Andrea Petkovic ends her roller-coaster season in disappointment following a 6-0, 6-0, loss to Carla Suarez Navarro at the WTA Elite Cup.
Throughout the match the German was struggling with a left knee injury. The injury is the latest blow to Petkovic in what has been a challenging year, both on and off the court. On the tour, she has reached the semifinals at three tournaments in 2015, including the Diamond Games in Belgium, where she won her only title of the year. In addition, she also reached the third round in three out of four Grand Slams this season. Despite battling hard on the court, Petkovic faced another challenge in her personal life when her mother fell ill. During an interview with WTA Insider, an emotional Petkovic spoke about her struggle.
“It was a difficult year for my family,”. She said.
“I wanted to be at home. But because I’m a professional and I’m German, I still went and did all the practices and everything I had to do. It wasn’t like I just didn’t do it. I wasn’t going to just play the matches. I still practiced three hours a day. I still did my gym, I still did my workouts, I still did my fitness, I still went to the physios every day. I was still being professional with all this inside of me”.
The issue of homesickness is a factor for many players on both the WTA and ATP tour. During the Aegon Championships in June, Nick Kyrgios spoke openly to the media about missing his friends and family. Due to the mixture of homesickness and coping with an ill parent, the task has overwhelmed an emotionally drained Petkovic. This feeling has resulted in the German falling out of love with the sport.
“It’s just been the past two or three months, I just sort of lost the passion for tennis,”. Petkovic told the WTA Insider.
“When I was at home, I was feeling really happy. And the minute I went on tour I just sort of felt depressed. Really depressed in a way that I didn’t want to get out of bed at all”.
The 28-year-old revealed that she has been questioning the continuation of her career since the end of last season. Petkovic candidly admitted that she enjoys doing many other things as she started to look at life outside of the world of tennis. The German said she feels that she might be better at other things apart from tennis.
“Sometimes I feel like there are other talents in me that I might be better at. Everyone says ‘You’re stupid. You were Top 10 in the world, you’re still in the Top 30, you’re one of the best players in the world.’ I’m proud of everything I’ve achieved, don’t get me wrong.
“But I feel like if I had done something else I would have been maybe better at it. Now I feel like I’ve lost all that time on tennis. It’s super stupid but I just have to figure it out. I don’t even have something, like I’m a super great drawer. Like I’m a super great writer and if I would have started a book at 17 and at 28 I would have been a Pulitzer Prize winner by now. It’s not even like I have something like that in myself. It’s just a feeling. It’s stupid.”
Petkovic’s career is far from a terrible one. In 2011 she achieved a ranking best of 9th in the world. Throughout her career, she has reached 11 WTA finals, winning six titles. At the 2014 Wimbledon championships, she produced her best Grand Slam performance by reaching semifinals before losing to Simona Halep. Currently the 28-year-old is ranked 24th in the world.
An exhausted Petkovic will travel to America during the off season for a rest period where she hopes to recharge. The future for the former Wimbledon semifinalist may be currently uncertain, however, she has pledged not to disappear from the tour completely.
“I won’t be gone and never come back. It just might take me a little bit of time now”. Petkovic concluded.
