It wasn’t the end that Petra Kvitova was looking for. After over a decade of service to the sport, the Czech Republic star bid adieu to her tennis career at Flushing Meadows, albeit not in a great fashion. She suffered a humbling defeat at the hands of Diane Parry, who defeated her in straight sets 6-1, 6-0, only narrowly avoiding a double bagel at the US Open. It was one of the heaviest defeats that Kvitova had suffered in her Grand Slam career. A winner of the Wimbledon Championships twice, the end was as unceremonious as it was quick.

Apart from her achievements at Wimbledon, Kvitova won a total of 31 singles titles, including 9 WTA 1000 titles. She reached a career-high ranking of Number 2 and was one of the most consistent players in her prime. However, at 35, Kvitova felt that the time had come for her to call an end to her career.

During an interview, she revealed, “I’m totally ready [to retire]. I’m not regretting anything. I still love tennis but everything else, waiting for the practices, waiting for the car, waiting for a match, it’s just tiring. And having a son, it’s a totally different life. I just want to spend more time with him as well.”

After all the years of ups and downs, it was an emotional end to Kvitova’s career. Last year, she gave birth to her son, Petr, and resumed playing earlier this year. However, things didn’t go as planned, as she won just a solitary match on her comeback. Eventually, Kvitova took the tough decision to end her career and focus on her personal life.

Meanwhile, Kvitova’s opponent, Parry, was all praise for her after her win. She said, “It’s never easy to play this kind of match. Especially when you know it can be her last match. It was an honour to play against her at least once in my career. I have so much respect for her and the amazing career she had. I just wish her all the best for the future.”

Even as Kvitova achieved great success in her career, there remains one thing that she would like to change. Even her fellow players would agree to this, as Kvitova revealed a problem that many have faced thus far.

Petra Kvitova calls for a major change in tennis

Tennis is one of the few sports where the players have to travel around the globe week in and week out. While it becomes heavy on the pocket of the players, such frequent travel can also take a physical and mental toll on the players. Thus, Kvitova called on the tennis authorities to solve this major problem faced by many tennis stars.

She said, “If I could change just one thing about tennis, it would be to not travel as much. You cannot imagine how difficult it is to string together trips throughout the year, waking up in hotels sometimes not remembering where you are, and spending so much time in airports. It’s very challenging, and I believe the show would improve if we didn’t travel as much.”

While it is the end of the road for Kvitova in her playing career, she has ruled out becoming a tennis coach in the future. However, she wants to remain connected with the tennis world and could be seen contributing in another role in the future.