The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Wimbledon Champion

  • ‘I remembered his eyes’ – Wimbledon champion Kvitova tells court of knife attack

    Two-times Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova told a Czech court on Tuesday how she grabbed the blade of an attacker’s knife and forced it away from her neck, leaving blood everywhere, during an attack at her home in December 2016.

    Kvitova suffered severe wounds to her playing left hand as she struggled with the knife-wielding intruder.

    She returned to professional tennis in May 2017, crowning her comeback 18 months later with her first final appearance at 2019 Australian Open.

    Giving testimony in the trial of a 33-year-old man charged with her assault, Kvitova said she had felt no pain when the 10-inch blade cut into her hand.

    To avoid direct confrontation with the suspect during the trial, Kvitova sat in a separate room at the Brno regional courthouse, giving a detailed account via microphone and camera of how the man entered her apartment and then attacked her.

    The man had rung her doorbell at 8:30 a.m. posing as a workman come to inspect the hot water system in the flat, the Czech news website quoted her as saying.

    “He asked me to turn on the hot water tap and at that moment I had a knife against my neck. I grabbed it with both hands.

    “I held the blade with my left hand. I snatched it away, I fell on the floor and there was blood everywhere,” she said.

    Kvitova described how she tried to reach her mobile phone on the carpet, but he pushed it away.

    She told him she needed to go to hospital and asked whether he wanted money.

    “He asked how much I had. I said ten thousand crowns ($440) and he said ‘OK’. I gave him the money, he left and I called the ambulance and then the police,”she added.

    Though she had felt no pain when the attacker cut her hand, Kvitova said: “When I saw the blood, I started blubbing.”

  • Djokovic out of Wimbledon after retiring hurt against Berdych

    Djokovic out of Wimbledon after retiring hurt against Berdych

    Three-times Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic’s painful year continued as he retired with an elbow injury during his quarter-final against Czech Tomas Berdych on Wednesday.

    The second seed had lost the opening set and was down a break in the second when he walked to the net and shook his opponent’s hand.

    The retirement, with the score at 7-6(2) 2-0, came shortly after the 30-year-old Serb called a medical timeout.

    Djokovic said his right elbow had been bothering him for over a year and a half and that he had been feeling pain from the beginning of the tournament.

    “The intensity and the level of pain were not decreasing. It was only increasing as the days went by,” he said. “Unfortunately, today was the worst day.

    “It’s unfortunate that I had to finish Wimbledon, a grand slam, this way,” he added. “I mean, if someone feels bad about it, it’s me. But, you know, I tried.”

    He also said the postponement of his last-16 match against Adrian Mannarino might have played a role.

    The match was pushed a day to Tuesday because of the marathon five-setter in which Gilles Muller beat Rafael Nadal on Monday.

    “Probably the fact that I played yesterday (Wednesday), kind of days adding up, as I’ve said before, it wasn’t helping at all,” he said.

    The retirement is a another blow for the former world number one, who has surrendered his Australian and French Open titles this year and slipped to fourth in the world.

    The result means the 31-year-old Berdych has reached the semi-finals for the second year running.

    The Czech has also broken a streak of 12 losses against his tormentor-in-chief Djokovic, whom he had previously only beaten twice in 27 matches.

  • London attack does not change Wimbledon plans – Djokovic

    London attack does not change Wimbledon plans – Djokovic

    Three times Wimbledon champion, Novak Djokovic said on Sunday he will not change plans or preparations for the tournament next month; after an attack in London on Saturday left seven people dead and 48 injured.

    A van rammed into pedestrians on London Bridge and three attackers with knives charged out and stabbed others nearby.

    “Everything will progress the same in terms of my plans for Wimbledon and I will try to go there with family, and of course be conscious,” Djokovic said at the French Open.

    “I think it’s always about being conscious of what time of the day or night you go, where do you go, but, you know, it’s very unpredictable.”

    A French national and a Canadian were among those killed. Australia said one of its citizens was among the injured.

    Police, who fired about 50 bullets, shot dead the three male assailants in the Borough Market area near London Bridge within eight minutes of receiving the first emergency call shortly after 10 p.m.

    “It’s very disturbing that one of the biggest cities in the world, most important cities in the world, some of the most popular locations in the town suffering these terrorist attacks,” said Djokovic.

    “So of course it makes you wonder a little bit, makes you question certain things.

    “I mean, if we live in fear, you know, that’s not life. I also believe that you kind of attract, you know, certain things that when you are, you know, living under stress and fear of everything,” he said.

    Wimbledon, the year’s third grand slam, runs from July 3 to July 16.

  • Serena Williams is Wimbledon Champion

    Serena Williams is Wimbledon Champion

    SERENA Williams beat a battling Garbine Muguruza 6-4 6-4 to claim her second ‘Serena Slam’ and win her 21st Grand Slam title in the Wimbledon final on Saturday.

    After losing a close first set and battling bravely to come back from 5-1 down in the second, the 21-year-old Spaniard was eventually defeated after one hour and 23 minutes, to leave Williams to receive the acclaim of the Centre Crowd.

    At 33 years and 289 days, Serena surpasses Martina Navratilova as the oldest player to win Wimbledon, and any of the other three Grand Slams, in the Open era.

    Muguruza, born in Venezuela and raised in Barcelona, had insisted facing Serena was a task to be relished rather than feared.

    She was proving true to her bold claim and, by the time Muguruza moved into a 4-2 lead, it seemed an epic shock was on the cards.

    However, Serena had recovered from worse predicaments earlier in the tournament.

    With the pressure ratcheted up, the inevitable Serena break back arrived in the eighth game when Muguruza missed with a wild forehand.

    Williams scented blood and Muguruza crumbled, a double-fault on set point gift-wrapping the lead to Serena in a set that had been the underdog’s for the taking.

    The American had won 28 of her last 30 tour-level finals, including her last nine at the majors, and, in her eighth Wimbledon final, she was finally back in that muscular groove.

    Serena’s fierce grimace and clenched fist after breaking in the fourth game of the second set suggested the finish line was in sight

    But, serving for the match with 5-1 and then 5-3 leads, Williams was gripped by a bad case of nerves and Muguruza broke twice to prolong the contest.

    Serena’s sixth Wimbledon crown brought with it a slew of other remarkable landmarks that underline her credentials as one of the greatest female athletes of all time.

    The American’s 21st Grand Slam crown and 68th tour-level title earned her a cheque for £1.8 million.

    But it is her legacy rather than her bank balance that concerns Williams these days and she now holds all four Grand Slam titles at the same time – the rare ‘Serena Slam’ she last achieved in 2002-03.

    Serena is the first woman to land the French Open and Wimbledon back-to-back since she last won that difficult double in 2002.