Andrea Petkovic receives wildcard for Royal Indian Open – Tennis News
Former world number nine, Andrea Petkovic, has accepted the wildcard to play second and final Women Tennis Association inaugural 125 events named Royal Indian Open. The contested will be played at Outdoors in Pune. Other cities
that have got a privilege to host a WTA-level event in India are Hyderabad (2003 to 2005) and Bangalore (2006 to 2008).
Petkovic will enter the tournament as the sixth seed wildcard entrant but considered to be the toughest player in the draw and most likely to clinch a title as well. The German superstar who didn’t feature in any tournament from
April until August of the current season dropped to world number 143. She was carrying a severe injury that was considered to be career-threatening as well but the 25-year-old German luckily recovered from that and made a comeback at the tennis courts of New
Haven. She missed all the three Grand Slam Championships including the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon due to injury but featured the US Open Championships.
Former German number one has played just 19 matches this season with just nine victories to her name. She struggled from the injury right from the start; falling out in the quarter-final of the Brisbane International having started
it as the second seed. She lost in the second round of Apia Sydney International as well. She didn’t take part in any sort of play from that point until the Federation Cup tie in April. Petkovic failed to squeeze a win in the Federation Cup tie against Australian
tennis ace, Samantha Stosur.
At her home soil, the 25-year-old just managed a single win before retiring from a contest against the reigning world number one, Victoria Azarenka, at Stuttgart. The reason for the withdrawal was the same injury that kept her
out of action in the entire month of February. The German didn’t take part in any sort of professional tennis for three months before making a comeback in the New Haven Open at Yale. She clinched one win before bowing out to the sixth seed Slovak star, Dominika
Cibulkova, in round two.
No victory at the US Open in New York and just one glory moment at the China Open didn’t help her cause. Moreover, a second round exit at the Generali Ladies Linz further inflated her frustration. In the BGL Luxembourg Open, the
German look back in form before the former world number one, Venus Williams, stepped in her way and ousted her in the semi-final.
Petkovic has another chance to regain form before the start of the new season at Pune.
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