Petra Kvitova joined around 300 guests at a funeral ceremony for her fellow Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna in Brno on Monday.
"I have admired her fighting spirit," Kvitova said of her Czech compatriot, who died from cancer on Sunday November 19 at the age of 49.
She was joined by doubles champion Helena Sukova, Fed Cup coach Petr Pala, 1973 men's Wimbledon champion Jan Kodes, and Czech Tennis Association chairman Ivo Kaderka, who described Novotna as "a great person and a good girl".
She won 17 Grand Slam titles - 12 in doubles, four in mixed doubles, and that famous Wimbledon singles crown in 1998 - and was a three-time Olympic medalist as well as a member of her country’s victorious Fed Cup championship team in 1988.
Separately, her team-mate and one-time coach Hana Mandlikova told tennis.com: “Everyone always said she was a choker, or that she got nervous. But on that day at Wimbledon, Jana she proved that a champion has to have strength. Hers was that she was a fighter. That’s the way I’ll always remember her.
"I learned so much from Jana. It was amazing how she bounced back so quickly from bad losses. Almost immediately she was ready to start working hard again to get better.”
Read more:
A tennis life like no other: Remembering Jana Novotna
Jana Novotna in pictures: The triumphs and the tears
Social media tributes to Jana Novotna
