On Petra Kvitova’s emotional, long-delayed return to a Grand Slam semi

Petra Kvitova had mostly kept it together for two years.

For two years, she had patiently answered questions about the knife attack she suffered in her home at the end of 2016. She had told us, over and over, how happy she was to be playing again. She had recalled how watching the 2017 Australian Open from afar motivated her to return to the tour. She had explained how, even when she did make it back and began winning matches again, she couldn’t completely squeeze down on the racquet handle because of the lingering pain in her fingers.

Once the pain finally lessened, she made it seem as if she had never left the game at all. In 2018, in her first full year back, Kvitova won five titles, and she added a sixth in Sydney two weeks ago.

What Kvitova had never done was milk her misfortune, or dramatize it unnecessarily, or extract any extra sympathy for it, or use it as any type of excuse. Instead, she had, as the Brits and Aussies like to say, “just got on with it.” At 28, she knew her time was best spent playing the sport she loved, and making the most of the years she had left. Kvitova had accomplished a lot in her career up until 2016, but considering what she could do with a tennis ball, it also felt like there was still a lot more for her to accomplish.

She has called the post-attack phase of her life her “second career.” So far it seems to be on pace to eclipse the first one. This year Kvitova is noticeably fitter, and thus noticeably faster, but she doesn’t seem to have lost any of the power that usually comes with shedding pounds. Now, after her 6-1, 6-4 win over Ash Barty last night, she’s back in the Australian Open semifinals for the first time since 2012. She has won 10 straight matches.

Maybe it was finally reaching another Slam semi. Maybe it was the memories of watching the Australian Open from her Czech Republic home two years ago. Maybe it was how well she played. But in her post-match interview on Tuesday night, when Jim Courier talked about how she had “faced her challenges,” Kvitova couldn’t hide what it meant to her.

“I didn’t really imagine being back on this great court,” she said through tears.

As quickly as those tears came, though, Kvitova banished them with equal speed. By her next answer, the smile was back, and she was back on comfortable ground again, talking about the match rather than about herself.

“I thought that question would come,” Kvitova said later, when she was asked about her reaction on court. “Actually, it was kind of a mix of emotions of everything I’ve been through. You know, sometimes I’m not really recognizing anything from the past. But when Jim asked that, it wasn’t really easy for me to kind of see myself being in a semifinal after everything.”

“I always wanted to come back and play on the highest level I can, compete with the best, play the Grand Slams, actually be very deep in the Grand Slams, which is happening. Yeah, it just took me a bit to the tears, but it was happy tears, for sure.”

Kvitova looks as if she can go deeper. If she’s not playing the best tennis of her career, she’s certainly more efficient than ever, and she’s using her advantages more ruthlessly. She’s always had a left-handed serve, of course, but I can’t remember her ever angling it so severely into the ad court and getting such an immediate jump on her opponents with it. She’s always had a powerful return, too, but I can’t remember her ever being so determined to push her opponents back with it. And then there’s her movement. Barty has a good drop shot, but Kvitova was ready for it in a way she might not have been two or three years ago, before she slimmed down.

More important than anything, though, may be Kvitova’s mentality. Known as P3tra for her predilection for playing three-setters, Kvitova isn’t playing them at the Australian Open. She has won all of her matches in Melbourne in straight sets, and four of her five wins in Sydney also came in straights. Rather than the erratic-up-and-down Kvitova we’ve come to know, she has started her matches at a high level—she was up 3-0 over Barty in minutes—and then worked hard to maintain that level. Her most throat-lacerating “POJD!” of the night came after a Barty miss at 1-2 in the second set. Kvitova didn’t want to give her Australian opponent, or her many supporters, even the slightest hope that a comeback was possible.

Now Kvitova will take the next step in her second career: A semifinal against the equally dialed-in Danielle Collins. The two played in Brisbane earlier this month, and Kvitova came away with a fiercely-fought three-set win. The last time Kvitova was in a semi Down Under, she lost 6-4 in the third set to Maria Sharapova. Kvitova was No. 2 in the world at the time, but it was the No. 3-ranked player, Victoria Azarenka, who went on to beat Sharapova in the final and take over No. 1. Kvitova would never make it there.

This year Kvitova is in the running to be No. 1 again. Asked about it yesterday, she said, “I don’t care, to be honest,” and you couldn’t help but believe her. She has enough on her plate just trying to win a Slam. While Kvitova doesn’t like to play up what she’s been through, there’s still a limit to what she can expect from herself. It’s a cliché, but the attack really has given her a new perspective on tennis. She has an alternative, more forgiving, and more realistic way of measuring herself now, one that rightly goes beyond simple results.

“I think I’m seeing life a little differently compared to before,” she said. “I know it’s the sport, just the tennis. Always when you do something, you want to do best. Of course, losing hurts a lot because you are doing everything for it.”

“On the other hand, like the day after, I’m always looking back and seeing what [I’ve] done and what I achieved from the time [of the attack]. It’s always both side. But in the end, always the life win.”

The life has won. Can the game, too?

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