(Tennis news) Mackenzie McDonald won the ATP comeback player of the year award after a career defining performance over the last 12 months. The 26 year old suffered a hamstring injury at Roland Garros in 2019 while playing doubles as he was out for seven months, he needed surgery after which he couldn’t walk for a month and in 2020 he was ranked 270 in the first quarter of the season. He slowly made his way up as he started this year ranked 194 and now is ranked 55 to complete a fighting comeback.
Mackenzie reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the second time at this year’s Australian Open and lost to Daniil Medvedev in straight sets. Mackenzie had reached the fourth round in his first appearance at Wimbledon in 2018, he reached the finals at Washington defeating Benoit Paire and Kei Nishikori on the way. At the US Open, he defeated David Goffin in the 1st round but lost to Nishikori in a five setter in the second round. Mackenzie last played in november at Stockholm Open losing to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the opening match.
“It’s extremely rewarding. For me it’s a massive accomplishment, honestly. At the end of the year I was hoping I was going to be nominated, I got that and then actually winning it is really cool for me,” McDonald said. “It was a really big comeback and I feel like I put in all the hard work. When I was going through the rehab process I did everything I possibly could to get myself back”.
Doubles player Marcus Daniell received the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian award for his service through his organization High Impact Athletes. It is an organization which connects athletes and the general public with the most effective, evidence-based charities in the world. Daniell founded the organization in November last year and now has several fellow athletes helping him. Marcus had the idea of donating to charity for a few years and now has decided to donate 10 percent of his earnings to effective organizations for life. Stefanos Tsitsipas, Joe Salisbury, John Millman, Rajeev Ram and many more have pledged to donate certain parts of their earnings to the organization.
“When I was told I was this year’s Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award recipient I was blown away. It is incredibly humbling to look down the list of previous recipients and see who has received this honour. Their many accomplishments both on and off the court are staggering” said Daniell.
“My journey in philanthropy began in 2015. It was the first year I focussed on doubles and it was also the first year I made money playing tennis. I was able to put some savings away in the bank at the end of the year and with that little bit of financial security came this really strong urge to give back”.
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