Victorian Tennis was the big winner at last night’s\u00a0Newcombe Medal, with an outstanding ten award recipients\u00a0including powerhouse Sam Groth, who capped his best ever season on tour by claiming\u00a0Australia\u2019s top tennis award, the Newcombe Medal.<\/p>\n
The world No.60 was bestowed the honour at a gala celebration at Crown Palladium in Melbourne, attended by a who\u2019s who of Australian tennis. Groth accepted the Newcombe Medal from the award\u2019s namesake, Australian tennis legend John Newcombe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to put it into words, it was a great year and this really tops it off. For the whole Australian tennis community to come together and to be presented with this award, I\u2019m a little bit speechless,\u201d Groth said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really appreciative that everyone\u2019s seen my year to be good enough to be nominated \u2013 let alone, to win \u2013 the Newcombe Medal, so it\u2019s a pretty amazing feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following a night of celebration it will be business as usual for the newly crowned medallist, who has his sights set on a big year in 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll get ready for the summer now, I don\u2019t think my plans will really change too much but it\u2019s a nice honour to have,\u201d Groth said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTop 50 is the goal, I got within one win this season when I had to stop playing due to injury. I want to try to push into the second week of the Slams and I think now with Davis Cup we have a good young team, a really talented team, so I\u2019m going to place a big focus on Davis Cup next year and also make sure I qualify for Rio.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old was tonight honoured to be recognised for his outstanding season in front of the nation\u2019s top past and current players.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese names are so well respected in the Australian tennis community and that\u2019s something I want to develop over time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to have the respect of the old guys, the current players and also the young guys, and that\u2019s something I try to do every day, I go out on court and give it everything I\u2019ve got. I feel like if I keep doing what I\u2019m doing hopefully one day I\u2019ll be held in the same regard.\u201d<\/p>\n
On court in 2015 Groth won Challenger titles in Taiwan and Manchester, and made his maiden appearance in the final 32 at a Grand Slam when he advanced to the third round of the Australian Open in January.<\/p>\n
The big-serving Victorian was a pivotal member of Australia\u2019s Davis Cup team, helping steer the nation to the World Group semifinals in September.<\/p>\n
After starting the year ranked world No.81, Groth\u2019s strong results \u2013 including three ATP quarterfinals \u2013 saw him rise to a career-high world No.53 in August.<\/p>\n
Groth joins 2014 winner Nick Kyrgios (ACT), 2013 recipient Lleyton Hewitt (SA) and three-time winner Sam Stosur (Qld) on the Newcombe Medal honour roll.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Stosur, wheelchair tennis champion Dylan Alcott (Vic), Fed Cup representative Casey Dellacqua (WA), rising star Thanasi Kokkinakis (SA) and doubles specialist John Peers (Vic) were also in the running for the 2015 accolade.<\/p>\n
The Newcombe Medal is the premier award presented on a night that recognises players, coaches, clubs, communities, volunteers and officials for their service to the sport. The awards ceremony has been held annually since 2010.<\/p>\n
A highlight of the evening\u2019s celebrations was the presentation of the President\u2019s Spirit of Tennis Award to Ray Ruffels (Vic) for his outstanding contribution to the sport. Also honoured was former world No.1 and two-time Grand Slam champion Lleyton Hewitt (SA), who will retire from professional tennis following Australian Open 2016.<\/p>\n
Victorian Omar Jasika was named Male Junior Athlete of the Year, Kimberly Birrell (Qld) was named Female Junior Athlete of the Year and Ben Mathias (Qld), coach of Newcombe Medal winner Sam Groth, was recognised for Coaching Excellence \u2013 High Performance.<\/p>\n
Victorian\u00a0award winners as follows:<\/strong><\/p>\n Newcombe Medal<\/strong> President\u2019s Spirit of Tennis Award<\/strong> Most Outstanding Athlete with a Disability<\/strong> Tennis Senior of the Year<\/strong> Coaching Excellence \u2013 ANZ Tennis Hot Shots<\/strong> Coaching Excellence \u2013 Club<\/strong> Most Outstanding Professional Tournament<\/strong> Most Outstanding Australian Ranking Tournament<\/strong> Volunteer Achievement Award<\/strong> Victorian Tennis was the big winner at last night’s\u00a0Newcombe Medal, with an outstanding ten award recipients\u00a0including powerhouse Sam Groth, who capped his best ever season on tour by claiming\u00a0Australia\u2019s top tennis award, the Newcombe Medal. The world No.60 was bestowed the honour at a gala celebration at Crown Palladium in Melbourne, attended by a who\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5914,"featured_media":14622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5914"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/vic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSam Groth \u2013 Templestowe, Vic<\/p>\n
\nRay Ruffels \u2013 Sandringham, Vic
\n\ufffc
\nMale Junior Athlete of the Year<\/strong>
\nOmar Jasika \u2013 Clarinda, Vic<\/p>\n
\nDylan Alcott \u2013 East St Kilda, Vic<\/p>\n
\nBob Howes \u2013 Highett, Vic<\/p>\n
\nAdrian Muscillo \u2013 Kew, Vic<\/p>\n
\nJason Lindeman \u2013 Hawthorn, Vic<\/p>\n
\n2015 Mildura Grand International \u2013 Mildura, Vic<\/p>\n
\nBendigo Junior Tour and Australian Money Tournament \u2013 Bendigo, Vic<\/p>\n
\nLyn Duffy \u2013 Melton South, Vic<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"