LONDON (AP) — Iga Swiatek and rafael nadal were honored by the International Tennis Federation as its 2022 ITF World Champions on Thursday after they each claimed two Grand Slam titles this season.
The ITF determines its awards based on criteria that include all events and give special importance to the four major championships and two team events, the Billie Jean King Cup and the Davis Cup.
Nadal won despite finishing No. 2 in the ATP rankings behind Carlos Alcarazwhile Swiatek topped the year-end WTA rankings.
It is the fifth time Nadal has won the ITF honor, after 2008, 2010, 2017 and 2019. He brought his total of Grand Slam titles to 22, a men’s record, by winning the Australian Open in January and the Open in France in June.
This is the first time Swiatek has been an ITF world champion and it comes after she won the French Open and US Open for the second and third major trophy of her career. She led the WTA with eight titles this year and went on a 37-match winning streak that was the longest unbeaten streak in women’s tennis since 1997.
The ITF awards will be presented at a ceremony on 8 July at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Other ITF world champions include:
— Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova in women’s doubles;
— Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury in men’s doubles;
— Diede de Groot in women’s wheelchair tennis;
— Shingo Kunieda in men’s wheelchair tennis;
— Niels Vink in quad wheelchair tennis.
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