NEW YORK (AP) — Petra Kvitova looked to her right as she sat down in the U.S. Open's main interview room for her final postmatch news conference as a professional tennis player Monday, and the two-time Wimbledon champion saw what she was hoping for.
“Tissues are here. Very good,” Kvitova said. “I'll try to be brave.”
While speaking to reporters following a 6-1, 6-0 loss to Diane Perry in the first round at Flushing Meadows, the last tournament for Kvitova before retirement, the 35-year-old left-hander
was in a good mood, smiling or laughing at some of her own answers.
The tears she shed on court right after the 52-minute defeat were no longer flowing.
Kvitova, who said she came down with a case of COVID-19 a few weeks ago and considered pulling out of the U.S. Open, hadn't expected to be so emotional on Monday.
“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. But in different way, I would say. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t swing, I couldn’t do anything,” she explained. “It was really difficult. I never (had experienced) ... knowing I’m playing my last match, most probably.”
After it ended when she sent a backhand return wide, Kvitova began crying. She went over to the stands for a hug and a kiss from her husband, Jiri Vanek, who is also her coach. They became parents in July 2024, when their son, Petr, was born, and Kvitova returned to the tour this season after a 17-month break.
She announced earlier this year that she would stop playing after the U.S. Open.
Kvitova won Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon in 2011, defeating Maria Sharapova in the final, and 2014, with a victory over Eugenie Bouchard, also was the runner-up to Naomi Osaka at the 2019 Australian Open and was ranked as high as No. 2.
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 racket-holding left hand.
Kvitova returned to competition less than six months later at the French Open, where she won her first match back.
“I would be proudest of many things. I think, especially ... the mental side," she said. "All the seasons ... I was quite OK to handle it, even with some injuries and sickness and kind of this stuff. I’m very proud of how I handled the pressure, how many times I have been in the top 10. It was very, very special for me.”
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