Related News
Kvitova hurt in home knife attack
Print Edition
TWO-TIME Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova suffered severe injuries to her playing hand yesterday defending herself from a knife-wielding intruder in her apartment, an attack she said left her “fortunate to be alive”.
The tennis world No. 11 said she would need to consult specialists about the injury, and gave no indication when she might be able to play again.
“In my attempt to defend myself, I was badly injured on my left hand,” she said on her Twitter account. “The injury is severe and I will need to see specialists, but if you know anything about me I am strong and I will fight this.”
Kvitova, 26, was attacked in her flat in the city of Prostejov, about 260 kilometers southeast of Prague, the site of a tennis club where she, men’s world No. 10 Tomas Berdych and other top-ranked Czech tennis players train.
Karel Tejkal, spokesman for the Czech Fed Cup team, told media the morning attack, which he described as a burglary, had been “a random criminal act” and she had not been specifically targeted.
Prostejov police spokesman Frantisek Korinek said the attacker, aged about 35, escaped and was still at large.
Kvitova was scheduled to participate in a charity event in the city of Brno yesterday with compatriot Lucie Safarova.
The Czech Republic won the Fed Cup, the premier national team competition in women’s tennis, for the third year in a row in November.
The website of newspaper Mlada Fronta Dnes said the intruder presented himself to Kvitova as a boiler inspector.
“What has happened to me was not pleasant at all, but it is already behind me,” she said in a statement on the Fed Cup team’s Facebook page. “The main thing for me now is that the doctors will determine how my hand is doing. I trust them and I believe that it will end well.”
The hard-hitting left-hander has been a near constant in the world’s top 10 since 2011, rising as high as No. 2 that year, when she won the first of her two Wimbledon singles titles.
She slipped in the rankings this year but showed improved form in recent months, winning the Wuhan Open title in October and the season-ending WTA Elite trophy in Zhuhai in November.
In 1993, then-world No. 1 Monica Seles was stabbed courtside during a break at a tournament in Germany by a man who admitted having an obsession with her rival Steffi Graf. The attack forced Seles out of tennis for two years.
Earlier, Kvitova withdrew from the Czech team for next month’s Hopman Cup mixed-team tournament in Australia because of a nagging foot injury.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
