With US Open farewell, Petra Kvitova leaves lasting legacy

The 2025 US Open marks the end of Petra Kvitova’s career. Now 35 years old, Kvitova is also a wife, mother, and eager for life beyond the lines. “As [with] all phases in life, there comes a day that it is time for a new chapter, and that time for me has come now,” Kvitova wrote in a statement. “I therefore wanted to share with you that 2025 is my last season on tour as a professional. . . . I am intending to finish my active playing career at the US Open in New York later this summer.” And so it came to pass on Monday, when Kvitova lost her first-round US Open match to Diane Parry, 6-1, 6-0.

There are many ways Kvitova will be remembered. Start with one that took place off the court. The date was July 6, 2014. On this Sunday, as Kvitova walked through the home she’d just spent two weeks in, Kvitova set out on a serious task: cleaning house. Never mind that she’d just won her second Wimbledon singles title the day before, taking a brisk 55 minutes to defeat Eugenie Bouchard, 6-3, 6-0. There was work to be done.

That revealed much about Kvitova’s character: responsible, humble, kind. Those attributes made her exceptionally popular, both among fans and peers. Never was public appreciation for Kvitova more vividly demonstrated than in the wake of a near-death experience. On December 20, 2016, a knife-wielding intruder broke into Kvitova’s house and stabbed her, severely damaging her tennis-playing left hand. “I am shaken, but fortunate to be alive, Kvitova wrote on Facebook. “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.” Following four hours of surgery, there remained a strong possibility Kvitova would never play tennis again.

As she made her way back to tennis, a slogan emerged: “Courage, Belief, Pojd!” The latter is a Czech word meaning “come on.” T-shirts with that slogan were worn by Kvitova supporters. “The courage and belief, that’s what I probably had to have in this kind of situation,” Kvitova said upon returning to competition at Roland Garros in 2017. “The belief and the mind, the heart, it’s really important. So that’s what we try to show everyone. I hope that it will be kind of inspiration for other people, as well.” Soon after that, Kvitova won a grass-court tournament in Birmingham and a year later had returned to the top ten.

The Birmingham title was one of 12 tournaments won after the stabbing, including five in 2018. As recently as 2023, Kvitova took prestigious titles in Miami and Berlin. The Miami run was capped off by a victory over reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in the finals. All told, Kvitova would win 31 WTA Tour singles titles, reaching a career-high ranking of number two. She also excelled in team play, compiling a Fed Cup (now Billie Jean King Cup) record of 30-10 in singles while leading her homeland to six titles between 2011 and 2017.

Born on March 8, 1990, Kvitova was raised in Bilovec, a small Czech town where her father, Jiri, a former schoolteacher, had once been the mayor. As you might expect from a lefthander raised in the Czech Republic, Kvitova’s idol growing up was Martina Navratilova. While the lefthanded Navratilova had come of age in an age when serve-and-volley was the prevalent playing style, Kvitova learned the game during a baseline-based era. That said, Kvitova blossomed into an attacking, forward-moving player, building a perfect set of skills for contemporary Wimbledon.

Kvitova’s first Wimbledon had come in 2011. Seeded eighth at the All England Club that year, Kvitova in the last two rounds beat a pair of Grand Slam champions, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova, to join Navratilova and Ann Jones as the only lefthanded women to win the Wimbledon singles title. “She has a record there and killed in the finals,” Navratilova said in a story that ran earlier this year on the WTA’s website. “The lefty serve helps, because it spins away from the backhand even more on the grass. And she had massive groundstrokes. And she could volley, you know, take the short ball and move forward.”

Much of Kvitova’s manner was reminiscent of another two-time Wimbledon champion, Evonne Goolagong. On Wimbledon’s lawns, each often appeared a natural, at once smooth and commanding. But each of these understated competitors could also have moments where a match would go sideways. “Walkabout” was the term first used for Goolagong’s patches of substandard play. In Kvitova’s case, that often led to a great many three-setters—most of which she’d win. But not always. Perhaps for Kvitova the one that got away will be the 2019 Australian Open final. Besides pursuing a third major title that evening in Melbourne, Kvitova that evening stood one victory away from attaining the world number one ranking for the first time. Alas, it was not to be, Kvitova losing to Naomi Osaka, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-4. “That’s how the tennis is,” Kvitova said following that match. “It’s the final.”

Amid these ups and downs and then up again, there was always something eminently human about Kvitova that made her that quite likeable. Kvitova admitted, for example, that while she found Wimbledon intimate and comfortable, the hustle and bustle of New York City and the US Open was difficult for her. Indeed, of the four majors, the US Open was the only major where she never reached the semis. Characteristically, in 2018, she’d admit that, “I think I kind of formed a love for New York City.”

Of course, the world had long formed a love for this gracious and resilient competitor.