Two years after attack, Kvitova happy to be in final
MELBOURNE, Australia — Petra Kvitova really wanted to be the Australian Open champion.
Of course she did.
That she lost the final at Melbourne Park to Naomi Osaka 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-4 on Saturday night was “painful, for sure,” to use Kvitova’s words. It was not, however, what caused her eyes to well up during the trophy ceremony.
Merely standing there was enough to stir her emotions.
“I can’t really believe,” Kvitova told the Rod Laver Arena crowd, “I played the final of a Grand Slam again.”
This was her first major title match since she won her second Wimbledon championship in 2014.
More poignantly, it was her first such appearance since December 2016, when an intruder at her home in the Czech Republic cut her left hand — the one she uses to play tennis — so badly that hours of surgery were required to repair it.
“I mean, I’ve been through many, many things. Not really great ones,” the 28-year-old Kvitova said. “As I said on the court, I didn’t know if I (was) going to hold the racket again. I’m holding it, so that’s good.”
In the end, Kvitova did not collect what would have been her third major trophy.
But Kvitova, who will now be No. 2 in the WTA rankings, proved to herself that she can be the player she used to be.
“I wanted to win and have the trophy. But I think I already won two years ago,” she said.
“I feel great. I’m playing great tennis,” Kvitova said. “I don’t think that I could really imagine ... (being) kind of this player again.”