At the French Open Petra Kvitova has perhaps gone through more emotions than anybody else within the past three years.
It all started in 2017 when she crashed out in the second round to Bethanie Mattek-Sands. The loss wasn’t significant but it was the fact that the tournament was the first she had played since suffering a career-threatening hand injury after a tussle with an intruder in her Czech apartment. The offender has since been jailed for his crime. A year later she lost in the third round before withdrawing from the 2019 tournament due to an arm injury.
Paris has been a roller-coaster journey for the two-time Wimbledon champion but now she is finally finding her footing once again. Taking to the premier court at Roland Garros on Monday to play her fourth round match, Kvitova disposed of China’s Zhang Shuai 6-2, 6-4, in just under 80 minutes. Two points away from victory an emotional Kvitova was on the verge of tears before she closing the match out.
“I got a bit emotional during the last two points of my match. I really started to think about the match because in tennis we really never know when it’s going to end,” she said.
“My memories, happy memories, when I made my comeback here in 2017, when I stepped on the Philippe Chatrier, I couldn’t really imagine me to be in the quarter-final of this slam.’
“Everything just came back to me.”
It has been eight years since Kvitova last reached the quarter-final stage of Paris. Since her comeback from her hand injury, she has won an array of titles on the WTA Tour but is yet to prevail in the majors. Although she came agonisingly close the 2019 Australian Open when she lost in three sets to Caroline Wozniacki.
“Everything came to my mind when I had my whole family, people who I loved that helped me through that tough, tough time,” she reflected on the significance of her latest win. “Just everything came back to my mind. I just saw them. I was just playing on the Philippe Chatrier. It was so nice to win the match and to be in the quarter-final.”
The question remains if Kvitova can achieve her ultimate fairytale and win the entire tournament? An achievement no Czech woman has done since Hana Mandlíková back in 1981 when she represented Czechoslovakia before switching allegiance to Australia a few years later. On paper Kvitova is one of the favourites given her ranking and resume, but she is refusing to look too far ahead.
“Actually I don’t want to think about it,” she stated. “There are a few matches to go. This is really tough for me to think about that far.”
“I’m just here to play my next match. I will see what will happen afterwards.”
Kvitova will play Germany’s Laura Siegemund in the quarter-finals.
