Andrea Petkovic - "What should come but a hole?"
Andrea Petkovic retires after the US Open. The former world number ninth was one of the faces of German tennis. Now she can devote herself more to her other talents in the future.
by SID
last edit:
Aug 29, 2022, 12:35 pm
Andrea Petkovic asks for the last dance. After two decades on the professional tour, it should finally be over after the US Open, even if "Petko" has a lot of jitters about what happens afterwards. She expects: "First of all, depression. Not in a clinical sense. But when the whole purpose of your life is gone at the age of 34 or 35, what else should there be but a hole?" She said recently on ZDF Neo when asked about the approaching end of her career .
Again and again she delayed the big cut that she actually wanted to make in 2020. The clever, creative athlete has long since built up other mainstays, moderated on television, wrote columns and published her book "Between Glory and Honor Lies the Night". But she didn't want to let go of her professional career. Now the moment really seems to have come, as she announced before her opening match against Olympic champion Belinda Bencic on Tuesday (around 7 p.m. / Eurosport) in her adopted home of New York.
No year 2023 on the tour
"I'm still leaving the option open to add a tournament in Europe that is a little closer to my family and friends - but in general this is my last tournament here," said Petkovic in a sports show conversation: "Maybe it's already here over in New York." On Instagram she already wrote about the "last dance", the last of her legendary "Petko-Tanzchen".
Petkovic was on the verge of starting a new life several times, but was simply "too good to quit". In 2021 she won her first tournament in six years on clay in Cluj, Romania, and climbed the world rankings. In May at the French Open she spoke of the year 2023 on the tour - it will now take place without her.
"Prefer to play until I'm 50"
Petkovic came to tennis through her father Zoran, who once played for Yugoslavia in the Davis Cup. The current world number 104. is and was part of the "Golden Generation" with Angelique Kerber, Julia Görges and Sabine Lisicki, made it into the semi-finals in Paris in 2014. She won a total of seven individual trophies on the WTA Tour and advanced to ninth in the world rankings in 2011. Petkovic missed out on a triumph with the German Fed Cup team in the 2014 final against the Czech Republic.
She experienced troughs in her career and fought back from injuries. Her knee is damaged, her back hurts again and again and finally her elbow too. "I would like to play until I'm 50," said Petkovic. But her body announced more and more that the end of her professional career was approaching.
Petkovic should have no problem finding new fields of activity in which to let off steam. Nevertheless, there remains a small residual doubt as to whether her "bye" to tennis is final this time. Is she really dancing on the square for the last time?
Here the single tableau from New York.
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