NEWPORT, Rhode Island—Grand Slam title winners Ana Ivanovic, Flavia Pennetta, Carlos Moya and Cara Black are the new nominees on the International Tennis Hall of Fame ballot for the Class of 2022, joining holdovers Lisa Raymond and Juan Carlos Ferrero.
The Rhode Island-based Hall announced the candidates Thursday.
The half-dozen nominees all are in the player category; there is no one in the contributor or wheelchair categories, which only come every four years.
Ivanovic won the 2008 French Open singles championship and reached No. 1 in the rankings. Pennetta was the 2015 US Open singles champion and made it to No. 1 in doubles. Moya won the 1998 French Open title in singles and was ranked No. 1. Black collected 10 major trophies in doubles or mixed doubles and was ranked No. 1 in doubles.
Raymond and Ferrero were first nominated for the Class of 2021; players are eligible for three years before being dropped from the ballot. She won 11 Grand Slam trophies in doubles or mixed doubles and reached No. 1; he was the 2003 French Open singles champ and got to No. 1.
Fan voting begins Friday at vote.tennisfame.com and ends on October 31 and the top 3 finishers will receive bonus percentage points for their total count. Balloting by journalists, historians and members of the Hall of Fame will happen in the coming months.
The inductees will be announced early next year. The Hall ceremony is scheduled for July 16.
US Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez, meanwhile, will not be part of Canada’s team for the Billie Jean King Cup finals next month.
Tennis Canada confirmed that Fernandez pulled out of the team’s roster for the November 1 to 6 matches in Prague and is being replaced by Carol Zhao.
The other members of the country’s squad are Rebecca Marino, Gabriela Dabrowski and Françoise Abanda.
Canada is scheduled to open the finals by facing 2019 champion France and Russia. The 2020 edition of the event was called off because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Fernandez is set to play for the Orange County Breakers in World TeamTennis, which runs November 13 to 28 at Indian Wells, California. She was eliminated in singles and doubles from the hard-court combined Association of Tennis Professionals and Women’s Tennis Association tournament there this week.
“It’s been a long season,” she said after her loss Tuesday at the BNP Paribas Open. “We’re just going to see what the body says, what the mind says, and we’ll go from there.”
The 19-year-old Fernandez turned in a breakthrough performance at the US Open, making it all the way to the final before losing to another unseeded teenager, Emma Raducanu.
Fernandez arrived at Flushing Meadows ranked No. 73 and left at a career-best No. 28 after beating defending champion Naomi Osaka in the third round, followed by 2016 champion Angelique Kerber and top-five seeds Elina Svitolina and Aryna Sabalenka. AP
Image courtesy of AP