{"id":48611,"date":"2026-04-21T15:04:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=48611"},"modified":"2026-04-21T15:04:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T15:04:27","slug":"sabalenka-alcaraz-sweep-top-honours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=48611","title":{"rendered":"Sabalenka, Alcaraz sweep top honours"},"content":{"rendered":"
Tennis ruled the red carpet in Madrid on Monday as Aryna Sabalenka and Carlos Alcaraz were crowned Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year at \u200bthe Laureus Awards.
\nThe pair were honoured after glittering 2025 campaigns that saw them \u200cfinish atop the women’s and men’s tennis rankings respectively.
\nSpaniard Alcaraz, 22, reclaimed the year-end world number one spot after capturing two Grand Slam titles at the French Open and U.S. Open, underlining his supremacy \u200bacross surfaces.
\nBelarusian Sabalenka, 27, meanwhile, stood alongside him in the winners’ circle in \u200bNew York and also reached the final in Australia and France, capping \u2060a season of relentless consistency.
\nWith her triumph, Sabalenka joins a roll call of Laureus \u200bSportswoman of the Year recipients from her sport including Serena Williams, Jennifer Capriati, Justine Henin \u200band Naomi Osaka.
\nIn a first for the awards, the ceremony was hosted by two athletes \u2014 both former Laureus winners \u2014 Novak Djokovic and Eileen Gu. Last year’s top honours went to gymnast Simone Biles and pole-vaulter Mondo \u200bDuplantis.
\n\u00a0
\nMcilroy takes comeback prize
\nElsewhere, Rory McIlroy claimed the World Comeback of the Year Award \u200bafter ending an 11-year wait to complete the career Grand Slam with a playoff victory at the \u200c2025 Masters, \u2060a title he defended in 2026.
\nFormula One’s Lando Norris was named World Breakthrough of the Year, while Paris St Germain took World Team of the Year after a trophy haul in 2025 that included the French league and Cup plus their first Champions League crown.
\nThe \u200bLaureus World Sports \u200bAwards nominees are selected \u2060by the global media, while the winners are determined by the 69 members of the Laureus World Sports Academy.
\nThe awards have been \u200bpresented annually since 2000.
\nWinners: World Sportsman of the Year Award: Carlos Alcaraz World \u200bSportswoman of \u2060the Year Award: Aryna Sabalenka World Team of the Year Award: Paris St Germain World Breakthrough of the Year Award: Lando Norris World Comeback of the Year Award: Rory McIlroy World Sportsperson of the Year \u2060with a \u200bDisability Award: Gabriel Araujo World Action Sportsperson of the Year \u200bAward: Chloe Kim World Young Sportsperson of the Year Award: Lamine Yamal Laureus Sporting Inspiration Award: Toni Kroos Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award: \u200bNadia Comaneci Laureus Sport for Good Award: Futbol Mas.
\n\u00a0
\nAlcaraz to miss French Open
\nCarlos Alcaraz is awaiting the results of tests on his injured wrist before making \u200ba decision about defending his French Open title \u200cnext month, the world number two said.
\nThe seven-times Grand Slam champion picked up the injury in the first \u200bround of the Barcelona Open earlier this \u200bmonth before withdrawing from the tournament.
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\nScans showed \u2060the issue was more serious than initially \u200bthought and he then skipped the Madrid Open.
\n“The next test \u200bwill be crucial,” Alcaraz told Spanish television channel TVE.
\n“We’ve been trying to do everything we can do to make \u200bsure that this test goes well. I’m \u200btrying to be very patient. But we are good, we \u200care \u2060just waiting a little bit.
\n“We have a few tests in the next few days and then we will see how the injury is, and \u200bwhat the next \u200bsteps will \u2060be,” the 22-year-old added.
\nAlcaraz, who was crowned Sportsman of the Year at \u200bthe Laureus Awards on Monday, surrendered \u200bthe \u2060world number one ranking to Jannik Sinner after losing to the Italian in the Monte Carlo Masters \u2060final \u200bdays before his Barcelona opener.\u00a0<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tennis ruled the red carpet in Madrid on Monday as Aryna Sabalenka and Carlos Alcaraz were crowned Sportswoman and Sportsman of the Year at \u200bthe Laureus Awards. The pair were honoured after glittering 2025 campaigns that saw them \u200cfinish atop the women’s and men’s tennis rankings respectively. Spaniard Alcaraz, 22, reclaimed the year-end world number […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}