Petra Kvitova released from hospital after knife attack
Petra Kvitova is determined to play tennis again – no matter what that requires – after a knife-wielding intruder attacked her inside her home and injured her playing hand.
The two-time Wimbledon champion was released from a hospital yesterday, three days after she was operated on following injuries in the attack in the town of Prostejov.
With a big bandage covering her left hand and forearm, Kvitova said she was told by the surgeon who operated on her in a specialised clinic in the northern town of Vysoke and Jizerou on Tuesday that her recovery is “looking good and without complications, as it should be.”
“I feel better day by day,” she told reporters in Prague.
“Yesterday morning during a session (with) the doctor, I was able to move the fingers on my left hand, which I think ... was the greatest Christmas present I could have wished for.”
Martina Navratilova was among those who wished Kvitova “a speedy recovery”.
“We can’t wait to see you back on court again,” the tennis great tweeted.
Kvitova sustained damage to the tendons in her left hand, along with injuries to all five fin- gers and two nerves.
Doctors estimate it will take her about six months to return to tennis.
Kvitova vowed to come back, sooner or later.
“I don’t care about how much time it takes, if three months, six months, or a year,” she said.
Kvitova won Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014. She reached a career-high ranking of No. 2 in 2011 but finished the 2016 sea- son as Number 11.
In April 1993, Monica Seles was at the height of her success when she was stabbed in the back during a changeover at a tournament in Hamburg. A man reached over a courtside railing and knifed her, leaving an inchdeep slit between her shoulder blades.
Seles returned to the game 27 months later and reached the 1995 US Open final.