The two-times Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova says she is “fortunate to be alive” after suffering “severe” hand injuries defending herself against a knife-wielding robber at her home. Kvitova underwent surgery on Tuesday afternoon and police confirmed the person responsible remains at large.

Karel Tejkal, the player’s spokesman, said Kvitova, the world No11, suffered wounds to her left hand and has been treated by doctors following the incident on Tuesday morning in the eastern Czech town of Prostejov. Her attacker reportedly posed as a utilities worker and stole the equivalent of £155.

In a statement on her Facebook page, Kvitova said: “Today I was attacked in my apartment by an individual with a knife. In my attempt to defend myself, I was badly injured on my left hand. I am shaken but fortunate to be alive. The injury is severe and I will need to see specialists, but if you know anything about me I am strong and I will fight this.”

A police spokesman, Frantisek Korinek, had told blesk.cz: “Today before half past eight in the morning, a 26-year-old woman was attacked near Prostejov. The unidentified perpetrator broke into the apartment using a ruse.” He added that the attacker, a man estimated to be about 35, escaped from the scene and that police have launched a manhunt.

Kvitova was scheduled to participate in a charity event in Brno on Tuesday with another Czech player, Lucie Safarova. “It’s horrible,” Safarova told Czech public radio. “Things like that are shocking to all of us. It can happen to any one of us. That’s really terrible.”

Kvitova, who won the women’s singles titles at Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014, had already withdrawn from the Czech Republic team at next month’s Hopman Cup mixed-team tournament because of a foot injury. “I am so disappointed I cannot play at the @hopmancup,” she tweeted earlier on Tuesday. “The results of an MRI have confirmed that my foot is healing but not as quickly as we would have liked. The Hopman Cup is a fantastic event and I’m sorry I won’t be able to represent my country there.”

In 2007 Anna Chakvetadze, a former world No5, was tied up along with her parents during a robbery at their home in Moscow in which masked men stole £150,000-worth of cash and jewellery, an attack she admitted left her suffering sleepless nights.

“I got an arm nerve injury after they tied it up with TV cable, and it took one month to feel my arm again,” Chakvetadze, who retired in 2013 at the age of 26, told the New York Times. “With a knife, it’s even worse. I hope she will recover as soon as possible, mentally and physically, but it will not be easy.”

Monica Seles was at the height of her success in April 1993 when she was stabbed in the back during a changeover at a tournament in Hamburg. A man reached over a courtside railing and knifed her, leaving an inch-deep slit between her shoulder blades.

Seles returned to the game 27 months later and reached the 1995 US Open final but though she won a fourth Australian Open title in 1996, she was unable to consistently reproduce her best form and finished with nine grand slam titles.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...epublic-tennis