Andrea Petkovic

Andrea Petkovic

Petkovic at the 2009 US Open
Full name	Andrea Petkovic
Country	Germany
Residence	Griesheim, Germany
Born	(1987-09-09) 9 September 1987 Tuzla, SFR Yugoslavia
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Turned pro	2006
Retired	Active
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$2,967,548
Singles
Career record	311–183
Career titles	2 WTA, 9 ITF
Highest ranking	9 (10 October 2011)
Current ranking	36 (3 February 2014)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	QF (2011)
French Open	QF (2011)
Wimbledon	3R (2011)
US Open	QF (2011)
Doubles
Career record	63–63
Career titles	0 WTA, 3 ITF
Highest ranking	68 (28 September 2009)
Current ranking	101 (3 February 2014)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	2R (2014)
French Open	3R (2011)
Wimbledon	2R (2011, 2013)
US Open	2R (2009, 2011)
Grand Slam Mixed Doubles results
US Open	1R (2012)
Team competitions
Fed Cup	8–4
Last updated on: 3 February 2014.

Andrea Petkovic (Serbian: Андреа Петковић / Andrea Petković; born 9 September 1987) is a German professional tennis player of Serbian origin.^[1] Born in Bosnia and Herzegovina to a Serbian father, she moved to Germany at six months old.

Petkovic turned professional in 2006 and reached her career-high singles ranking of world number 9 in October 2011 after reaching the quarterfinals of that year's Australian Open, French Open and US Open. She suffered three separate injuries in 2012: a back injury in January, an ankle injury in August and a knee injury in December that kept her out for a combined nine months and almost saw her fall out of the top 200. She has won two WTA titles, nine ITF singles titles and three ITF doubles titles. Petkovic became the German national champion in 2007 and 2009. She is coached by Petar Popović and her father Zoran.

Early and personal life

Andrea Petkovic was born in Tuzla, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia.^[2][3] but at the age of six months, the family relocated to Germany. Petkovic first took to the tennis courts when she was six; her father Zoran Petković, former Yugoslav tennis player and member of the Yugoslavia Davis Cup team,^[4] was a coach at a club in Darmstadt at the time. He introduced her to the sport and later became her coach.^[5] She was able to finish high school before competing in tennis full-time because Zoran never influenced her into joining the professional circuit.^[6]

Apart from tennis, she likes to educate herself by reading; her favourite authors are Goethe and Wilde.^[5] Her mother Amira is a dental assistant while her younger sister Anja is a student.^[5] Petkovic graduated from high school in 2006 with an Abitur from the Georg-Büchner-Schule in Darmstadt, a Gymnasium. She has been studying Political science at the FernUniversität Hagen since 2008.^[7]

Petkovic also has a successful YouTube channel which is home to her video blog entitled "Petkorazzi". In the blog she makes fun of herself, gives fans chances to win prizes, and shows fans what life is like on the tour.^[8] She does the blog in both German and English.^[6]

Since the beginning of her professional career, she keeps a diary at irregular intervals about her life on the WTA Tour in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a major German newspaper.^[9] Petkovic obtained German citizenship in 2001. She speaks Serbian, German, English, and French.^[5] Petkovic is of Serb ancestry and was born in present day Bosnia and Herzegovina (then part of SFR Yugoslavia). In a 2009 interview with the WTA, she stated that her parents might move to Novi Sad, Serbia, where they have a second home.^[10] When asked how German she feels, Petkovic replied, "Obviously I'm German, but I always say my soul is still Serbian. Germans are generally more cool, reserved. I'm very emotional, have lots of fire in my personality. In that sense still feel very close to my heritage. For all that, there is much to appreciate about Germany. I feel like I am part of the 'system' and feel very rooted there."^[10]

Career

Early career

Petkovic turned professional in 2006 after she finished school,^[5] but she had already won four ITF titles. She was the winner of the tournaments in Antalya, Podgorica (both in 2004), Davos and Alphen aan den Rijn (both in 2005).

In April 2007, she became a member of the German Fed Cup team. She played her first Grand Slam at the 2007 French Open, where she reached the second round after coming through the qualifying without losing a set and beating Jarmila Groth. There she lost to later Wimbledon-finalist Marion Bartoli. After this, and having some success on the ITF Circuit (she won the ITF title in Contrexéville in July 2007), she reached the top 100 of the WTA rankings for the first time. Because of that, she was able to play in the 2007 US Open main draw without having to qualify. She once again reached the second round after beating Audra Cohen. In round two she lost to Lucie Šafářová.

