Andrea Petkovic has had incredible highs in her career, but she has also had her fare share of unfortunate lows. The former German No. 1 is a prime example of fighting her way through adversity and really overcoming the challenges that are faced in front of her in her career as a tennis professional.
The highs and lows of Petkovic’s career has been public knowledge. She first made her mark on the tour at the highest level by reaching the Top 10 during the 2011 season, but no player could really prepare for the injury torment in the months that followed. After achieving close to the tennis pinnacle, Petkovic suffered a back injury at the beginning of the season. That would not turn out to be the end of her woes as she nursed two long-term big injuries for the rest of the season, picking up a freak ankle injury in Stuttgart in April, which kept her out of action for months and then falling victim to another long-term knee problem at Hopman Cup at the end of the year going into the 2013 season.
Every time that Petkovic felt that she had turned a corner and started to experience the more positive things on a tennis court, then she would face another setback, another moment to test her character, another moment to question her resilience, and that ate away at her confidence for a long period of time. People tend to overlook the fact that confidence can go as quickly as it arrives, and Petkovic was no exception to the rule. She went from having the confidence of winning matches from unlikely positions as a Top 10 player to now trying to brush aside the cobwebs, the scar tissue and the bad luck to get back to where she really wanted to be. The difficulty was overcoming the mental hurdle of injury after injury and finding her footing on a tennis court once again. It was not easy in the slightest.
Petkovic has since had her setbacks in the ranking, but the 2012 difficulties was tough to come back from as she detailed in her roundtable interview early on today in Linz:
“Well, I think the way those three injuries happened to me. The injuries left a big scar mentally on me. Just because it was three injuries in a row and every time I had overcome a big challenge in my life, and I was back, and the obstacle was behind me, an injury came my way and that happened three times in a row. I think when you are young and naive you just believe that everything will be good at one point in your life. That was the first time that I started doubting that and that creeped into my tennis as well. I wasn’t as naive and idealistic anymore and I knew things could go wrong. And that cost me a lot of confidence on the court, and that took me a long time to overcome that and to mentally become a stronger and tougher player again. I was just fragile after that. I was constantly insecure about what was going to happen and what was waiting around the corner for me, so it took me a while and now last year I turned 30 and I feel I’m very wise now.”
The German staged the most stunning of tennis comebacks as she resurged back to where she felt she’d always belonged. A first Grand Slam semifinal showing in the 2015 French Open was a result that really provided the building blocks for a feel-good tennis story as in less than twelve months she’d earned her way back into the Top 10 of the rankings for a second stint. Petkovic opened up about that journey and the overriding feeling she had the moment she achieved a long-term ambition of getting back to where she once was:
“I wish I had this coming back to the Top-10 when I was older and wiser, because back then it was more like an ‘in your face’ to other people. Everybody doubted me and I was like ‘I showed you,’ but I didn’t really revere the satisfaction that I had for myself. That I showed it to myself. That I overcame my own doubts. Now I think that I’m older and I’m a little bit over what people think about me, and about my tennis, and about my career. I just revere it more and be more humble and more happier about it for myself and for other people.”
Petkovic talked about her demons from a mental and a physical standpoint, but now seems to have a very different perspective on her tennis life and on her career as a whole. Just a month after her 31st birthday, the German is now back inside the World’s Top 80 at No. 75, and it is the highest she’s been ranked since Roland Garros of last year. Petkovic was very positive about the current state of her tennis, the upturn – not only in results – but in her performances even during her losses in recent months.
“Well, I think I’ve been playing really good tennis in the last three or four months. I think since the French Open I’ve been playing really well. So I’m really excited about playing Julia (Goerges) now. I think she’s had a tremendous season and she’s one of the best players in the world right now, so I really need those challenges to see where I’m at, because I really feel my tennis has really improved over the course of the last couple of months, and I’ve played a really great match against Ostapenko at the US Open, which I lost. But it was a high quality match, so I’m really looking forward to playing against Top-10 players and Top 20 players to see where I’m at, and see how sharp my sword is [laughs].”
“I think you can see it in a lot of players. I think everybody comes back from Asia feeling very tired and just worn out. I think physically, a little injuries, nothing terrible, but just little injuries creep in in the course of the season, and I think we all put it all out there in China, because it is big tournaments, a lot of prize money and a lot of points. And then coming back to Europe is always fun in a way, because it is always close to home for a lot of the European players and indoor tournaments are always fun to play. No wind. No sun, so it is straight tennis, but the body is not as fresh anymore, obviously. So it is always about the maintaining of the body and try to stay healthy and balanced.”
The former German No. 1 shed light on her change in perspective in the way in which she approaches her matches, her results and her preparation for those matches, but she will want to ensure she has that happy ending that all tennis players long for.
Main Photo Credit: Tobias Hofinger
