Home » Rafael Nadal and Emma Raducanu took home tennis’ top honors at the 2022 ESPYs.

Tennis winners at the 2022 ESPY Awards are Rafael Nadal and Emma Raducanu. Despite suffering from ongoing foot pain, Nadal, at age 36, has won two Grand Slam tournaments this year. Contrarily, Raducanu made headlines when she won the US Open as the first player to qualify for the tournament and go on to win a Grand Slam tournament.

Nadal won the Best Athlete, Men’s Tennis ESPY Award, beating out Dylan Alcott, Carlos Alcaraz, and Felix Auger-Aliassime. Nadal has won three ESPYs at this point in his career. In contrast, Raducanu won the ESPY for Best Athlete in Women’s Tennis over Iga Swiatek, Ashleigh Barty, and Leylah Fernandez.

Nadal and Raducanu are practicing for their upcoming hard court swing in North America.

Nadal, who gave Nick Kyrgios a walkover in their Wimbledon semifinal, appears to be fully recovered from an abdominal injury and will compete in the Montreal Masters in early August.

“Nadal really wants to come to Montreal and his hotel rooms are already booked,” Montreal tournament director Eugene Lapierre said last week. A box of practice balls was shipped to him so that he could get ready for the tournament.

On Monday, he should resume his training. The Citi Open in Washington, DC is where Raducanu plans to begin her summer hard court swing. After losing in the second round at Wimbledon, Raducanu took even more heat for her play and performance.

John McEnroe, winner of a record-tying seven Grand Slam titles, defended Raducanu. After the US Open, Raducanu received a lot of criticism, but McEnroe thinks some of it is unjustified. According to McEnroe, who was quoted by Tennis365, “Don’t ask if Raducanu is going to be a good player because she is already a great player.”

Nothing has changed for her since then, but “no one wins a major if they are not a great player and hopefully she has belief.”