It’s time for Petra Kvitova.
The two-time Wimbledon champ is retiring after the U.S. Open as her priorities have shifted since having a son with her husband, Jiri Vanek — who is also her coach — in July 2024.
“I’m ready to stop,” Kvitova, 35, told The Guardian. “Mentally, I think I can’t do it anymore, as well as emotionally and physically.
“You still remember how you played before, how everything was smooth and I was hitting winners and suddenly it’s not there. I’m totally ready [to retire]. 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.”
Kvitova, with her powerful lefty serve, ascended to the top of women’s tennis in 2011 when she captured the first of two Wimbledon championships.
The Czech native ranked as high as No. 2 in the world.
Kvitova’s life changed forever when she was attacked by a knife-wielding robber during a home invasion in December 2016.
A cut in her left hand caused damaged to tendons and nerves that left her sidelined for five months.
“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,” Kvitova told the paper.
“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. 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.”
Kvitova’s ranking has now plummeted to 540, as she is just 1-7 this year including first-round losses at the French Open and Wimbledon.
Kvitova’s best results at the U.S. Open were in 2015 and ’17 when she reached the quarterfinals.
She told The Guardian that the “most painful match of my career” was losing to Naomi Osaka in the 2019 Australian Open final.
The U.S. Open begins Sunday.
