“They must be high,” Journalist panel faces wrath of tennis fans for leaving out Iga Swiatek, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz in the Athletes of the Year list

“They must be high,” Journalist panel faces wrath of tennis fans for leaving out Iga Swiatek, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz in the Athletes of the Year list

Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek

Football is arguably one of the most popular sports in the world. Hence, it came as no surprise to everyone when a panel of more than 400 sports journalists chose two footballers as the Athletes of the Year. Spanish and FC Barcelona player Alexia Putellas and Argentine and PSG footballer Lionel Messi came on top of the list. The list also includes the names of tennis players.

420 journalists from 113 countries voted. Naomi Osaka is the highest-ranked tennis player at No.7. Serena Williams and Roger Federer succeed her at the No.8 and No.9 spots. Rafael Nadal is in the tenth spot.

YouTube video

Relevant Tennis shared this news on social media.

FS Video

But the most surprising news is that 2022 French Open champion Iga Swiatek, 2022 US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz and 2022 Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic have all got no mentions. However, 2022 Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur is mentioned and shares the No.10 spot with the 22-time Grand Slam champion.

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Social media is reacting on the Athletes of the Year 2022 list

Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer feature in the 2022 Athletes of the Year List (Image Credit: The Economic Times)

Tennis is arguably one of the most popular sports in the world. Tennis players are some of the most popular sportspersons in the world. Although, the list includes the most popular names including the likes of Roger Federer, Serena Williams, and Rafael Nadal. However, many tennis players such as Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, and Iga Swiatek did not feature on the list. Also, Naomi Osaka has featured above the legends in the list, despite not winning any tournaments and having a disastrous season.

As expected, several social media users are reacting to this. Judging by the comments, while the majority of commenters are not able to understand how sports journalists have ranked these players, others are left questioning the relevance of these rankings. Sharing a wide spectrum of reactions online, here are a few reactions coming from the above post.

https://twitter.com/Neil_Sandell/status/1608941615456096257
“Journalists do not know what they are doing and behave as if they were bought? New, I didn’t know,” the caption read in English. (Translated through Google Translate).
https://twitter.com/leonacassiani7/status/1609035208556150784
“420 journalists who watch tennis 4 times a year and think they know tennis,” the caption read in English. (Translated through Google Translate).
https://twitter.com/Redabouchefaa1/status/1609022972056027136

The new season of both ATP and WTA will begin on January 1, 2023, with the Adelaide International 1 tournament. Meanwhile, the mixed-gender format team event United Cup is being played in Australia.

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