Cape Town - South Africa's Kevin Anderson has been recognised by the ATP for his off-court contributions when he was named the winner of the Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award at the 2019 ATP Awards.
Anderson, who spent the end of 2019 recovering from injury, is involved in a host of charitible causes in the United States according to the ATP website.
These include First Serve and Ocean Conservancy's Trash Free Seas Alliance.
In December last year, the big-serving South African, a finalist at Wimbledon in 2018, helped raise around R14 million for the Cause for Paws charity as well as his own charity event, Courtside Cause which raised close to R1.4 million this month.
"I think planning this event and being able to give back or bring awareness to needy causes is one of the biggest perks of being a tennis player. Especially this year being away from the court so much with my injuries, having my focus on what we were going to do at the end of the year kept me busy while I was rehabbing and made me really excited for what we would accomplish,” Anderson said.
“I feel very lucky tennis has allowed me to do these sorts of things and use my platform to hopefully do a bit of good," he added.
The Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award has been won previously by former South African president Nelson Mandela, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Tommy Robredo.