Before the Christmas festivities begin, I wanted to play catch-up with what’s been happening during the off-season. Tuesday’s tennis news started on a high and ended on a real low. Firstly, many congratulations to Victoria Azarenka who gave birth to her first child today!
Sadly some not so nice news broke this morning; Petra Kvitova was attacked in her apartment, suffering injuries to her left hand.
Petra released a statement on all her social media accounts where she said she was ‘fortunate to be alive’.
More details about the situation emerged this afternoon from BBC Sport journalist, David Ornstein. Just terrible :-(.
After a long day, Petra’s team provided an update to say that despite the severity of the injury, the surgery went well.
It’s obviously going to be a long road back for Petra but her health is the most important thing right now. It sounds like things could have been much worse. I couldn’t concentrate in work today as Petra was in my thoughts. I’m wishing Petra a very speedy recovery and sending hugs to all her fans on this difficult day. It’s been lovely to see everyone rally around Petra, including the players, which I think shows how well respected and liked she is. In moments like this, Tennis Twitter is awesome.
Petra had just confirmed that she was pulling of the Hopman Cup due to the stress fracture in her foot. Lucie Hradecka will now step in for Team Czech Republic and pair up with Adam Pavlasek.
Some other notable mentions during this off-season and i’m trying really hard to find positive things to talk about… It’s been nice to see Lucie Safarova in off-season training having been ill this time last year. This pic of Lucie and Dasha (two of my favourites) was nice and also would suggest Lucie is sticking with Frantisek Cermak as coach.
I really enjoyed this podcast with Nicole Gibbs.
Madison Brengle on Instagram…
This was a fun video from the WTA.
If you didn’t see Sashka Oliynykova’s story which was recently being shared among Tennis Twitter, then i’d recommend taking a read of the link below. You can contribute to Sashka’s Indiegogo campaign HERE.
And finally, i’m sharing my favourite photos of the year on my new Instagram account with one every day up until the new season. Today was a no-brainer… thinking of you, Petra.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BOQBWnuDAoA/?taken-by=mootennis&hl=en
Moo's Tennis Blog 
Wow! Completely speechless at this news. Why on earth would anybody want to attack such a sweetheart?! She has no enemies and has never given anybody any reason to dislike her?!
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Horrible and very sad news! It sounds like she will be out for a long time. Even if she is makes a comeback no one knows how she will feel. Seles and Chakvetadze always said the body healed but the scars left on the soul that no one could see were the most difficult to cope with 😦
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I think it’s different for Petra than Seles. They got her alone and in her home… if you cant feel safe at home then where can you?
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well I think you cannot compare. It would be horrible for everyone no matter the place & circumstances.
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Dreadful news about Petra. She is not a player that I particularly enjoy watching but she comes across as a very nice and gentle person and I know that a lot of WTA players have great respect for her. Hope she recovers in time and returns to play tennis successfully again on the circuit.
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I agree with everything that’s been said about Petra, and I’m sad and upset too. As for why it happened, the Czech police seem to think the motive was robbery rather than a fan (of a rival player) with a grudge.
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Best wishes, and a speedy recovery.
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I actually met Petra two or three days in tennis club before this happened. She looked really superb and I was thinking she could step up in next months.
What happened Petra happens quite a lot here in Czech Republic but to very old people and there is no self defence from them so usually no harm. Hope Petra will take a rest and come back to her old form.
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I think it happens all over. Home burglaries are very common here in the UK, especially in poorer area’s with older populations, like you said.
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In the UK this sort of crime is often linked to drugs, especially hard drugs – burglars tend to be drug addicts desperate for money for their next “fix.” I suspect the same might have been true of Petra’s attacker, since he was willing to hold a knife to her throat for just 5,000 kroner (about #150). Either that or he was a psychopath (or maybe both).
Let’s hope he’s caught soon anyway.
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