With a grass court title under her belt from Edgbaston, Petra Kvitova arrived at The All England Club fielding questions about her status as tournament favourite and her thoughts on the significance of the number three.
The two-time Wimbledon champion lifted the Venus Rosewater Dish in 2011 and 2014, and so surely - three years on - another title is on her mind? “It just sounds weird,” she said bluntly. “I don’t know what I should think about. I mean, I’m just here.”
She is right: her presence is the miracle - and the business-as-usual competitive expectations the result of a meteoric comeback which Kvitova herself has still not fully processed. It is only six months since the 27-year-old survived a terrifying knife attack in her home in Prostejov in the Czech Republic, an assault which left her racket hand seriously damaged. After a four-hour operation on her tendons, she was told her chances of being able to play again were “pretty low”.
She watched her peers compete in the Australian Open sitting on the sofa with her hand in a splint. She did not attempt to pick up a racket until March. She still cannot make a fist of her left hand, but hasn’t had to adapt her grip as she has patiently worked through a recovery programme – without knowing if regaining her former level was even a realistic possibility. Compared to the horrors she had faced in fighting off her assailant that day in December 2016, the image of playing in white on the green grass of Wimbledon was the incentive she treasured during her rehabilitation.
And here she is, at the place she describes as her “second home”, just three tournaments into a comeback. “I'm still surprised how I played at Birmingham,” she said. “I think the grass always gives me extra confidence. I know I can play well on it. I felt like every round I played better and better, which is always a good sign. It's tough to give a percentage about the level of my game [compared to her career best form]. In Birmingham, it was going up, but you never know how you are going to wake up the next morning. I will see how I wake up on Monday. It's my first goal to try to play my best in the opening round. I still have things to improve on to be back at the best level.”
I think the grass always gives me extra confidence. I know I can play well on it. I felt like every round I played better and better, which is always a good sign
Kvitova, who plays the hard-serving Swede Johanna Larsson, is grounded in her expectations in following up her five-win run on the grass at Edgbaston. “It doesn't raise my expectation coming to Wimbledon because six months, it's a long time when I didn't play,” she reasoned. “I'm playing OK but I'm still missing matches. It's something I can't train for. It was my dream to come here to play. That was the goal of my recovery. And I'm here. Hopefully nothing will happen and I will stand on the grass court on day one and play again in my favourite place. That means everything.”
As Jelena Ostapenko proved at Roland-Garros, fearlessness is a fantastic weapon in a player’s armoury and something that tends to dim with age. The silver lining to Kvitova’s horrendous experience is that it is a quality she can now call upon again. “I think I am a bit fearless now. I know what is important and what is not.”
How has her perspective changed? “I am a little bit different on the court and off the court, too. I see life and tennis from a different angle. Before, I was very nervous before every match. Now I see that I shouldn't be. There are more important things in life than tennis,” she said.
“On the other hand, I found out how much I missed tennis through the period I didn't play. It was a difficult time watching the girls playing on the TV, me sitting on the sofa with the hand in a splint. I found out how much I love this sport. I still have the passion I always had.”
The flashbacks are fewer, the initial round of emotional questions reliving the scary incident over in her first appearance in Paris; it is back to the business of practice and play. “It's now my job to be realistic in the work, playing tennis, traveling, and really thinking about the tennis. It’s much easier for me now to answer these questions. But, yeah, sometimes when I'm thinking about, I get a little bit weird inside. But I think I'm better every week. I hope one day will be everything fine.”
With compatriot Karolina Pliskova also hailed as a potential title contender, it is a good time for the Czech contingent. “I think it's good news. I won Birmingham, she won Eastbourne. Who knows who’s going to win here. No, I'm kidding,” she said, with a smile.
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