Kvitova, from Wimbledon to motherhood: its history

“I don’t have precise goals. I came back because I love sport.” Petra Kvitova’s racket, 35 years old in March, is light as its current ranking: 608 in the world. The Assilli are far away, today the priority has the face of little Petr, born last July during Wimbledon. The same tournament that the Czech has won twice: Slam Gems capable of embellishing a career of 31 overall titles. Kvitova, former number 2 in the world, always returns: after maternity, after an inevitable 16 -month pause, after having risked losing tendons and hand ligaments during a robbery suffered at home. In Rome she managed to win a meeting after more than a year and a half. And with the protected ranking now he lands in Paris: who knows that he does not escape some other satisfaction …

Perfect union

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Taking a ride on Kvitova’s social profiles means immediately crossing two red circles. Tennis and family. Two straight lines that met when he married his coach, Jiri Novak. This is with him that Petra decided to give himself the return to the field after childbirth, starting from last February 25 when he enrolled in the Austin tournament. With them the little Petr: “Travel with us, I don’t leave him at home. Tennis and family are the perfect union” he said in the average day of the US tournament. A gradual return after childbirth, as happened to his colleague Belinda Bencic: he logically skipped the whole 2024, then took part in the Sunshine Double on the cement of Indian Wells and Miami. The victory was waiting for, but the thought has not haunted anyone. Indeed, when two weeks ago in Rome Kvitova managed to overcome the Romanian Begu even amazed: “I think it is curious that the first victory came here, where I never managed to play my best tennis”. On the horizon is the Roland Garros in which the main scoreboard has earned thanks to the protected ranking.

Always Paris

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At the center of Kvitova’s career, then, there is Paris again. As already happened twice. Curious the most recent: in 2021 he was injured during a … press conference, falling on the steps of the room dedicated to the meeting (virtual, given the Covid era) with the media and remedying an ankle problem. The one relating to 2017 is decidedly more exciting, when he returned to play a tournament six months after the dramatic aggression suffered at home, in the Czech Republic: a thief had aimed for a weapon in his throat, she had tried to defend herself by remedying a stab wound to the left hand capable of tearing her tendons and ligaments, with consequent operation in hospital and rehabilitation of six months. Not to mention the shock: “I couldn’t sleep, but luckily there was always someone next to me to reassure me” he said on the eve of Roland Garros who marked his return: “Maybe I’m not yet ready to win, but all this seems to me a dream”. Patience for the elimination in the second round.

Like Bencic?

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Then, the red earth in the shade of the Eiffel tower is back. Kvitova will try to dispose of the physical noies that forced her to retire in Rome, after the victory with Begu, and will start in search of another satisfaction in the name of the winning union, the one between tennis and family, who marked every return: “At 95% I was sure that I could not come back into the game” he told Austin last February, after the birth, “but in the period following the pregnancy I could finally start playing Feel well. During the months of motherhood he will have cheered for his colleague Belinda Bencic, who also returned to the circuit after the birth: Switzerland immediately reached the round of 16 at the Australian Open and won the 500 of Abu Dhabi. Maybe Kvitova will also try: the racket will certainly weigh less than a few years ago.