No.6 seed Petra Kvitova has been forced to withdraw from the 2019 French Open owing to a left forearm injury.
The two-time Wimbledon champion, who is currently leading the Porsche Race to Shenzhen, had hoped to claim a first victory at Roland Garros, having reached the semifinals of 2012, when she was defeated by Maria Sharapova.
She had also shown some promise on the clay this year, winning in Stuttgart before reaching the quarterfinals of Madrid, where she lost to an in-form Kiki Bertens. However, she was forced to retire from her last-16 match against Maria Sakkari in Rome.
Kvitova has announced that she has been forced out of the major not because of the calf injury that plagued her in Italy, but because of an arm issue that has flared up.
“I’m disappointed to have to announce my withdrawal from Roland Garros,” she Tweeted on Monday, just hours before she was due to take to the court to face Sorana Cirstea in a first-round match.
“I’ve had a pain in my left forearm for a few weeks and last night an MRI confirmed a grade two tear, which unfortunately could get a lot worse if I play today.”
Missing out is a particular wretch given that this was the venue where she returned to action after being the victim of a knife attack in her home in Prague.
“Two years ago, I made my comeback here at Roland Garros, so I’m truly sad not to be able to play here this year,” she added. “It is a really tough decision to make, but I wish the tournament all the best for a successful event and can’t wait to be back in 2020.”
WTATennis.com
Petra was born to Jiří Kvita and Pavla Kvitová in Bilovec, a small town in the east of the Czech Republic. Her family spent a lot of time playing tennis at the local club and Petra started on her tennis journey by picking up balls for her brothers, Libor and Jiří, at 3 years old.
Petra’s father, a self-taught tennis player, became her coach growing up and used to show Petra videos of Martina Navratilova playing at Wimbledon, which she would watch with fascination.
I have so much respect for Martina, I watched her on television when I was a child, and that’s where I learnt about Wimbledon and playing on grass. It is nice to know that I have her support and it was special to see her on Centre Court when I won the title.
Growing up in Fulnek where there was only a short window for outdoor sports because of harsh winter weather, Petra spent a lot of time training on fast indoor surfaces, where she learned to play fast and hit flat. This had a huge impact on how Petra honed her game and developed the all-out attacking style for which she is now renowned.
It was not until Petra won the junior tournament of Pardubice, a prestigious event in the Czech Republic, that her family decided it was time for her to start pursuing a professional career. In 2006, Petra moved to the famous Prostejov Tennis Club, away from home and family. It was not an easy transition for a 16-year-old girl, but Petra adapted quickly and started to show rapid progress.
In 2007, Petra won four ITF singles titles and rose from No.773 to No.157 in the world. In 2008, Petra achieved direct entry into her first ever Grand Slam event at Roland Garros. She reached the last 16 and finished the year ranked No.44 in the world. This was also the year she joined forces with her coach, David Kotyza.
2011 was a spectacular breakthrough year for Petra. She started off by cracking the top 10 in the world after winning her first clay-court tournament in Madrid. Two months later, she lifted the Venus Rosewater Dish at Wimbledon, marching through the draw and stunning Maria Sharapova in the final. Her life was to change forever…
“The Wimbledon final is a very happy memory for me. I was so focused on match point that when I won it felt like a dream. It was strange, I had a dream about winning Wimbledon during the French Open that year, and then a couple of weeks later it came true. I couldn’t believe it. It was definitely one of the happiest moments
of my life.”
Petra became the first player born in 1990s, male or female, to win a Grand Slam title. She finished the 2011 season winning the prestigious season-ending WTA Championships in Istanbul and climbed to No.2 in the world. To cap off a dream year, which included 6 titles in total, she proudly led the Czech team to Fed Cup victory for the first time since 1988.
Petra had a solid 2012 season despite injury and illness, resulting in two Grand Slam semifinals at the Australian Open and Roland Garros, and she reached the quarterfinal at Wimbledon as defending champion, losing out to eventual champion Serena Williams. She was also crowned the Emirates US Open Series champion, with two titles at Montreal and New Haven. She led her country to a second successive Fed Cup triumph in the same year that the Czech Republic also pulled off victory in the Davis Cup.
Coach: Jiri Vanek
Jiri Vanek is a former ATP player who reached a career-high singles ranking of No.74 in October 2000 and amassed 11 titles on the Challenger circuit. After retiring in 2011, Vanek coached Czech No.1 Karolina Pliskova to five WTA titles and her first Grand Slam final in 2016. He is married to Marketa Kochta, also a former pro player, and has two sons, Jiri Giorgio (13) and Tom Nicolas (9).
