Full recovery likely for Petra Kvitova after surgery on left hand following knife attack

Surgeon expects two-time Wimbledon champion to resume her tennis career, but she won’t be able to put any pressure on the injured hand for three months

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The Czech Republic's Petra Kvitova faces a long recovery after suffering severe injuries to her left hand when attacked by an intruder in her home. Photo: Reuters

Published: 6:29pm, 21 Dec 2016Updated: 10:09pm, 21 Dec 2016

The chief surgeon who repaired Petra Kvitova’s badly lacerated playing hand in a delicate four-hour operation said on Wednesday he is confident she will be able to resume her tennis career once it has healed.

The two-time Wimbledon champion was stabbed by a knife-wielding intruder in her home in the Czech Republic on Tuesday.

Early indications showed the Czech world No 11 could well make a recovery and return to tennis, where she has been a mainstay in the top rankings for the past five years.

“The scale of the injury is serious, but Petra is young and strong, according to the surgeon, who sees no reason why she could not return to playing tennis,” said Karel Tejkal, spokesman for the Czech Fed Cup team.

Lucie Safarova had been due to play a charity event with Petra Kvitova in Brno, the Czech Republic’s second biggest city, on the day Kvitova was attacked. Photo: Reuters

Doctors operated on all five fingers of her left hand and she will not be able to exert pressure on the injured hand for three months to let repairs to tendons heal, he said.

Kvitova had said on social media before undergoing surgery that the attack by an individual with a knife had left her “shaken, but fortunate to be alive”.

The assault took place in her flat in the city of Prostejov, about 260km southeast of Prague, the location of a tennis club where she, men’s world No 10 Tomas Berdych and other top-ranked Czech players often train.