Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and Caroline Garcia head to retirement after U.S. Open losses

Petra Kvitova regarded to her proper as she sat down within the U.S. Open’s primary interview room for her remaining postmatch information convention as an expert tennis participant, and the two-time Wimbledon champion noticed what she hoped for.

“Tissues are right here. Excellent,” Kvitova stated. “I will attempt to be courageous.”

Whereas talking to reporters following a 6-1, 6-0 loss to Diane Perry within the first spherical at Flushing Meadows, the final match for Kvitova earlier than retirement, the 35-year-old left-hander was in a very good temper, smiling or laughing at a few of her personal solutions.

The tears she shed on court docket proper after the 52-minute defeat have been now not flowing.

Kvitova, who stated she got here down with a case of COVID-19 just a few weeks in the past and thought of pulling out of the U.S. Open, hadn’t anticipated to be so emotional on Monday (August 25, 2025).

“However since I awakened this morning, I felt it. I felt it might be not good. I could not eat. I used to be actually nervous. However in several means, I’d say. I could not transfer. I could not swing, I could not do something,” she defined.

“It was actually troublesome. I by no means (had skilled) … figuring out I am enjoying my final match, likely.” After it ended when she despatched a backhand return vast, Kvitova started crying. She went over to the stands for a hug and a kiss from her husband, Jiri Vanek, who can also be her coach. They grew to become dad and mom in July 2024, when their son, Petr, was born, and Kvitova returned to the tour this season after a 17-month break.

She introduced earlier this yr that she would cease enjoying after the U.S. Open. So had one other tour veteran, 31-year-old Caroline Garcia of France, who additionally headed to retirement Monday (August 25, 2025) after shedding 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to Kamilla Rakhimova.

“Clearly you possibly can all the time obtain extra, and I used to be dreaming of attaining extra,” stated Garcia, a 2022 semifinalist in New York. “However I am very joyful and (at) peace with my determination to maneuver ahead with my life and shut the chapter of being a tennis participant.” Kvitova gained Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon in 2011, defeating Maria Sharapova within the remaining, and 2014, with a victory over Eugenie Bouchard. She additionally was the runner-up to Naomi Osaka on the 2019 Australian Open and was ranked as excessive as No. 2.

In December 2016, she was stabbed at her dwelling by a knife-wielding intruder. Kvitova wanted hours of surgical procedure to restore nerves and tendons in her racket-holding left hand.

Kvitova returned to competitors lower than six months later on the French Open, the place she gained her first match again.

“I’d be proudest of many issues. I believe, particularly.. the psychological facet,” she stated. “All of the seasons … I used to be fairly OK to deal with it, even with some accidents and illness and sort of these items. I am very happy with how I dealt with the stress, what number of occasions I’ve been within the prime 10. It was very, very particular for me.”