{"id":91391,"date":"2025-08-26T00:17:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T00:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=91391"},"modified":"2025-08-26T00:17:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T00:17:00","slug":"emotional-kvitova-ends-career-with-us-open-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=91391","title":{"rendered":"Emotional Kvitova ends career with US Open loss"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 30 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova bid an emotional farewell to tennis as she ended her illustrious career with a first-round defeat at the US Open.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old suffered a 6-1 6-0 loss to France\u2019s Diane Parry on a sparsely-filled Grandstand Stadium on Monday.<\/p>\n

Czech Kvitova\u00a0said in June\u00a0that she would end her 18-year career in New York.<\/p>\n

Kvitova triumphed at the All England Club in 2011 and 2014, claimed a total of 31 WTA Tour titles and reached a career-high of second in the world rankings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to put out a better performance, but it was tough to know that maybe it was my last one \u2013 [I\u2019m] emotional,\u201d Kvitova said on court afterwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a long and amazing journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, French former world number four Caroline Garcia also brought her career to an end after a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 defeat by Kamila Rakhimova at Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n

Kvitova has been a fan favourite for many years thanks to her huge groundstrokes and booming left-handed serve.<\/p>\n

There were fears her career would end prematurely after she was stabbed in her left hand by an intruder at her home in 2016.<\/p>\n

The attack damaged tendons and nerves in her playing hand, but she returned to playing in June 2017 and went on to reach the Australian Open final two years later.<\/p>\n

In recent years, she has fallen down the rankings and last made the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam in 2020.<\/p>\n

Kvitova missed the entire 2024 season to have her son, Petr, and only returned to action in February.<\/p>\n

It took her five tournaments to register her first victory, which came against Irina-Camelia Begu on clay in Rome in May \u2013 but that was her only win since becoming a mother.<\/p>\n

Almost two months on from\u00a0bidding a tearful goodbye to Wimbledon, which she called her \u201cspecial place\u201d, Kvitova called time on her career at the tournament where she twice reached the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

After quickly going down a break against world number 107 Parry, she rallied to reach 40-0 on serve, then saved a break point to get her first game on the board.<\/p>\n

But that proved to be her only success in a one-sided first set that Parry wrapped up in just 25 minutes.<\/p>\n

Kvitova exited the court between sets to regroup \u2013 already visibly emotional at the prospect of this being her last match \u2013 but the second followed a similar pattern.<\/p>\n

Winning just four points behind her own serve, Kvitova suffered a second-set bagel as Parry saw out a clinical victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I wake up this morning, I felt it. I felt it would not be good,\u201d Kvitova added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t eat. I was really nervous. couldn\u2019t move, I couldn\u2019t swing, I couldn\u2019t do anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really difficult, but I\u2019m glad I did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Time to move on\u2019 for Garcia<\/h2>\n
Garcia won the French Open doubles title twice alongside partner Kristina Mladenovic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Garcia, who had her best Grand Slam singles result in New York with a semi-final showing in 2022, announced in May that it was \u201ctime to move on\u201d from tennis.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old has spoken openly about her mental health struggles, ending her 2024 season early after\u00a0being left \u201cexhausted\u201d by anxiety and panic attacks.<\/p>\n

As well as managing a shoulder injury, Garcia said she had been suffering from the mental toll of life on the tennis tour.<\/p>\n

Despite winning 11 WTA Tour singles titles and two Grand Slam doubles trophies in her career, Garcia said she was fixated on her failures, rather than her successes.<\/p>\n

She has previously spoken out about the\u00a0\u201cdamaging\u201d abuse\u00a0tennis players suffer after going out in the first round at last year\u2019s US Open.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last couple of years for me were hard and kind of dark,\u201d Garcia said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI almost left last year by hating tennis, and I thought it was the worst sport out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I did a lot of work on myself to understand what was going on, do one more season and leave it my own way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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