Serbian tennis player and World No. 1 Novak Đoković has been named Sportsman of the Year at the Laureus World Sports Awards in London.

Djokovic, the first player representing Serbia to win a Grand Slam singles title, is also the youngest player to reach the semifinals of all four Grand Slams in the open era at the age of 24.

In his remarkable 2011, the humorous "Djoker" not only won Australian, Wimbledon and US Open crowns, but also took away the World No 1 ranking from Spanish rival Rafael Nadal, Xinhua reported.

Although his level of performance dropped a bit at the end of 2011, Djokovic still proved his dominance with a 70-6 record. American tennis legend Pete Sampras described his season as "the best I have seen in my lifetime".

Cheruiyot was considered one of the greatest distance runners of this generation. She picked up gold medals of both 5,000 and 10,000 metres at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea.

In the 5,000m competition, Cheruiyot finished the final kilometre in two minutes and 41.76 seconds, the fastest ever in World Championship history. In the 10,000m race, she clocked a personal best of 30 minutes 48.98 seconds.

Barcelona, under coach Pep Guardiola, was winner of the Champions League and the Spanish League in the 2010/11 season. It was the fourth time the team was nominated for the Laureus but won it for the first time.

Two great footballers, Laureus Academy members Franz Beckenbauer and Bobby Charlton made compliments to the team.

"Barcelona are the best team in the world and they are almost perfect," said German football idol Beckenbauer. "I would put them in the same class class as other great teams from the past such as the Real Madrid team of the 1950s."