Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams and the Great Britain Davis Cup team have all ben nominated for the Laureus World Sports Award.
Novak Djokovic Nominated for Sportsman of the Year
Novak Djokovic had a near perfect 2015 season. He lost only six times in the whole of the season, while going on to win three Grand Slam titles and 6 Masters 1000 titles. He won a staggering 82 matches throughout the year and finished with a 93.18% win-loss ratio. His biggest dissapointment came at Roland Garros where he lost to Stan Wawrinka in four sets. His losses came to Ivo Karlovic in Doha at the start of the season, Roger Federer at Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Western and Southern Open and in the Round Robin stage at the ATP World Tour Finals and Andy Murray at the Coupe Rogers.
Djokovic will go head-to-head with NBA star Stephen Curry, three-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton, six-time Olympic Gold medalist Usain Bolt, world number one golfer Jordan Speith and Barcelona forward Lionel Messi.
Serena Williams Nominated for Sportswoman of the Year
2015 was dominated by Serena Williams as she won three Grand Slam titles and two WTA Premier Mandatory events in Miami Open and Western and Southern Open. Williams won 53 matches and lost only three times during the season. The world number one lost to Petra Kvitova in Madrid, Belinda Bencic in the semifinal of the Rogers Cup and the biggest shock in tennis happened at the US Open, where she lost to Roberta Vinci 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 and falling just three sets short of the Calendar Grand Slam. Serena also withdrew in Indian Wells against Simona Halep in the semifinal, Christina McHale at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia and and Klara Koukalova in the second round at the Swedish Open. Williams also chose to withdraw at the WTA Finals due to elbow and knee injuries.
Serena's main rivals are Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, US swimmer Katie Ledecky, US Women's World Cup Soccer-winning captain Carli Lloyd, long distance runner Tirunesh Dibaba and Alpine Ski racer Anna Fenninger.
Justine Henin and Jennifer Capriati are the only other tennis players to take home the Sportswoman of the year award in 2008 and 2002, respectively.
Great Britain Nominated for Team of the Year
Great Britain had not won the Davis Cup since 1936, but last November, the wait for the trophy ended as they beat Belgium 3-1 in the final in Ghent on indoor clay. In the opening round against the United States, James Ward came back from two sets down win 15-13 in the fifith and deciding set to give Great Britain a two rubbers to none lead. They won 3-2 against USA and faced number one seed France at home in London, at the Queens Club. Even with the home crowd behind them, the British boys were not favourites to win and they relied heavily on Andy Murray, who the week before was facing Roger Federer in the semifinal at Wimbledon. The standout performance was the Murray brothers who defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Nicolas Mahut in four sets. They won that tie 3-1 with Andy involved in winning each match. In the semifinal, Great Britain defeated Australia 3-2 in Glasgow, with the forth rubber ultimately sealing the fate. They later went on to defeat Belgium to write their names in the history books forever.
Great Britain face tough competition from Rugby World Cup winners New Zealand, treble winners FC Barcelona, the Golden State Warriors, the Mercedes AMG Petronas and the United States Women's World Cup-winning team.
