Dubai: World No. 4 and runner-up of Dubai women’s championship, Petra Kvitova, wants to take time off court to be fit for bigger battles this season.
Kvitova, a champion here in 2013, went down in three sets to Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic in the final late on Saturday.
Disappointed at falling at the last hurdle, the 28-year-old Czech said: “I definitely need to see a doctor back home. A few days rest will be important for my body, and for the mental side as well. Yeah, I need to do something different, not really thinking about tennis.
“My body is just falling apart. I don’t know how I handled it today, but it was kind of on a good level,” Kvitova told media before leaving Dubai in the early hours of Sunday.
Kvitova’s feelings are understandable, especially after a wonderful run of three finals in the 2019 season, which commenced six weeks ago.
Her consistency on the tour was further highlighted by the fact that Dubai was her eighth WTA final since the start of 2018. Her other loss in the final came last month when the new world No. 1 Naomi Osaka fought over three sets to win her second back-to-back Grand Slam at the Australian Open in Melbourne. Such consistency will immediately be rewarded as the Czech will be climbing a spot to world No. 3 in the rankings, set to be announced on Monday.
“I’m already happy with my season so far. This is the second month of the year and I’m pretty happy with that,” she added. “I didn’t really spend a lot of time at home, maybe just a week from the beginning of the year. It’s good, of course, and I’m not complaining at all. But it will be great to be a week at home and see friends, do normal girlie stuff maybe,” she added.
