Barty, Del Potro and Kuznetsova on Hall of Fame ballot for Class of 2027

Three players, one wheelchair legend

The International Tennis Hall of Fame has announced its ballot for the Class of 2027. Ash Barty, Juan Martín del Potro and Svetlana Kuznetsova are the nominees in the Player Category, and Japan's Shingo Kunieda is the nominee in the Wheelchair Tennis Category. Fan voting is open at vote.tennisfame.com until October 25.

Barty is the headline name and is on the ballot for the first time. The Australian won three Grand Slam singles titles on three different surfaces: Roland-Garros in 2019, Wimbledon in 2021 and the Australian Open in 2022. She spent 121 weeks at world No. 1 before retiring in 2022, still at the top of the rankings, with a 305-102 singles record. She won 15 singles and 12 doubles titles on the WTA Tour, was named WTA Player of the Year in 2019 and 2021, and took Olympic bronze in mixed doubles at the Tokyo Games.

Del Potro and Kuznetsova try again

Del Potro and Kuznetsova were both on the ballot for the Class of 2026 as well. The Argentine's place in tennis history rests above all on the 2009 US Open, where he beat Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals and then came from two sets to one down to beat five-time defending champion Roger Federer in the final. He won 22 tour-level titles, including the 2018 BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. He also led Argentina to its first Davis Cup title in 2016 and won an Olympic singles silver medal, a run that included a win over Novak Djokovic.

Del Potro's career was repeatedly interrupted by wrist and knee surgeries, and that is a big part of why he is so popular. In Argentina his influence is still felt by a men's game that keeps producing tour regulars. Two of them, Francisco Cerúndolo and Mariano Navone, are seeded at the European Open in Brussels this week.

Kuznetsova, 41, is on the ballot for the second time. The Russian won four majors: two in singles, at the 2004 US Open and 2009 Roland-Garros, and two in doubles. She reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 2 and won 18 singles and 16 doubles titles on the WTA Tour over a 15-year career.

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Kunieda is described by the Hall of Fame as the most decorated men's wheelchair tennis player in history. He won 50 major titles (28 in singles and 22 in doubles), completed a career Golden Slam and won four Paralympic gold medals across five consecutive Paralympic Games.

How the vote works

Fans help decide the result, but they do not decide it alone. The top three finishers in the fan vote receive bonus percentage points, which are added to the totals from the Official Voting Group. That group is made up of journalists, tennis historians and Hall of Famers. A nominee needs at least 75 per cent of the combined vote to be inducted.

That high bar is why neither Del Potro nor Kuznetsova got in last year. For Barty, whose career was short but filled with titles, the first ballot is the real test. The Hall of Fame says fan-vote results will be announced shortly after the October 25 deadline, and the Class of 2027 inductees will be revealed later this autumn.