At the Australian Open in January 2008, in her first round match against Russia's Anna Chakvetadze, she suffered a cruciate ligament rupture in her right knee after only two minutes of play. This prevented her from playing any tournament for almost eight months, which caused her ranking drop down to 465.^[5][7] After the injury, she started playing mostly on the ITF Circuit again where she won a tournament in Istanbul in November 2008. She finished the year with a ranking of 315.

2009

In 2009, Petkovic played her first tournament at the Australian Open due to a protected ranking. She beat fellow German Kathrin Wörle to reach the second round but then lost to Alizé Cornet. She mostly kept on playing ITF tournaments until June with a lot of success. For example, she won the $100,000 GDF Suez Open Romania in Bucharest, defeating Jelena Dokić in the semifinals on the way, and regained a top 100 ranking.

In July 2009, Andrea Petkovic won her first WTA tournament in Bad Gastein, losing only one set.^[5] In the final, she beat Raluca Olaru. On her way to the title, she defeated, amongst others, Anna-Lena Grönefeld and Iveta Benešová. She also played the doubles final in Bad Gastein partnering Tatjana Malek. The following week, Petkovic reached the semifinals in Istanbul, losing to Lucie Hradecká in three tight sets. After those two weeks, she achieved her hitherto career high singles ranking of world number 52.

For the rest of the year she struggled to repeat her success but had another good tournament at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo where she came through the qualifying and reached the round of last 16. In the second round she had her win over a top 10 player in beating Svetlana Kuznetsova. She was knocked out by Agnieszka Radwańska in three sets.

2010

She played her first tournament in 2010 in Brisbane, Australia, where she reached the semifinal with wins over Iveta Benešová, Vania King and Daniela Hantuchová. She only lost to the later tournament champion Kim Clijsters. After that tournament she reached the top 50 of the WTA rankings for the first time.

At the Open GDF Suez in Paris, Petkovic reached the quarterfinals after defeating Katarina Srebotnik and number five seed Aravane Rezaï, but lost to Elena Dementieva.

At the 2010 French Open, Petkovic defeated Elena Vesnina of Russia in the first round. She was beaten by defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round after missing four match points on her own serve.

Petkovic was seeded 7th at the 2010 UNICEF Open and advanced to the final with wins over Petra Kvitová, Ana Ivanovic, Sandra Záhlavová, and Kirsten Flipkens. She lost to Justine Henin in the final.

Petkovic's best singles performance in a Grand Slam event came at the 2010 US Open. Her first two matches were three-set upset victories over Nadia Petrova and Bethanie Mattek-Sands. She performed an on-court dance following both triumphs. After she received a third-round walkover due to an injury to Peng Shuai, Petkovic lost her first career Arthur Ashe Stadium appearance to eventual tournament finalist Vera Zvonareva.^[6]

2011

Returning to the Brisbane International, Petkovic improved on her previous-best semifinal appearance by reaching the final, with straight set wins over 8th seeded Alexandra Dulgheru, Jelena Dokić, Jarmila Groth, and fourth seeded Marion Bartoli. In the final she lost to Wimbledon semifinalist Petra Kvitová.

Petkovic was the 30th seed at the 2011 Australian Open. She advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating Jill Craybas, Anne Keothavong, injured number three seed Venus Williams, who retired after just one game, and number 14 seed Maria Sharapova. She was defeated by finalist Li Na of China in the quarterfinals, her best achievement in a Grand Slam of her career.

Petkovic then played Fed Cup for Germany and helped them to a win over Slovenia with two wins in singles rubbers.^[11] Next, Petkovic reached the quarterfinals of the 2011 Open GDF Suez, where she lost to Bethanie Mattek-Sands in a tight three-set match.

Her next tournament was in Dubai, where she defeated fellow German Angelique Kerber in straight sets for the second straight week, but lost to Kaia Kanepi in the second round.

Petkovic defeated world number one Caroline Wozniacki in the fourth round at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. Next, Petkovic faced Jelena Janković and defeated her too. In the semifinals she lost to Maria Sharapova.