PR manager: Katie Spellman
Working together since 2012. Katie is from England but lives in Toronto, Canada. Katie spent the first seven years of her career as a sports journalist on the Sunday Mirror and The Times before joining the communications team at the WTA, where she worked closely with Petra and other top WTA players as part of the communications team. Katie set up her own PR consultancy business in 2012 with Petra as her first client.
Marijn Bal has been Petra’s manager at IMG since August 2014 and represents Petra globally. A former collegiate tennis player, Marijn is originally from The Netherlands, and currently works out of the IMG office in Bradenton, Florida, where he has been based since 2008 and takes care of Petra’s day-to-day business related matters.
Fitness trainer: David Vydra
Petra has been working with David, who is from Prague, since June 2015. Before working with Petra, David spent 7 years working with Tomas Berdych and several months working with Lukas Rosol.
Happiness is being back on the green stuff ❤️🌱 @bett1open pic.twitter.com/cR5P81qHKj
I arrived in Singapore on Tuesday night and I’m hoping the jet lag will be gone by Monday when I step on court for my first match at this year’s WTA Finals.
I’ve spent the last two months chasing the points I needed to qualify as one of the top eight players in the world, travelling from New York to Europe to China and now Singapore, and it feels great to have finally made it.
I’m not feeling too bad and I certainly hope to do better than last year, when I lost two of my three round-robin matches. Reaching the Finals is one of my goals every year and I know what it feels like to end the season on a high after winning on my debut in 2011.
There is not much time to rest when you arrive at the season finale, with all sorts of commitments off court as well as the need to practise, but fortunately I’m the sort of person who likes like to keep busy. Let’s just hope that the jet lag wears off after three or four days!
‘Playing without motivation is tough’
I’m especially happy to be here playing the WTA Finals after taking the most time off during a season that I think I ever have.
I took a month out earlier in the year, something I never really did before, so it was kind of a new experience but showed me that I can still come back, play well and stay in the top five. That’s great.
Winning three Premier titles along the way was amazing, as well as beating Serena Williams in Madrid, although of course I wanted to have some better results in the Grand Slams.
But I think you can always take something good from the bad things, so that’s what I’m trying to do, and I still have my motivation. I’m really happy to be here competing as one of the top eight.
This already feels like it has been a special season, but with the Fed Cup final against Russia to follow Singapore it could be a really great end to the year.
It won’t quite match up to Serena’s season, even though she won’t be playing in Singapore. I think she was very disappointed when she lost at the US Open, just two wins from completing the calendar Grand Slam, and it was then tough to find the motivation to play the end of the season.
Playing just because she has to is not really her way of playing. Playing without motivation is tough even for her, but I think what she did this year is great.
‘I’m not a fan of airplane food’
I have been on some very long flights over the last two months, heading back from the US Open to Europe, then returning from China for a break in the Czech Republic before coming here to Singapore.
It can be tricky to cope with this kind of schedule, which means many, many hours in the air, but I’m lucky that I have no problem sleeping on a plane!
When you fly as much as I do, you get into a pretty familiar routine. I don’t do any exercises when flying but use compression socks, and spend as much time as possible lying down. I try not to eat much – I’m not a fan of airplane food, everything is just so weird.
I always take my book, my MP3, my phone and my computer. I like to watch movies – I just saw the documentary about Amy Winehouse, which was very good and emotional.
The other thing I always try to travel with by my side is my racquet bag. It’s kind of big and sometimes I have a bit of trouble with that, but usually I can persuade them to let it on!
‘I hit once a day and really give everything’
Unfortunately I lost early in Beijing and then couldn’t go to Moscow as planned, but it did give me a few extra days off to rest and recover, and then I had a really good practice in the Czech Republic.
I think maybe Aga Radwanska, Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep arrived in Singapore before me. With only eight singles players at the tournament sometimes it can be more difficult to arrange practice but we are lucky with the players here this year and before the draw is made it’s a little bit easier.
We have the coaches to hit with as well but before the matches I think it’s just time to play some points and get the final touches from the coaches.
There is always a lot of work going on behind the scenes at a tournament and that’s even more true at the WTA Finals, where we have many activities during the day and you really have to set everything up.
It is for sure a big part of the coach’s job to make sure the tennis does not get neglected. I don’t think you can do much great practice here so we are trying to hit once a day and really give everything to the session, then we have the other commitments.
I’m happy how we’ve arranged everything and even though it’s still been a really long season for me, I feel OK now and ready for a challenging few weeks.
Petra Kvitova was talking to BBC Sport’s Piers Newbery
Winner (25):
Finalist (8):
2011:
2010:
