Alexander Zverev wins 2021 German Sportsman of the Year Award
World No. 3 Alexander Zverev was presented with the German Sportsman of the Year Award at the 2021 German Athlete Awards on Sunday.
The 75th edition of the awards was organized by the Internationale Sport-Korrespondenz (ISK), a sports journalist agency in Germany, and was held at the prestigious Kurhaus Baden-Boden.
The winners of the awards were decided by votes from more than 3000 members of Des Verbandes Deutscher Sportjournalisten (VDS), the association of German sports journalists.
Olympic gold medalist @AlexZverev was named Sportsman of the Year in Germany's "Sportler des Jahres" Awards. 🏆🇩🇪
Big brother Mischa was there to support, sharing how proud he is in an emotional speech. ❤️ https://t.co/AqyMIxzfXo
Zverev won the Sportsman of the Year Award with 1739 points -- 541 more than Florian Wellbrock (swimming) who finished in second place. The third place went to Karl Geiger (ski jumping) with 729 points.
After collecting his award, the Olympic Gold medalist was lost for words trying to describe his emotions. He remarked that winning an Olympic Gold for his country was far and beyond what he had dreamed of as a child, and thanked everyone who supported him during his journey.
"It was always my dream to be at the Olympic Games for Germany. But to win a gold medal is just incredible and I have no words to describe my emotions," Zverev said. "I am thankful to my fans, and everyone who supported me and Germany," he added.
By winning the award, Alexander Zverev became the first tennis player to be awarded the German Sportsman of the Year Award since Michael Stich in 1991. The best result for a tennis player between then and now was Boris Becker's second-placed finish in 1995.
Alongside Alexander Zverev, long jumper Malaika Mihambo was conferred the Sportswoman of the Year Award, her third successive win since 2019. The women's track cycling team won the Team of the Year Award and table tennis player Annett Kaufmann won the Newcomer of the Year Award.
A look at Alexander Zverev's 2021
Alexander Zverev finished the 2021 season as the ATP player with the most titles to his name, winning six tournaments in the calendar year. He became the first male German player to win an Olympic Gold medal, when he defeated Russia's Karen Khachanov in the final at the Tokyo Olympics.
Alexander Zverev after his title at the Masters:
🏆 19 titles
✨ 2 Masters
🥇 1 Olympic Gold medal
💪 6 finals won on 6 played in 2021 https://t.co/77nRChScOi
In addition to his Olympic glory, the German also reached the semifinals of Roland Garros and the US Open, and finished the year as World No. 3 for the first time in his career.
At the 2021 Nitto ATP Finals, the German defeated World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev in the finals to become the only active player other than Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer to have won more than one ATP Tour Finals.