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Two time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova had been awarded the Golden Canary Award by the Czech Tennis Federation in association with Tennis Magazine.
Presented annually at a gala ceremony in Prerov (alongside other categories), the award celebrates the country's top sporting achievements of the year. The selection process involves the compilation of a shortlist, which is then considered for a final vote by select panelists comprising journalists and sport specialists.
However, in view of the COVID-19 restrictions in Czech Republic, this year's event was cancelled. Instead, winners from all categories were announced through a broadcast on national sporting channel Nova Sport 1.
Petra Kvitova also named Player of the Year
Petra Kvitova had a largely successful Grand Slam season, making the second week at all three Majors - including a career-best semifinal showing at Roland Garros. The hard-hitting lefty ended the year at the No. 8 position in the WTA rankings.
Kvitova's achievements in 2020 earned her another win, as she was named the Czech Player of the Year for the third time in her career. She had previously bagged the title following her title runs at the Wimbledon Championships in 2011 and 2014.
The 30-year-old Bilovec native took to her social media handles soon after the announcement to celebrate her win, writing:
"Honoured to be awarded with this Czech player of the year trophy [...] A nice way to finishing a challenging year."
Jiri Vesely, Barbora Krejcikova also win big
Among the other big winners at the ceremony were the country's top ranked men's singles player Jiri Vesely and former No. 1 women's doubles player Barbora Krejcikova.
While Vesely won the top men's honor (a title held by Tomas Berdych for the last decade), Krejcikova won an award for being the biggest rankings mover (having climbed to a career-high of No. 65 at the end of November).
