I’m not a favourite for Wimbledon: Kvitova
DOUBLE Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova has cautioned against making her one of the favourites to lift the title this year despite a stunning return from the hand injury that almost ended her career.
The Czech won the Birmingham grasscourt event on Sunday in only her second tournament since returning from the severe injuries to her left playing hand sustained in a knife attack by an intruder at her home last December.
She had hoped to continue her preparations at the Aegon International in Eastbourne this week, but pulled out of the tournament on Monday with an abdominal strain.
Providing she recovers, the 27-year-old will be high on most people’s lists of possible Wimbledon winners as she goes in search of a third title and many think she among the favourites.
“Well, actually, I don’t,” she told reporters at a sundrenched Devonshire Park. “I mean, I just came back to play tennis, to enjoy the sport which I always loved.
“Maybe the last tournament changed something in people’s minds but not in mine. I’m really enjoying every match but, still, I think I do have lot of things to improve.
“I showed myself that I can play five matches in six days, but now I need a bit to relax to be ready.
“I know how tough it is to win a Grand Slam, so I’m not really seeing myself as one of the favourites right now.”
Kvitova said she now felt no discomfort from the hand that required four hours of surgery to repair tendons. But lasting the course of a Grand Slam throws up physical challenges.
“Even if the hand it’s not in pain, I really don’t know how the body will react,” she said. “The matches are different with the tightness, with the body and the nerves and everything.”
Her immediate concern is the injury she felt while beating Australian Ashleigh Barty in the Aegon Classic final on Sunday.
“It’s an abdominal muscle,” Kvitova, Wimbledon champion in 2011 and 2014, told a news conference.
“It got tight in yesterday’s final. I hope it’s nothing serious, but I do feel one spot specifically. I hope it will be fine in a couple of days.
“I will have treatment. I will not practise for a couple of days, for sure. I’m disappointed I can’t play here. It’s a great tournament. I played the final one year and it’s always been great preparation for me for Wimbledon.”
Meanwhile, World No 1 Angelique Kerber needs no reminding how perilous life on Tour can be when you are the player everyone wants to knock off their perch.
Less than a month ago she became the first top seed to lose in the French Open first round in the professional era when she was dumped out in Paris by 40th-ranked Ekaterina Makarova.
That was the low point of a season that, despite spending much of it at the top of the WTA rankings, has been by her own admission a struggle.
The 29-year-old said handling all the extra baggage that comes with being at the top of the tennis tree has been difficult.
But she believes that with a whiff of the ocean and the grasscourts in her nostrils, she will enter Wimbledon refreshed and with the slate wiped clean.
“Not the best half year,” Kerber, who will play Kristyna Pliskova in the second round of the Aegon International at Eastbourne after a first-round bye, told a news conference at a sun-drenched Devonshire Park on England’s Sussex coast.
“But I think I learned a lot during the last six months. It’s something nice to be number one, of course, but there are much more expectations.
“The off season was too short and I didn’t have time to sit down and think about what I achieved,” she explained. “I need time to find a new motivation and set different goals.
Kerber, who owns 10 career titles, has a mediocre 19-13 winloss record this season and has reached only one final. – Reuters