TENNIS: Kvitova out for six months after surgery

Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova was injured after an attack by a knife-wielding burglar at her home in the eastern Czech town of Prostejov, her spokesman said on December 20, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / PATRICK HERTZOG

Two-time Wimbledon tennis champion Petra Kvitova, whose hand was wounded in a knife attack, will not play again for at least six months and it is too early to say when she can return to competition, her publicist said. Kvitova was injured on Tuesday when she fought off an intruder in her home in the Czech Republic, damaging all the fingers on her playing hand.

Following a successful operation, the world number 11 will begin her rehabilitation in about six to eight weeks and hopes to be able to grip a racket again after three months, publicist Katie Spellman said.

“The best-case scenario is that Petra will be able to return to the tennis court after six months,” Spellman said in an email. It was unclear when she might play in earnest again, “but Petra is ready to do everything she can to get back competing at the highest level.”

The surgeon who operated on her, Radek Kebrle, said earlier on Wednesday that Kvitova would be unable to subject the hand to the pressures of competition until mid-2017. “She is a young athlete, healthy... but it still is a relatively massive injury,” he said.