Andrea Petkovic brings everything she had to give in completing final US Open chapter

FLASHBACK: When Petkovic beat Muguruza in Berlin

NEW YORK—Court 7, a small field court, 80 percent of its 1,494 seats filled for an intriguing first round match between 13th-seeded Belinda Bencic and Andrea Petkovic. It’s an English major’s kind of matchup. Bencic is all about composition, her game a set of sharply structured movements and crisp drives, struck earlier than most players. Petkovic has a deep love of literature, her readerly passions including Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, Samuel Beckett and many more – an incredibly rare intellect, particularly for a tennis player.

Long a fan favorite for the post-match “Petko Dance” she debuted here 12 years ago, last week, Petkovic announced that this year’s US Open will mark her last Slam appearance. “I think for me I still love the game, still have a tremendous amount of passion for the game,” Petkovic said tonight. “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.”

Bencic handily snapped up the first set, 6-2, in 30 minutes. But as the second set got underway, both Petkovic and the weather got hotter. She went up 4-1, and though Bencic eventually caught up to 4-all, Petkovic swiftly grabbed the next two games to level the match. So hot had it gotten by this stage that the extreme weather rule went into effect, each player granted a ten-minute break.

Also in the crowd: an inspired fan who constantly drummed up the crowd to chant, “let’s go, Petko” several times on each changeover. There also came a moment when that same passionate Petkovic fan got spectators on one side of the court to yell out “Andrea” and those on the other side to scream “Petkovic.”

Toss in a warm wind, Petkovic’s flat drives, and Bencic’s precision began to waver—accompanied soon by her poise. With Petkovic serving in the third at 2-2, 15-love, Bencic lost the point and smashed a racquet to the ground, cracking it well enough to warrant a replacement. At this stage, as the Aussies like to say, Bencic was “keen to lose.” Perhaps there would be a few more pages in the Petkovic story.

But then, her back to the wall, Bencic served at 3-4—and from there, won 12 of the next 13 points.

It was over, the two sharing a warm hug, the crowd loudly cheering Petkovic. Said Bencic, “I felt like for sure she felt a relief, maybe sadness, I'm not sure. In this moment I just tried to make it nice for her.”

Said Petkovic, “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.”

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. Andrea Petkovic

Having frequently spoken about books and ideas with Petkovic, I couldn’t help but ask her to describe her current emotional state in literary terms. Said Petkovic, “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.”

Even more, in this final US Open press conference, Petkovic brought the sincerity and passion that has marked her entire career. Several times, she broke into tears. And then, she said, “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.”

If at one level, tennis is an individual sport, at another, it is a sport of relationships. Petkovic’s ability to recognize and articulate this is unquestionably one of the many great gifts that define her tennis legacy.