In the adorned heart of Madrid, before the flashes that bounce and spread through the skylights of the Palacio de Cibeles, Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka received this Monday the Laureus Award for best male and female athletes of the past year.
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The Murcian, 22 years old, winner of Roland Garros, US Open and six other ATP circuit tournaments in 2025, has prevailed in the men’s category over Marc Márquez (Spain, motorcycling), Mondo Duplantis (Sweden, athletics), Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia, cycling), Jannik Sinner (Italy, tennis) and Ousmane Dembélé (France, football). The Belarusian, undisputed world number 1 in the WTA ranking at 27 years old, was chosen in the women’s category ahead of Aitana Bonmatí (Spain, football), Katie Ledecky (USA, swimming), Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA, athletics), Faith Kipyegon (Kenya, athletics) and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden (USA, athletics).
“It is an honor for me to receive an award like this,” Alcaraz acknowledged after a gala hosted by skier Eileen Gu, Olympic champion in the halfpipe discipline during the Milan-Cortina 2026 Games, and Novak Djokovic, a tennis legend who, despite having spent several days in the Spanish capital —he accompanied Luka Doncic last Thursday to witness the Euroleague match between Real Madrid and Estrella Roja—, has already confirmed that he will not play the Mutua Madrid Open, which starts this week, due to a shoulder injury he has been carrying since Indian Wells.
Alcaraz will also not be playing at the Caja Mágica; upon his arrival at Cibeles, he began signing autographs, always smiling, with a conspicuous white splint on his right wrist, the same one that forced him to withdraw last week from the Conde de Godó and which, “more serious” than initially imagined, has made his presence at the last stop of the clay court tour, Roland Garros, a Grand Slam he has won in the last two editions and which begins in Paris on May 18, an unknown.
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“I cannot give a timeframe [for returning to the courts] because if I do, I might return sooner or later. We don’t know yet, but I can say that we will do everything in our power to be as good as possible as soon as possible. We have one more test that will be decisive,” declared the Murcian on the red carpet, where he was accompanied by his parents, his agent, Albert Molina, his coach, Samuel López, and his physiotherapist, Albert Lledo. “God willing, I have a very long career ahead of me, and forcing myself at this Roland Garros could harm me greatly in the future. We are going to wait to see what the test reveals, but I can say that I prefer to return a little later and well, rather than returning early, rushing, and badly.”
Earlier, in a city that these days buzzes in shirt sleeves, sunny and with pollen floating, the Cibeles red carpet had received, one by one, the most brilliant stars of an increasingly football-centric Laureus: Lamine Yamal, Cafú, Xavi Hernández, Toni Kroos, Luis Figo, Ruud Gullit, Leonardo Bonucci, Marcel Desailly, Emilio Butragueño and Óscar de Marcos hogged the spotlights on a catwalk where Simone Biles, Jannik Sinner, Ana Peleteiro or Arturo Coello also paraded, and where the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, also signed autographs, like another star.
The award for best team of the season went to Luis Enrique Martínez’s Paris Saint-Germain, winner of the Champions League and the other five titles it aspired to during the season. The breakthrough of the year award went to British Lando Norris, Formula 1 world champion; while the statuette for the best comeback of the season was given to Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, winner of the Masters of Augusta after a decade of disappointments. Lamine Yamal collected the award for best young athlete of the year, while Toni Kroos, Nadia Comaneci, Chloe Kim, Gabriel Araújo and the Fútbol Más foundation completed the list of honorees.