Novak Djokovic of Serbia, the number one ranked men’s tennis player in the world, triumphed in the 66th Poll of the Polish Press Agency for the best ten athletes of the year in Europe in 2023, according to the press agencies of the Old Continent.Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen of the Netherlands took the second position and Armand Duplantis, the best pole vaulter in the world, was in third place.
The winner of the 66th edition of the survey, 36-year-old Djokovic gained an advantage of 28 points over Verstappen and 92 over “Mondo” Duplantis.
This is the fifth win for Djokovic in one of the oldest polls in the world. Previously, he was the best in 2011, 2015, 2018 and 2021.
A year ago, when Iga Świątek won, journalists awarded second place to Duplantis and third to Verstappen.
The final order in the 2023 survey, in places 1-3, was chosen by journalists from the sports editorial team from the Romanian agency Agerpres.
The following European Press Agencies took part in the 66th poll.Twenty one agencies: AFP (France), AGERPRES (Romania), ANP (Netherlands), APA (Austria), ATHENS NEWS AGENCY – MACEDONIAN NEWS AGENCY (Greece), BELGA (Belgium), BTA (Bulgaria), CTK (Czech Republic), EFE (Spain), HINA (Croatia), LETA (Latvia), LUSA (Portugal), MEDIA LINK COMMUNICATIONS (Malta), MTI (Hungary), SID (Germany), SITA (Slovakia), STA (Slovenia), TANJUG (Serbia), TASR (Slovakia), UKRINFORM (Ukraine) and PAP S.A.(Poland)The top 1-25 athletes according to Polish Press Agency:
1. Novak Djokovic (Serbia) – tennis – 178 points
2. Max Vestappen (Netherlands) – Formula 1 – 150
3. Armand Duplantis (Sweden) – athletics – 86
4. Erling Haaland (Norway) – football – 80
5. Nikola Jokic (Serbia) – basketball – 74
6. Iga Świątek (Poland) – tennis – 72
7. Johannes Thinges Boe (Norway) – biathlon – 51
8. Femke Bol (Netherland) – athletics – 49
9. Marco Odermatt (Switzerland) – alpine skiing – 44
10. Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark) – cycling – 40
11. Leon Marchand (France) – swimming – 30
12. Mathieu van der Poel (Belgium) – cycling – 26
13. Carlos Alcazar (Spain) – tennis – 24
14. Aitana Bonmati (Spain) – football – 23
15. Miltiadis Tentoglou (Greece) – athletics – 12
16. Dennis Schroeder (Germany) – basketball – 10
Ondrej Perusic, David Schweiner (Czech Republic – beach volleyball)
18. Demi Vollering (Netherlands) – cycling – 9
Jon Ram (Spain) – golf – 9
Jacob Ingebrigtsen (Norway) – athletics – 9
Lasha Talakhadze (Georgia) – weightlifting – 9
22. Eleftherios Petrounias (Greece) – artistic gymnastics) – 8
Aleksander Vezenkov (Bulgaria) – basketball – 8
Alvaro Martin (Spain) – athletics – 8
Yaroslava Makhutchikh (Ukraine) – athletics – 8
Previous winners:1958 Zdzislaw Krzyszkowiak (Poland/athletics)1959 Wassiliy Kuzniecov (USSR/athletics)1960 Yuriy Vlasov (USSR/weightlifting)1961 Valery Brumel (USSR/athletics)1962 Valery Brumel1963 Valery Brumel1964 Lidia Skoblikova (USSR/speed skating)1965 Michael Jazy (France/athletics)1966 Irena Szewińska (Poland/athletics)1967 Jean-Claude Killy (France. alpine skiing)1968 Jean-Claude Killy1969 Eddy Merckx (Belgium/cycling)1970 Eddy Merckx1971 Juha Vaeaetaeinen (Finland/athletics)1972 Lasse Viren (Finland/athletics)1973 Kornelia Ender (GDR/swimming)1974 Irena Szewińska (Poland/athletics)1975 Kornelia Ender1976 Nadia Comaneci (Romania/artistic gymnastics)1977 Rosemarie Ackermann (GDR/athletics)1978 Vladimir Jashchenko (USSR/athletics)1979 Sebastian Coe (Great Britain/athletics)1980 Vladimir Salnikov (USSR/swimming)1981 Sebastian Coe1982 Daley Thompson (Great Britain/athletics)1983 Jarmila Kratochvilova (Czechoslovakia/athletics)1984 Michael Gross (BRD/swimming)1985 Siergiey Bubka (USSR/athletics)1986 Heike Drechsler (GDR/athletics)1987 Stephen Roche (Ireland/cycling)1988 Steffi Graf (BRD/tennis)1989 Steffi Graf1990 Stefan Edberg (Sweden/tennis)1991 Katrin Krabbe (Germany/athletics)1992 Nigel Mansell (Great Britain/Formula 1)1993 Linford Christie (Great Britain/athletics)1994 Johan Olav Koss (Norway/speed skating)1995 Jonathan Edwards (Great Britain/athletics)1996 Svetlana Mastierkova (Russia/athletics)1997 Martina Hingis (Switzerland/tennis)1998 Mika Haekkinen (Finland/Formula 1)1999 Gabriela Szabo (Romania/athletics)2000 Inge de Bruijn (Netherland/swimming)2001 Michael Schumacher (Germany/Formula 1)2002 Michael Schumacher2003 Michael Schumacher2004 Roger Federer (Switzerland/tennis)2005 Roger Federer and Yelena Isinbayeva (Russia/athletics)2006 Roger Federer2007 Roger Federer2008 Rafael Nadal (Spain/tennis)2009 Roger Federer2010 Rafael Nadal2011 Novak Djokovic (Serbia/tennis)2012 Sebastian Vettel (Germany/Formula 1)2013 Sebastian Vettel2014 Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain/Formula 1)2015 Novak Djokovic (Serbia/tennis)2016 Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/football)2017 Cristiano Ronaldo2018 Novak Djokovic2019 Lewis Hamilton2020 Robert Lewandowski (Poland/football)2021 Novak Djokovic (Serbia/tennis)2022 Iga Świątek (Poland/tennis)
2023 Novak Djokovic
Credit: AIPS Media
