Kvitova bids farewell to the place that made her star

It has been 14 years, or 5,113 days to be precise, since a beaming Petra Kvitova saw her name being added in gold print to the famed green honours board at Wimbledon moments after she had held aloft the Venus Rose-water Dish for the first time.

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Yet on Tuesday, after she signed off on her 17-year Wimbledon adventure with a first-round 6-3, 6-1 defeat by American 10th seed Emma Navarro, the Czech wasted little time in giving a vivid blow-by-blow account of that magical fortnight.

"I do remember very clearly what happened out there. I do remember [the semis)] with Vika [Victoria Azarenka] was three sets. It was always big battles to play with her," said the 35-year-old Kvitova, who gave birth to her son during last year’s Wimbledon fortnight.

"To be honest, I don’t know where the [6-3, 6-4] performance came from in that final [against Maria Sharapova]. I was very grateful that it came in the right moment, that I served it out for the match. That was something which I will never be able to describe because it was such a surprise.