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Sports

Kvitova chosen as WTA Player of the Year

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

St. Petersburg, FL – Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova has been selected as the WTA's Player of the Year.

Kvitova had a banner 2011 season that included a triumph at the All England Club for her first career Grand Slam title and a win at the season-ending WTA Championships. She improved her ranking from No. 34 to No. 2 and won six tournaments to match world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki for the most in 2011.

"This season has been simply a dream," Kvitova said in a statement through the WTA. "It is an incredible honor to win the Player of the Year award and join the ranks of some of the best players that have ever played the sport, especially Martina Navratilova. I will always cherish the 2011 season and look forward to building on it."

The 21-year-old Czech native helped her country to the Fed Cup title, the first for the Czech Republic as an independent nation. She won her last two tournaments and will enter the 2012 season with a 12-match winning streak.

Kvitova also garnered the Most Improved Player award and captured the WTA's sportsmanship award, which acknowledges a player's professionalism, attitude and sense of fair play.

Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik were named the Doubles Team of the Year. The duo captured six titles during the 2011 season, including the Wimbledon crown.

Romania's Irina-Camelia Begu was selected as the Newcomer of the Year. She reached a pair of finals, including one as a qualifier, and rose from 214th in the world to No. 38 during the season before finishing the campaign at No. 40.

Germany's Sabine Lisicki won the Comeback Player of the Year. After winning her first title during the 2009 season and reaching the Wimbledon quarterfinals that year, Lisicki's 2010 campaign was marred by injuries and by March of this year she had fallen out of the top 200. However, she rebounded to win a pair of titles in 2011 and was a semifinalist at Wimbledon while attaining a new career high ranking of No. 15.

The winners of the player awards are determined by the global tennis media.