{"id":88248,"date":"2025-08-22T08:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T08:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/88248\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T08:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T08:09:09","slug":"ex-wimbledon-champion-to-retire-9-years-after-knife-attack-tennis-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/88248\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Wimbledon champion to retire 9 years after knife attack – Tennis – Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two-time former Wimbledon<\/a> champion Petra Kvitova has announced she is “totally ready” to retire at 35 following her U.S. Open<\/a> campaign this summer – nearly a decade after surviving a horrific knife attack.<\/p>\n

The Czech star secured Grand Slam victories at the All England Club in 2011 and 2014, but her world was devastated<\/a> when an intruder with a blade assaulted her in her own home in 2016.<\/p>\n

The attack resulted in severe cuts to her left hand, requiring emergency surgery to save her tennis career. Incredibly, she fought back to compete at Roland Garros the following season.<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Guardian, Kvitova disclosed the traumatic aftermath involved ongoing nightmares and “really bad flashbacks” from the horrifying experience, though she conveyed pride in her strength.<\/p>\n

“I knew I was a big fighter on the court but at that time I realized how I am an even bigger fighter in a totally different version of myself,” she said.<\/p>\n

“That was great, even though it was very tough to play tennis. I cried on the court, I had really bad flashbacks, I was having nightmares.<\/p>\n

“So it really wasn’t easy. It took a while, but it’s all good now. There was a big question mark, can I play tennis or not? And I could. It was my second career. It was amazing.”<\/p>\n

The tennis star revealed her willingness to step away from the game, despite her passion for the sport, to dedicate more time to her family. “I’m totally ready,” she declared.<\/p>\n

“I’m not regretting anything. I still love tennis but everything else, waiting for the practices, waiting for the car, waiting for a match, it’s just tiring. And having a son, it’s a totally different life. I just want to spend more time with him as well.”<\/p>\n

DON’T MISS<\/p>\n

Kvitova’s comeback after her knife attack has been nothing short of extraordinary. In what she calls her “second career”, she made it to the quarter-finals of the U.S. Open in 2017, the final of the Australian Open in 2019 and the semi-finals of the French Open in 2020.<\/p>\n

Looking back on her career, she wondered if she could have ever reached the world No 1 ranking – but maintains that such an accomplishment “would not make me happier”.<\/p>\n

“I think I could [have won more],” she continued. “But what can I do? I played in the final of the Australian Open [in 2019], I lost to Naomi Osaka when she played incredibly in the third set. There are always a few question marks in the number of Grand Slams.<\/p>\n

“Being world No 1, that’s what I’m missing. Probably that’s the thing I would love to have. But if it’s not happened, it’s not happened. It would not give me a better life or make me happier.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two-time former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova has announced she is “totally ready” to retire at 35 following her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593,1706,614],"class_list":{"0":"post-88248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-tennis-section","13":"tag-wimbledon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}