The second act of Andrea Petkovic’s career began weeks before COVID took hold in 2020. Pekovic, a former world no. 9, was sidelined off-court with a left-knee injury that required surgical intervention. Her doctor didn’t mince words. “He told me, you will have two to three more years in your knee for competition after this, and if you don’t wanna destroy your knee completely, then you should probably think about [the end],” she said. Petkovic was already in her early 30s, and wrestling with the existential question every player grinding it out on tour eventually contends with: “How long am I going to be able to do this?” The finitude of her joints had spoken.

After a stint hosting a weekly sports television show in Germany and playing on tour at the same time, Petkovic hung up her racquet

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