US OPEN

August 30, 2022

Andrea Petkovic

Press Conference

B. BENCIC/A. Petkovic

6-2, 4-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Was the moment at the end what you thought it was going to be like? Did it take you by surprise? What were you feeling?

ANDREA PETKOVIC: The much harder part was the last five days. When I won the first game, I was so happy because I honestly thought I was going to allowed 0-0 today just because Belinda is such a great player and you have to bring a certain quality to the match. I was really devastated the last five days and basically crying every practice.

So after I got that game and I settled and I started playing, I felt okay. So I think I got most of it out in the last few days.

I wonder how Serena did it, I really do. Maybe I'll get a chance to talk to her after the tournament is done for her. But that was the hardest part.

Once it got going, I felt like I was in the match, I really remembered all the qualities that I had. I was glad that it ended like this, with Belinda, somebody I love and respect so much.

Also that I could bring to the last match everything that I brought to my career, which was grit and tenacity, yeah, and just respect for the game and for my opponents, yeah.

Q. What is the most devastating part about the last five days?

ANDREA PETKOVIC: It was just pure sadness, which is also sometimes nice in a way. It was very pure. It wasn't really negative. It was just exhausting. Crying so much is exhausting.

I think for me - sorry (tearing up).

I think for me I still love the game, still have a tremendous amount of passion for the game. It's more the body that is not allowing me to play tennis anymore in a way that I want to play it, train the way I want to train, just play a full season really.

This year was the first year where I always had injuries in my life, but it was mostly an injury, I had to recover, then I was okay again. This year was really I had constantly to skip tournaments and to take breaks. The last four weeks I've just been playing with painkillers and antiinflammatories. That was just the part that made me decide not to continue anymore, not the lack of passion or want for the game.

So I think that was the saddest part in a way.

Q. You see things more in literary or thematic ways than anybody who played tennis. How do you see the plot at this stage of your journey?

ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, I wish obviously I could have won a few matches and maybe had a bigger court. But I am glad that, as I said in the beginning, that I played Belinda because it's somebody who I have a huge respect. Also it felt good to lose against somebody that's younger. I did feel this year also for the first time that my narrative has been told and is not relevant anymore in a way, that the new generation is taking over. I think I brought everything to the game that I had to give.

Obviously it's not in an amount as Serena, but in my own little world, I feel like I brought everything to it and my narrative was done. That was also part of it, that I just felt like I didn't have anything more to give from a narrative perspective to tennis.

It was fitting for me that I lost to a very young player, still up-and-coming. She's been around for so long, but she's still so young, you know? To somebody that's the future of tennis that's going to hopefully shape the sport for the next 10 years, so that felt fitting. Still hurtful, but fitting (smiling).

Q. You mentioned Serena a couple times. What has it been like going through your coming to grips and accepting your decision while all the noise and attention around her parallel decision is going on?

ANDREA PETKOVIC: I was glad, to be honest, because it was so tough, I was glad that the attention... I don't know how she does it. I really don't. I have so much empathy and sympathy for her right now. Everyone is different, obviously, but if she feels just a tenth of what I'm feeling plus all the attention and everyone, all the eyes on her, I really don't know.

I was so impressed by her yesterday that she managed to win. Not even because of her tennis, just because of the emotions that I'm sure she went through, as well.

Just a funny anecdote. I was coming to terms with it before Cincinnati. I wasn't going to pull a Bartoli and retire in Mason, Ohio (laughter). That at least was something I knew I wasn't going to do.

But I was contemplating if I should announce it or if I should just say it afterwards. I was like, I kind of owe it to my fans to say this might be the last tournament. I just decided, Okay, in two days I'm going to post something on social media.

The next morning I wake up, my phone is blinking too crazy, and the Serena Vogue piece came out. Okay, nobody will care (laughter).

So that's why I didn't announce it early. That's why I was a little bit, yeah, just wasn't up front about it as much as I maybe would have been.

