Tennis: Petra Kvitova heals her attack trauma with another miracle

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic celebrates winning her quarter-final match of the French Open tennis tournament against Germany's Laura Siegemund. Photo / AP

One says it's a "miracle" that she is playing at all. The other obsesses about winning. And both are coping better on court at the biggest tournaments in this pandemic year than any of their peers.

Petra Kvitova v Sofia Kenin in the French Open tennis semifinals will pit two powerful hitters who are at different points in their career arcs.

Kvitova, who by then already had two Wimbledon titles, was told by doctors she might never be competitive again after she was stabbed by an intruder at her home in the Czech Republic in December 2016. All five fingers on the left hand that she uses to hold her racquet were injured and she sustained nerve and tendon damage. Her 6-3, 6-3 victory against Laura Siegemund, an unseeded German playing her first Grand Slam quarter-final, marked another step back from that trauma for the 30-year-old Czech who is returning to the semifinals at Roland Garros for the first time since 2012.

"It's another miracle," she said.

Her coach, Jiri Vanek, recalled that the first thing Kvitova said after surgery to repair her hand was: "'Look, guys, I [am] coming back and I will do everything that is possible to be able to play'."

"She was totally focused," he said.

Siegemund found that out, too, on Court Philippe Chatrier, as Kvitova rained down six aces — taking her tournament-leading tally to 24 — in a first set blur in which she also won 93 per cent of the points on her first serve and never faced break point.

Kvitova hasn't lost a set in Paris. Kenin, 21, has lost a set in all of her matches bar one, in the third round. But her 6-4, 4-6, 6-0 quarter-final win against fellow American Danielle Collins again showed how winning the title at this year's Australian Open worked wonders for the confidence.

In the other women's semifinal, 54th-ranked Iga Swiatek plays 131st-ranked Nadia Podoroska, the first female qualifier to get to the final four at the French Open.

In the men's draw, the first obvious sign of trouble for Novak Djokovic came when he stepped out on to the court with a large square of beige athletic tape on the back of his neck.

Off to a slow start, Djokovic received massages from a trainer, righted himself and beat Carreño Busta 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the semifinals at Roland Garros for the 10th time.

He will face Stefanos Tsitsipas in Saturday's semifinal, after the Greek fifth seed beat Andrey Rublev 7-5, 6-2, 6-3.

- AP