At the 2011 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Petkovic upset number seven seed Janković in three sets to set up a clash with world number one Caroline Wozniacki. Petkovic would go on to lose to Wozniacki.

Petkovic won her second WTA Tour title in Strasbourg, defeating Anna-Lena Grönefeld, Zhang Shuai, Maria Kirilenko and Daniela Hantuchová. In the final she faced home favorite and number 1 seed Marion Bartoli and won the title after Bartoli retired early in the second set. After that performance, Petkovic reached her new career-high ranking of No. 12 as of 23 May 2011.

As the 15th seed, Petkovic reached the quarterfinals of the 2011 French Open. She beat Bojana Jovanovski, Lucie Hradecká, 24th seed Jarmila Gajdošová, and 25th seed Maria Kirilenko to reach the last eight, where she lost to seventh seed Maria Sharapova.

One month later, Petkovic lost in the third round at Wimbledon against the young Russian player Ksenia Pervak.

In August, she became the sixth German player in history to crack the Top 10 by winning her opening match at the Mercury Insurance Open in San Diego against American player Alexa Glatch. At the Rogers Cup in Toronto, Canada, she made it to the quarterfinals where she lost to Agnieszka Radwańska. At Cincinnati, Petkovic made the semifinals in spite of injury, before losing to Jelena Janković in straight sets.

At the US Open, Petkovic was seeded tenth. She beat Ekaterina Bychkova and Zheng Jie to progress to the third round, where she beat the eighteenth seed Roberta Vinci to set up a fourth round match with Carla Suárez Navarro, equalling her career best performance at the event up to that point. She went on to win the match against Navarro to secure her first ever quarterfinals spot at the US Open against the world number one Caroline Wozniacki. She performed her trademark dance to delight the audience after her fourth round win. On 8 September she lost to Wozniacki in straight sets.

Seeded ninth at the China Open Petkovic defeated Lucie Šafářová and Carla Suárez Navarro to reach the third round where she emerged victorious over Marion Bartoli in three sets. In the quarterfinals she defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and proceeded to the semifinals where she won against Monica Niculescu. In the final, she faced Agnieszka Radwańska and lost in a tight three-setter. It was her last match of the year. She was seeded second at the Ladies Linz in October but withdrew before the tournament began, citing a right knee injury.

2012

Petkovic's first tournament of 2012 was the Brisbane International in January. Seeded second, she beat Shahar Pe'er in the first round and Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová in the second round before losing to eventual winner Kaia Kanepi in the quarterfinal. Petkovic then played at the Sydney International the following week. She beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the first round and lost to Agnieszka Radwańska in the second round. During the match, Petkovic received treatment for what was revealed the following day to be a double stress fracture of her spine and a spinal disc herniation. She explained: "I've been having some back problems for the last three or four months. I've been struggling with it, but I've always believed it was going to be fine and so I pushed through the pain. The last two weeks in Australia I've been having bigger problems and I could only play for 30-45 minutes without pain."^[12] As a result, Petkovic withdrew from the Australian Open the following week, where she would have been seeded tenth. The injury ultimately kept her out for three months.^[13]

Petkovic made her comeback in a Fed Cup match in April, losing to Samantha Stosur. She then played at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, beating Kristina Barrois in the first round. In her second round match against Victoria Azarenka, Petkovic was down 2–6 and 4–4 when she rolled her right ankle. She was forced out with what was later revealed to be torn ankle ligaments, which required surgery and kept her out for another four months, including the French Open, Wimbledon and the 2012 London Olympics. She said of the injury: "I knew immediately that it was bad because I heard everything crack. I tried to pull my foot up, and it just flopped there. The first thing I thought was: ‘Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry.’ With 4,000 people watching. In Germany."^[14] She attended weeks of rehabilitation to rebuild the muscles in her leg, working seven hours a day, five days a week.^[14]

