ISTANBUL, Turkey -The WTA has announced World No.1 Victoria Azarenka as winner of the Diamond ACES Award for the 2012 season.

The award is given to the player who consistently goes above and beyond in promoting women's tennis to fans, media and local communities by performing off-court promotional and charitable activities.

"It is definitely really exciting to win this award and be recognized by the WTA," Azarenka said. "I am actually surprised to receive this great honor but really happy that I could contribute and share my time off the court to make people happy and give back to the sport."

"Victoria has not only achieved outstanding results on the court this season, including her maiden Grand Slam title and WTA World No.1 ranking, but she has also been one of our busiest players off the court too, taking part in an array of activities to help promote women's tennis to the world," WTA Chairman and CEO Stacey Allaster said.

The Diamond ACES Award was first introduced in 1995, in memory of former WTA CEO Jerry Diamond. It has been won by the following players: Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, Gabriela Sabatini, Amanda Coetzer, Lindsay Davenport, Martina Hingis, Anastasia Myskina, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic, Elena Dementieva, Samantha Stosur, Caroline Wozniacki and Azarenka.