‘An amazing journey’ – Kvitova retires with US Open loss

US Open 2025

Dates: August 24 through September 7 in Flushing Meadows, New York

Petra Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion, bid a fitting final farewell to the sport with a US Open first-round defeat.

On Monday, the 35-year-old lost to France’s Diane Parry 6-1, 6-0, at the sparsely populated Grandstand Stadium.

Czech Kvitova announced in June that she would retire from New York after 18 years.

Kvitova won the All England Club titles in 2011 and 2014, won 31 WTA Tour titles, and placed second overall in the world rankings for the first time in her career.

Kvitova said on court afterwards, “I wanted to put out a better performance, but it was difficult because maybe it was my last one. I’m] emotional.”

“It’s been a long and wonderful journey,” he said.

Kvitova’s massive groundstrokes and explosive left-handed serve have made her a favorite for many years.

After being stabbed in the left hand by an intruder at her home in 2016, there was concern that her career would end prematurely.

She returned to playing in June 2017 after suffering tendons and nerve damage, and she won the Australian Open championship two years later.

She has recently slipped down the rankings, and she just reached the Grand Slam quarter-finals in 2020.

Kvitova missed her son Petr’s entire 2024 season, and she only made it back to action in February.

She only won one of her five matches since becoming a mother, defeating Irina-Camelia Begu on clay in Rome in May, in which she won five other competitions.

Kvitova bid a tearful farewell to Wimbledon, which she affectionately called her “special place,” and set the stage for a successful career there, where she twice advanced to the quarter-finals.

She rallied to 40-0 on serve before saving a break point to get her first game on the board after quickly falling short of a break against 107 Parry.

In a one-sided first set, Parry completed in just 25 minutes, that proved to be her only success.

Kvitova left the court in the middle of sets to regroup, but the second set followed a similar pattern, with Kvitova clearly upset that this would be her last match.

Kvitova suffered a second-set bagel as Parry won comfortably after coming in just four points behind her own serve.

I felt it as I woke up this morning. Kvitova continued, “I thought it would be unfavorable.”

“I was unable to eat. I had a lot of anxiety. I was unable to move, swing, or do anything.

Garcia announced in May that it was time to leave tennis after her best Grand Slam singles performance in New York in 2022.

The 31-year-old has openly discussed her mental health issues, including ending her 2024 season early after being “exhausted by anxiety and panic attacks.”

Garcia claimed she had been dealing with the mental strain of living on the tennis tour in addition to managing a shoulder injury.

Garcia remarked, “The last couple of years were hard and kind of dark for me.”

I nearly gave up on tennis last year because I thought it was the worst sport available.