Former World No. 2 Petra Kvitova is looking forward to the 2018 season after making a shock return to the women’s circuit at the French Open, five months after a career threatening knife attack.
The Czech star told the Guardian that the 2017 season was a rollercoaster ride for her as she experienced so many emotions after her comeback. She said that she was proud of her performance at the US Open where she progressed through to the quarterfinals.
“Playing on the grass at Wimbledon and getting a good result in the US Open was very important for me mentally, and for my confidence,” Kvitova said. “This year has been a rollercoaster. The beginning wasn’t very nice, so I’m really glad that it’s over. Now I can look at everything positively again.”
Even though the knife attack was career threatening, Kvitova has tried to move in her life and is currently focusing her energies on making a return to the top-10 of the rankings.
“It was a pretty tough year and I had a lot of emotions during my comeback. But it has been a year [since the attack] already and I can see that I can play tennis – and I can play it well, and for me this is the best outcome I could have hoped for.”
The left-hander is training extremely hard to get herself completely ready for next season’s opening tournament in Brisbane in January and is looking forward to performing really well there.
“I have started to live with my new hand. I’ve started to try to like it, to love it and that’s how I am going to take it. It’s my hand and I am just happy that I have all of my fingers.”
