Petra Kvitova awarded the 2011 Player of the Year by WTA – Tennis News
Holding her career-best ranking of world number two, Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, has been bestowed with the 2011 Player of the Year award by WTA ( Women’s Tennis Association).
The annual WTA Player awards were announced on Monday, with Kvitova winning in three prestigious categories. Besides becoming the best player of the year, the Czech number one was also named the Most Improved Player and Karen Krantzcke
Sportsmanship Award for the year.
Taking off the 2011 season as the world number 34, Kvitova has proved her mettle throughout the year by lunging forward 31 places to capture the second place in the WTA World Rankings by the year end. She had an amazing winning
ratio of 60-13 for the season, bagging six WTA championship titles with consistent performances with her racquet.
Kvitova got a huge boost in her tennis career when she beat all the odds to clinch her first Grand Slam title at the Wimbledon Championships this summer. She stunned the former world number one and Wimbledon champion, Maria Sharapova
of Russia, in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, to claim the prestigious Major trophy at the grassy Flushing Meadows.
The Czech had brilliant runs at Brisbane, Australian Open, Paris, Madrid, Parague, Eastbourne, Tokyo and Linz to prove her dominance over a number of top class competitors. Kvitova won the season ending grand finale, the WTA Championships,
by defeating the current world number three, Victoria Azarenka, to finish the season on a high note. She also greatly assisted Team Czech’s victory against the Russian squad in the final of the Fed Cup, winning both of her singles rubbers against Maria Kirilenko
and Svetlana Kuznetsova.
It was already anticipated before the announcement of the WTA Player awards that Kvitova is the only worthy candidate for the best player of the season with her consistent quality tennis throughout the year.
A number of other awards were also given, with the duo of Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik, winning the Doubles Team of the Year award. The duo is ranked at number two in the WTA Rankings for the year end and had claimed six
doubles championships titles in the season to win the prestigious award.
Newcomer of the Year award was given to the 21-year-old Romanian, Irina-Camelia Begu, for her significant performances throughout the season as the new entrant to the pro tennis world. Sabine Lisicki of Germany took the Comeback
Player of the Year award, while the Italian veteran, Francesca Schiavone won the Player Service award for the year 2011.
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