Petra Kvitova said she has already won her biggest fight ahead of what is sure to be an emotional return to tennis.
The two-time Wimbledon champion will make her comeback at the French Open six months after suffering serious injuries to her dominant left hand in a knife attack by an intruder at her home.
Having initially feared she may never be able to play again, Kvitova has made a quicker-than-expected recovery, prompting a last-minute decision to compete at Roland Garros.
The 27-year-old’s hand is still not 100 per cent, but simply being able to walk out on court for her first-round match against Julia Boserup will represent a significant victory.
Kvitova, her voice wavering, said: “Not many people believed that I can play tennis again. So I’m happy that I can play.
“I actually already won my biggest fight. I’m happy that I like challenges. I stayed in life and I have all my fingers, I can play tennis and I can be here and be in the draw.
“And I’m really looking forward to my match. When I watch some (tennis) on the TV, I didn’t really feel great. I felt like tennis was taken away from me, and it wasn’t my decision. Suddenly I couldn’t do what I love. I see life a little bit from a different angle now.”
In the immediate aftermath of the attack in the Czech town of Prostejov, Kvitova underwent an operation lasting three hours and 45 minutes.
Her surgeon, Doctor Radek Kebrle, said: “The injury was horrific. The chances of Petra’s hand healing well enough for her to be able to play tennis again were very low for multiple reasons.”
Kvitova was unable to talk about the attack because a police investigation remains ongoing, with the perpetrator still at large.
But remarkably there do not appear to be too many mental scars.
“I didn’t sleep well the days after, but I wasn’t really staying alone. I have been always with my family or with my coaches or with friends, which I need to say thank you to them, because they were really incredible, and they still are,” she said.
“I don’t really have nightmares. From the beginning I was feeling really weird when I went in the city or somewhere. I was always staring at the guys and looking if there are strangers there.
“But with time, it’s better. But of course I’m more more actively watching the people around me.”
