{"id":96897,"date":"2025-08-26T10:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T10:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/96897\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T10:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T10:21:10","slug":"petra-kvitova-retires-career-over-after-first-round-loss-to-diane-parry-emotional-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/96897\/","title":{"rendered":"Petra Kvitova retires, career over after first round loss to Diane Parry, emotional ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"

Twice Wimbledon<\/a> champion Petra Kvitova bade an emotional farewell to professional tennis after her first-round defeat at the US Open<\/a>, saying she was most proud of her resilience and major triumphs during a memorable two-decade career.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old Czech returned to competition earlier this season following a 17-month maternity break and announced ahead of Wimbledon that she would call time on her career at the end of the year’s final major in New York.<\/p>\n

Kvitova won 31 titles – including Wimbledon crowns in 2011 and 2014 – reaching a highest ranking of number two in the world but will also be remembered for her brave return to tennis after a serious hand injury sustained during a home robbery in 2016.<\/p>\n

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She was beaten 6-1, 6-0 in her final match by Frenchwoman Diane Parry on Grandstand before shedding tears during an on-court ceremony to honour her.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Petra Kvitova embraces her husband and coach Ji\u00ed Vank.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“I think I would be proudest of many things, especially the mental side. All the seasons, pretty long seasons. I was okay to handle it even with some injuries and sickness,” Kvitova told reporters later.<\/p>\n

“I’m very proud of how I handled the pressure, how many times I have been in the top 10. It was special. I was never world number one but those two grand slam wins are above the world number one ranking.<\/p>\n

“That’s how I’m going to take it, especially the Wimbledon ones. I’m proud of many things.”<\/p>\n

Watch all the action from the 2025 US Open live & on-demand on Stan Sport<\/a>. Coverage of select matches free-to-air on Nine and streaming on 9Now<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kvitova wipes tears after the defeat.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Kvitova said she briefly contemplated skipping the US Open after being laid low by COVID three weeks ago but was determined to end her career on her own terms.<\/p>\n

“I wanted to be playing here, to finish the season in a grand slam and not because the COVID caught me,” she added.<\/p>\n

“I’m very glad (I did).”<\/p>\n

However, on the morning of her final match she knew her emotions had the better of her.<\/p>\n

“But since I woke up this morning, I felt it. I felt it would be not good. I couldn’t eat. I was really nervous,” she explained.<\/p>\n

“But in different way, I would say. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t swing, I couldn’t do anything. “It was really difficult. I never (had experienced) … knowing I’m playing my last match, most probably.”<\/p>\n

Kvitova won grand slam titles at Wimbledon in 2011, defeating Maria Sharapova in the final, and 2014, with a victory over Eugenie Bouchard. She also was the runner-up to Naomi Osaka at the 2019 Australian Open.<\/p>\n

In December 2016, she was stabbed at her home by a knife-wielding intruder. Kvitova needed hours of surgery to repair nerves and tendons in her racquet-holding left hand.<\/p>\n

She returned to competition less than six months later at Roland-Garros, where she won her first match back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twice Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova bade an emotional farewell to professional tennis after her first-round defeat at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-96897","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}