Andrea Petkovic has withdrawn from Hyundai Hopman Cup 2013 due to injury.
The popular German sustained an injury to her right knee during her first match against Australia’s Ashleigh Barty at the Perth Arena on Saturday night.
“I had the MRI this morning and it’s a rupture of the medial meniscus … and I’m going back to Germany now and I’ll have to have an arthroscopy,” Petkovic told media on Sunday.
At this stage it’s unknown how long she will be out of the game.
“The thing is they don’t know … if they have to trim it then it would be fine and I’ll only be out for a month.
“If they have to sew it up again it would take two to three months, which would be worse definitely, but nonetheless I’m quite relieved that it wasn’t the ACL because it was a very similar pain and very similar symptoms to 2008 when I had my ACL torn in Australia.”
Despite the poor run of injuries that Petkovic has sustained throughout her career, the effervescent 25-year-old is remaining positive.
“My team and I we are actually managing to take it tragically funny I would say.
“I got used to a lot of mess this year, everything bad that could happen happened to me, so nothing surprises me anymore, so I’m just really looking forward and hoping I have a quick recovery.”
The injury occurred late in the first set, which Petkovic won 6-4. The former world No.9 tested her right knee before walking to her seat and calling for the trainer.
As the trainer checked the knee, which was re-constructed in 2008, Petkovic broke down in tears as she considered the potential of the injury. Meanwhile, her father, Zoran, was also reduced to tears as he watched his daughter discuss the problem with the trainer.
With Petkovic’s forced withdrawal from Saturday night’s match versus Australia, Barty was awarded the match and Australia the mixed doubles rubber 6-0 6-0, handing the locals a 3-0 victory following Bernard Tomic’s thrilling three-set win over Tommy Haas in the first match of the night session at the Perth Arena.
“It was really disappointing because I always wanted to play Hopman Cup and I always wanted to play with Tommy Haas, he’s a great idol of mine,” said Petkovic.
For Germany, Haas will continue in the event but his potential replacement partner may not be German.
“I think Donna Vekic is going to replace me, which is probably very strange for Tommy – playing with a Croatian girl, but I just taught her some German words,” joked Petkovic.
Vekic is the world’s highest ranked 16-year-old – No.109 – and was originally invited to the event to be a hitting partner for the players.
Germany’s next match is scheduled for Wednesday against Italy during the day session.
