Petra Kvitova

Petra Kvitova

Petra Kvitova hit the ball the way few women ever have, a left-hander who took the racket back and swung through the court until opponents ran out of room. The Czech was 21 when she won the first of her two Wimbledons in 2011, then climbed to a career-high No. 2 that October. She took a second Wimbledon in 2014, and across her career she gathered 2 major titles and 31 tour titles. On grass she was almost impossible to contain, but the flat power carried everywhere, and rivals like Agnieszka Radwanska and Angelique Kerber spent long afternoons trying to blunt it.

Then, in December 2016, an intruder broke into her home and she fought him off with her playing hand, suffering deep cuts to the tendons and nerves of her left hand. Surgeons were unsure she would grip a racket at the top level again. She returned faster than anyone expected, and just over two years later reached the 2019 Australian Open final, one win from world No. 1. She lost that night, but the run said everything about her: the same fearless swing, still there, still hers.