Ultra-consistent Samantha Stosur continued her domination of the Newcombe Medal on Monday night, being named Australia's most outstanding tennis player for a third straight year.
Although Stosur did not claim any singles titles in 2012, she reached the final at Doha and Moscow and was a semi-finalist in four other events, including the French Open.
The 28-year-old Queenslander also made a solid defence of her US Open title, advancing to the last eight at Flushing Meadows before bowing out to world number one Victoria Azarenka.
Stosur - whose year-end ranking dropped three places to number nine - became the first Australian woman since Wendy Turnbull to finish in the world top 10 three years in succession.
"Receiving the Newcombe Medal for a third year in a row is an amazing honour," Stosur said.
"The Newcombe Medal is a great occasion for the Australian tennis community to come together and celebrate our sport, recognise people's achievements and contributions to Australian tennis."
The other finalists were French Open mixed doubles champion Casey Dellacqua, former world number one Lleyton Hewitt and Marinko Matosevic.
Josh Eagle was honoured as Australia's best high performance coach at the function at Crown Palladium in Melbourne.
Eagle coaches Matosevic, who made giant strides in 2012 to end the year as Australia's highest ranked men's player.
Luke Saville, the 2011 Wimbledon and 2012 Australian Open junior champion, and Ashleigh Barty, who won last year's junior Wimbledon crown, were named junior athletes of the year.
It was the third straight year Barty had won the award.
She improved her ranking by more than 600 places in 2012, claiming four ITF titles along the way.
Ian Barclay - who coached Pat Cash to his 1987 Wimbledon triumph - was honoured with the President's spirit of tennis award.
Barclay's coaching career stretched over five decades.
AAP
Tags: tennis, sport, australia First posted December 03, 2012 22:17:49
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