Here’s a video from the WTA Tour 2008 Player Awards Ceremony that happened earlier this week. Ana Ivanovic and Elena Dementieva chat about winning humanitarian and sportsmanship awards and a bedazzled Dinara accepts the award for “Most Improved,” which sounds like a backhanded compliment to me (pun intended.) Enjoy!

What about the Best Player? Well, that would be Serena Williams of course, winning for only the second time in her career (which seems mighty strange.) She didn’t attend the ceremony but released this statement:

“Winning the Player of the Year award for the second time in my career is a great personal achievement. Last year was a very special year on the Tour for me, winning an Olympic gold medal with Venus, the US Open title and becoming the world No.1 player again. I feel great about my game and hope to win many more Player of the Year titles in the years to come.”

The full list of winners:

2008 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Player Awards
Player of the Year – Serena Williams
Doubles Team of the Year – Cara Black and Liezel Huber
Most Improved Player – Dinara Safina
Comeback Player of the Year – Zheng Jie
Newcomer of the Year – Caroline Wozniacki
Humanitarian of the Year – Ana Ivanovic
Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award – Elena Dementieva
Player Service Award – Liezel Huber
Favorite Premier Tournament – Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (Stuttgart)
Favorite International Tournament - Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic (Bali)