Now, looking back at it, I'm actually glad because it's been hard without the attention. I don't know how I would have dealt with the last few weeks with the attention.

Q. Congratulations on your career.

ANDREA PETKOVIC: I have to say something, really funny. Every American that I encountered and told them I'm retiring, their first reaction was, Congratulations. Every European I told this, they were, Oh, my God, what are you going to do now?

I have to say the last few days I've embraced the American way of looking at it a little bit more. Thank you.

Q. You've had this good, long career, many generations. You spoke about how your narrative is no longer relevant. Can you go into a little more depth on that, how this sport goes through generations, what are the different narratives that were there when you began and now at the end of your career?

ANDREA PETKOVIC: Well, I think there is a three part to every career in a way. The up-and-coming, then the stable star or stable player on tour, and then the veteran in a sense. That's always felt to me.

In the beginning I was up-and-coming, then I had these injuries, then my narrative felt like the comeback story. I still wanted to prove to everyone that I could do it. Then eventually I was a little tired of tennis. Then I decided to stick with it for the love of the game. So that has been my personal narrative for the past few years.

I just felt like it was told, it was the last chapter. Just universally speaking with generations in general, I do think that there is always, especially this year and last, I think this year it settled a little more. But when I was up-and-coming, we had the same situation for a while where all these young players were coming on tour, but they still didn't find their footing. They were winning one tournament, then losing five times first round. Then all of a sudden it kind of shaped into the stars we have now who were Kvitova, Azarenka, the Williamses obviously. This is now my generation I'm talking about, Sharapova, Ivanovic, Jankovic.

I feel this is something that was happening the last two years. This year it kind of settled. We now have the stars who are going to be the future who are settling into their footprints, like Swiatek, Sakkari, Bencic, Badosa, all these players who belong in the top and who will shape the narratives of the sport in the future.

Q. Given the narrative, how do you want people to remember you and your career, what you brought to the sport?

ANDREA PETKOVIC: I think I would love to be remembered just what I mentioned in the beginning, the way I played the match today, which was always with grit and tenacity. I always fought for every point. I always was the most professional I could be. I always invested in my body. I always trained the hardest and the best I could. I was always open to new forms of training, trying new things.

Then most importantly, I think that's the most important to me, is just the respect for the game and the respect for my opponents. I always felt so grateful to be part of the WTA (tearing up). Sorry.

I always felt so grateful to be part of the WTA, all these amazing players and women that inspired me. I honestly never thought I would have the chance to compete with these tremendous athletes, women, for such a long time, toe-to-toe, eye-to-eye, every day, day in, day out. That's what I'm most grateful for.

Hopefully I could always show that on court.

Q. Over the course of your career on the tour, you always struck me as somebody who is both so in it, in the tour, while also being able to step back from it and observe it, as an intellectual, academic almost in a way. What were your biggest kind of most important observations over the course of that 15 years? What did this sport give to you? In a lot of ways it felt lucky to have you around, not go and be a lawyer, a writer, do 20,000 other things that seemed really important.

ANDREA PETKOVIC: Yeah, so, I think just what I mentioned now, it's such a competitive environment, but in the most beautiful way, if that makes sense.

I think we still, throughout all the pressure and demands that we have from our countries back home, playing Fed Cup, Billie Jean King Cup now, playing the Grand Slams, having all this pressure all the time and then going through it, and we can be competitive cats and we should be on court, but I feel like everyone empathizes with each other. I always felt with all my fellow colleagues, I think that's why it made me so emotional just talking about it.

That's what I take with it, just this competitiveness and this female environment, but at the same time the most inspiring place I could ever be.

I do like to read and I do like to intellectualize things sometimes. But when it comes down to what life is about, it's about emotions and connecting to other people. That's something I always found on the WTA Tour with my colleagues and with my other just female counterparts that were doing this really hard thing with me.

I think that's the thing that, as I said, I'm most grateful for, just something that I will cherish for the rest of my life, these lessons that I had in being able to be competitive but also kind of having a sisterhood at the same time.