Petra Kvitova will make her long-awaited return to tennis at this year’s French Open, just five months after she was stabbed during an attempted burglary at her home in the Czech Republic.
The two-time Wimbledon champion has been out of action since the December knife attack, which severely injured her left, playing hand.
Emergency surgery — almost four hours long — helped repair damage to the Czech’s tendons and nerves and she has been battling back to fitness ever since.
“I’ve already won my biggest fight,” Kvitova told reporters Friday. “I stayed in life and I have all my fingers.”
The left-hander has been drawn against world No. 86 Julia Boserup in the first round of the tournament, which starts on May 28.
‘Chances of playing again was low’
Kvitova’s surgeon, Doctor Radek Kebrle, said in a press release that the Czech had suffered a “horrific” injury.
The chances of her playing tennis again, he said, were “very low” for a “multiple of reasons.”
But Kvitova, who is returning to action a month earlier than expected, said in Paris Friday that she believed she would return.
“I knew this day would come but sometimes when I was watching tennis on TV, I didn’t really feel great,” said the 15th seed.
“I felt like the tennis was taken away from me, and it wasn’t my decision.
“Suddenly, I couldn’t do what I love. So I’m happy that I can be here.”
‘I see different kind of things than before’
Kvitova was at home in the city of Prostejov, about 160 miles east of the Czech capital Prague, when an intruder burst into her apartment at around 8:30am on the morning of December 20.
The 27-year-old was able to fend the attacker off, who then fled, and later said she was “shaken, but fortunate to be alive.”
She said her decision to compete in Paris was a “last-minute decision.”
“I missed the court, the fight,” said Kvitova, whose best showing at Roland Garros came in 2012 when she reached the semi-finals.
“Now I can just enjoy everything — sometimes I just stand outside and see the sun and say ‘oh, it’s beautiful.’
“I see different kind of things than before.”
The 19-time WTA Tour winner last played competitively In November, for the Czech Republic in a Fed Cup tie against France. She was knocked out of the 2016 French Open in round three by America’s Shelby Rogers.
Both her major titles came on grass at Wimbledon, in 2011 and 2014, and she reached a career-high ranking of world number two in October 2011.