Ahead of her return to the tour, Petkovic was worried that she had fallen behind: "I was really scared that I would not be able to compete with the top players and that I might not be able to get back to where I was. Your expectations once you were in the top 10 are to be back in the top 10. Not to be in the top 30 — you’re not going to be satisfied with that. I'm definitely scared of that."^[14] Petkovic made her second comeback of the year at the New Haven Open in mid-August. She beat Timea Babos in the first round and lost to Dominika Cibulkova in the second round. At her next three tournaments, the US Open in August, the Pan Pacific Open in September and the China Open in October, Petkovic was eliminated in the first round, by Romina Oprandi, Petra Martić and Jelena Janković, respectively. After her defeat in China, Petkovic fell to world rank 192, her lowest since March 2009. She received a wildcard for the Generali Ladies Linz in October, beating Záhlavová-Strýcová in the first round and losing to Ana Ivanovic in the second round. She had much more success in her final two tournaments of the year, reaching the semifinals of the Luxembourg Open and the Royal Indian Open. In Luxembourg, she beat Garbiñe Muguruza, Janković and Ksenia Pervak before losing to eventual winner Venus Williams. At the Royal Indian Open, she beat Sofia Shapatava, Chang Liu and Nina Bratchikova before losing to eventual winner Elina Svitolina. By this time, her world ranking had risen to 126.

Petkovic's final match of 2012 was on 29 December in the 2013 Hopman Cup against Ashleigh Barty. She won the first set 6–4 but appeared to be suffering from a knee injury late on in the set. She received treatment for it before the second set but could not continue and retired from the match in tears.^[15]

2013

The injury was identified as a ruptured meniscus in her right knee, the second time in two years she had suffered the injury, and she underwent surgery on it in early January.^[16] She said of the injury: "My team and I are actually managing to take it tragically funny... Everything bad that could happen, happened to me. So nothing surprises me anymore. I'm quite relieved it wasn't the ACL because it was a very similar pain and very similar symptoms to what I had in 2008 when I had my ACL torn in Australia. I'm just hoping for a quick recovery. I would so much appreciate if I could be back on court after three or four weeks."^[17] Having suffered from a third serious injury in less than a year, Petkovic considered retiring. "I did actually ask for a few internships. I asked a few magazines if I could do an internship. I asked a few politicians that I know if I could do an internship. They all told me you can come whenever you want, and you can stay as long as you want. But I never really wanted."^[18]

She returned to the tour in March, having fallen back to world number 177, entering the qualifiers for the Indian Wells Masters and losing in the second qualifying round to Mónica Puig. Petkovic then received a wildcard for the Miami Masters. She beat Bojana Jovanovski and Marion Bartoli before falling to Ajla Tomljanović in the third round. She also received a wildcard for the Family Circle Cup in April, where she also reached the third round. She beat Taylor Townsend and Vania King and was due to face Caroline Wozniacki but withdrew before the match with a calf injury. It had been causing her discomfort since her three-set loss to Tomljanović, so she withdrew as a precaution, noting her recent experience with injuries.^[19]

Petkovic's next tournaments were the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, where she received a wildcard and lost in the first round to Ana Ivanovic; and the Mutua Madrid Open in May, where she lost in the first qualifying round to Bethanie Mattek-Sands. She then lost in the second qualifying round of the French Open. After that defeat, her ranking fell back down to world number 138 and she again contemplated retirement, but her coach didn't take her seriously: "He just laughed and a few days later [I] picked up my racquet again."^[20][21] She then received a wildcard for the ITF Open Féminin de Marseille in June, which she won without dropping a set, beating Anabel Medina Garrigues in the final. It was her first tournament win for over two years, her last coming when she won the Internationaux de Strasbourg in May 2011. After the win, she re-entered the world top 100 for the first time since September 2012. She also reached the final of the Nürnberger Versicherungscup that same month, receiving a wildcard and beating Sofia Arvidsson, fourth seed Julia Görges, eighth seed Annika Beck and first seed Jelena Janković en route to the final, where she lost to seventh seed Simona Halep. Petkovic received a wildcard for the Wimbledon Championships, making only her second Grand Slam appearance since reaching the quarterfinals of the US Open in 2011. She beat Pauline Parmentier in the first round, her first Grand Slam win since the fourth round of the US Open in 2011, and lost to Sloane Stephens in the second round.

After a three-set first round defeat to Petra Martic at the Gastein Ladies on 16 July, Petkovic traveled to America for the US Open Series. Her first tournament was the Citi Open at the end of July, where she beat Jessica Pegula, Mona Barthel, Paula Ormaechea and Alizé Cornet to reach the final, where she lost to defending champion Magdaléna Rybáriková. In mid-August, Petkovic entered the qualifiers for the Cincinnati Masters, beating Maria Sanchez and Karolína Plíšková to enter the first round proper, where she beat Daniela Hantuchová. She faced twelfth seed Roberta Vinci in the second round and lost in three sets. At the US Open at the end of the month, she lost in the first round in straight sets to Bojana Jovanovski.

