The 2026 ESPYS Best Tennis Player award is a top-heavy race, and the market has a clear read on it. Carlos Alcaraz, holder of seven Grand Slam titles at 22, is the runaway favorite on the board over four-time major champion Jannik Sinner, with back-to-back year-end World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and 2025 WTA Finals winner Elena Rybakina rounding out the named field. The winner is revealed live at the ESPYS on July 15, 2026 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The live board above tracks the current price on every nominee.
The Best Tennis Player ESPY is the sport's crossover trophy. ESPN hands it out at its annual awards show to the one player judged the best in tennis over the past year, men's and women's game combined, decided by fan vote. For 2026 it comes down to a short, top-heavy ballot, and the board has a clear read: Carlos Alcaraz is the runaway favorite, Jannik Sinner is the only nominee within striking distance, and the two leading women, Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, fill out the field.
Carlos Alcaraz is the board's clear favorite, and the résumé is why. He owns seven Grand Slam titles at age 22, won the French Open and US Open in 2025, added the 2026 Australian Open, and became the youngest man to complete the career Grand Slam. That is exactly the kind of year-long body of work the ESPY voters reward, and Kalshi has him well clear of the field.
Jannik Sinner is the counter-case and the only name close on the board. Sinner has four majors of his own, took the 2025 Australian Open and Wimbledon, and closed the season by beating Alcaraz to win the year-end ATP Finals title. The Alcaraz-versus-Sinner debate is the whole men's story here, and it is the reason the top of this Best Tennis Player ESPY market is a two-man conversation.
Aryna Sabalenka is the strongest women's case. She finished as the year-end World No. 1 for a second straight season, won the 2025 US Open among four titles that year, and posted the most match wins on the WTA Tour. On pure winning, she has the best claim of any woman in the field, even if the board keeps her behind the two men.
Elena Rybakina is the fourth named nominee. She is a Grand Slam champion from her 2022 Wimbledon title and closed 2025 by upsetting Sabalenka to win the WTA Finals on an 11-match win streak. That late-season surge is her argument, and it is the kind of headline run that ESPY voters notice.
This is a young award, and that matters for reading it. ESPN combined the separate Best Male Tennis Player and Best Female Tennis Player ESPYs into one gender-neutral Best Tennis Player award starting in 2023, so the combined trophy has only three winners on the board. Novak Djokovic took the inaugural 2023 award over a finalist group that included Alcaraz and Sabalenka. Coco Gauff then won it back to back, in 2024 and again in 2025, off the strength of her 2023 US Open breakthrough and a steady run near the top of the women's game.
Before 2023, the ESPYs split the honor by gender, and both lines ran back to 1993. On the men's side the recent winners were Rafael Nadal in 2022, Djokovic in 2021, and Roger Federer three straight from 2017 through 2019. On the women's side, Emma Raducanu won in 2022 after her 2021 US Open run, Naomi Osaka took 2021, Serena Williams won in 2016, 2017, and 2019, and Sloane Stephens won in 2018. Neither award was handed out in 2020 because the COVID-19 pandemic canceled that year's ceremony. One note for this year's field: neither Alcaraz nor Sinner has ever won the combined Best Tennis Player ESPY, so the favorite would be a first-time winner of this trophy.
The 2026 Best Tennis Player ESPY is decided on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, when ESPN announces the winner live during the ESPYS at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The show airs on ESPN at 8pm ET. The award is fan-voted across both the men's and women's game, and this market resolves that same night to whichever nominee is named the winner on stage.
The rest of the 2026 ESPYS board is live alongside this one. Alcaraz and Sinner also anchor the 2026 ESPYS Best Men's Athlete odds, while Sabalenka and Gauff feed the 2026 ESPYS Best Women's Athlete odds. For the team-side honor, see the 2026 ESPYS Best Team odds, and the league-specific races run through the 2026 ESPYS Best MLB Player market and the 2026 ESPYS Best NBA Player market. Browse the full slate of sports prediction markets for everything resolving around the ceremony.
This market resolves to the winner of the Best Tennis Player award at the 2026 ESPYS, announced live during the ceremony on July 15, 2026 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles and broadcast on ESPN. The ESPY is a fan-voted award covering both the men's and women's game, and each nominee contract pays $1 per share if that player is named the winner while all other nominee contracts resolve to $0. The Tie contract resolves Yes only if ESPN declares co-winners. If the ceremony is postponed, the market resolves once the award is officially announced.
Kalshi has Carlos Alcaraz as the runaway favorite. As of July 11, 2026, Alcaraz prices around 67c, with Jannik Sinner the next name at 34c and the women, Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina, further back.
The winner is announced live during the ESPYS on Wednesday, July 15, 2026 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, airing on ESPN at 8pm ET. The market resolves that same night.
The Best Tennis Player ESPY market is listed on Kalshi and is also listed on Polymarket. The live board above shows the current price on Alcaraz, Sinner, Sabalenka, and Rybakina.
ESPN combined the award into one gender-neutral Best Tennis Player ESPY in 2023. Novak Djokovic won that first year, and Coco Gauff won it back to back in 2024 and 2025.
Watch the Alcaraz-versus-Sinner résumé debate and fan-vote turnout, since the ESPY is decided by popular vote. Revisit the board as the July 15, 2026 ceremony approaches and voting closes.