washingto, that was a big deal and then his Davis Cup heroics in Manchester.
It might not have been the best of seasons, but it was enough for him to get my vote in this group, but only just over Katie!
Not sure where you got your rankings from JonH - according to the WTA official year-end rankings Katie finished 2022 at WR124 and Lily at WR214.
Anyway, it's Katie for me, a good season and impressive in the BJK Cup
ah, I see what happened. I took the ITF rankings and they list previous years at bottom of the players profile, but it shows 2023 first and I think I mistakenly took that in a couple of places.
I will need to go through and check them all now, dang, but I have updated the two you pointed out. It took me ages to do these as well, I am a bit cross with myself.
I wouldn't worry about it - I only noticed because I knew that Katie had made a significant step up this year.
Ive checked and it was only the other Katy , D ,I got wrong as well. Fran sort of confused me as ITF doesnt show a year end 2022 ranking but Core Tennis did, so I went with Core Tennis, either way a big jump for Fran
Jon, I'm really enjoying your analyses in each thread of what you think of each player and why you've voted the way you have.
This group for me was between Dan, Katie and Neal. I voted for Dan because he kept plugging away even when things weren't going well -- and then put in some spectacular performances on both an individual and team/country level. (And we might have seen more if he hadn't been injured. I hope he can come back soon.)
-- Edited by Tanaqui on Friday 8th of December 2023 06:25:24 PM