Andrea Petkovic left the court with tears in her eyes. Deeply disappointed about her injury and her exit from the European Open, the crowd favourite said goodbye on Centre Court in Hamburg.
The 34-year-old retired after 41 minutes at 0:6, 0:2 against world number two Anett Kontaveit. This means that none of the eleven German tennis professionals who started the women’s and men’s doubles tournament at the Rothenbaum is still in the tournament.
“I probably pulled my adductor,” said Petkovic. She had already suffered this injury recently at the tournament in Miami. “It was much worse then. That’s why I thought I could continue playing here,” she reported disappointedly.
Even a break from treatment doesn’t help
Last year’s finalist went into the match against the strong Estonian with a handicap anyway. Her right elbow has been hurting for days. The 34-year-old from Darmstadt could only play by taking painkillers and wearing a tape. In the course of the first set, she also suffered a thigh injury and had problems on the slippery clay from then on. Kontaveit brought her game through almost without any problems. “I am very sorry for Andrea. I hope she gets better as soon as possible,” said the 21-year-old.
Even the treatment during the set break did not bring Petkovic any improvement. At 0:2, she realised that she could not move anything on this day and gave up. “When you’re over 30, you have to accept everything in terms of pain,” she had said two days earlier.
She had actually felt “good and fresh”, she said. But she had been constantly focusing on her elbow to avoid further deterioration, she said. “Maybe that’s why I put different pressure on the leg,” she speculated, “but that’s just a Petkovic diagnosis.” She plans to compete in the WTA tournament in Washington in a fortnight’ time as she gears up for the US Open.
Kontaveit now favoured
The tournament ambassador now sees Kontaveit as the top favourite in Hamburg. The Estonian had been invited to the tournament with a wildcard shortly before the start of the event after training for days on the faster hard court surface. At the Hamburg clay court tournament, she had to adapt quickly to the slower surface and demonstrated that impressively.
Kontaveit will meet the Russian Anastasia Potapova in the semi-finals. The Dubai-based world No. 63 had defeated Czech Barbora Krejcikova, last year’s French Open winner, 6-1, 6-3.
There was a surprise in the men’s singles. Russian number two seed Andrey Rublyov lost to Argentine Francisco Cerundolo 4-6, 2-6 in the round of 16 and was eliminated. This means that Rublyov’s dream match against the young Spanish star Carlos Alcaraz is over. The 19-year-old Iberian had defeated Filip Krajinovic of Serbia 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 in his round of 16 match. His quarter-final opponent is the 26-year-old Russian Karen Khachanov.