On 17 September, Petkovic was seeded seventh but knocked out of the Korea Open in the first round by eventual semifinalist Francesca Schiavone. A week later, she reached the second round of the Pan Pacific Open, beating Elena Vesnina before losing to thirteenth seed Simona Halep. At the end of the month, she took part in the China Open. She defeated second seed and reigning champion Victoria Azarenka in the first round and Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second, but lost to Lucie Šafářová in the third round in three sets.

Career statistics

WTA finals

Singles (2–5)

Outcome	No.	Date	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Winner	1.	26 July 2009	Gastein Ladies, Bad Gastein, Austria	Clay	Raluca Olaru	6–2, 6–3
Runner-up	1.	19 June 2010	UNICEF Open, 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands	Grass	Justine Henin	6–3, 3–6, 4–6
Runner-up	2.	8 January 2011	Brisbane International, Brisbane, Australia	Hard	Petra Kvitová	1–6, 3–6
Winner	2.	21 May 2011	Internationaux de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, France	Clay	Marion Bartoli	6–4, 1–0, ret.
Runner-up	3.	9 October 2011	China Open, Beijing, China	Hard	Agnieszka Radwańska	5–7, 6–0, 4–6
Runner-up	4.	15 June 2013	Nürnberger Versicherungscup, Nuremberg, Germany	Clay	Simona Halep	3–6, 3–6
Runner-up	5.	4 August 2013	Citi Open, Washington D.C., United States	Hard	Magdaléna Rybáriková	4–6, 6–7(2–7)

Doubles (0–1)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	1.	26 July 2009	Gastein Ladies, Bad Gastein, Austria	Hard	Tatjana Malek	Andrea Hlaváčková Lucie Hradecká	2–6, 4–6

Singles performance timeline

Tournament	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	W–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	A	1R	2R	2R	QF	A	A	1R	6–5
French Open	2R	A	Q1	2R	QF	A	Q2		6–3
Wimbledon	Q1	A	Q2	1R	3R	A	2R		3–3
US Open	2R	A	1R	4R	QF	1R	1R		7–6
Win–Loss	2–2	0–1	1–2	4–4	14–4	0–1	1–2	0–1	22–17

Doubles performance timeline

Tournament	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	W–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open		1R	1R				0–2
French Open		1R	3R		1R		2–3
Wimbledon	1R	1R	2R		2R		2–4
US Open	2R	1R	2R	1R	1R		2–5
Win–Loss	1–2	0–4	4–4	0–1	1–3		6–14

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Andrea Petkovic.

• Andrea Petkovic at the Women's Tennis Association
• Andrea Petkovic at the International Tennis Federation
• Andrea Petkovic at the Fed Cup
• Official website
• Andrea Petkovic on Twitter

v t e Women's Tennis Association: Top German female singles tennis players as of 3 February 2014 1. Angelique Kerber (9 ) 2. Sabine Lisicki (15 ) 3. Andrea Petkovic (36 3) 4. Annika Beck (55 ) 5. Mona Barthel (64 28) 6. Julia Görges (88 14) 7. Dinah Pfizenmaier (89 ) 8. Anna-Lena Friedsam (113 2) 9. Carina Witthöft (176 5) 10. Laura Siegemund (182 13)

v t e Women's Tennis Association: Top German female doubles tennis players as of 3 February 2014 1. Anna-Lena Grönefeld (14 ) 2. Julia Görges (28 1) 3. Sabine Lisicki (66 ) 4. Kristina Barrois (68 ) 5. Mona Barthel (78 1) 6. Andrea Petkovic (101 ) 7. Tatjana Maria (133 1) 8. Angelique Kerber (136 1) 9. Christina Shakovets (204 ) 10. Anna Zaja (233 2)

Persondata
Name	Petkovic, Andrea
Alternative names
Short description	German tennis player
Date of birth	9 September 1987
Place of birth	Tuzla, SFR Yugoslavia
Date of death
Place of death