'I'm calling it my second career': Kvitova opens up about emotions on return to Grand Slam semifinal

MELBOURNE, Australia - As Petra Kvitova started to answer the first question of her on-court interview after blitzing Ashleigh Barty 6-1, 6-4 in the Australian Open quarterfinals, the Czech star was overcome with emotion.

But they were "happy tears, for sure", she said afterwards: a reflection of just how much it meant to her to finally return to the last four of a major for the first time since Wimbledon 2014, for the first time in Melbourne since 2012 - and for the first time since a horrific knife attack sidelined her for six months, necessitating complicated hand microsurgery and raising the fear that the two-time Wimbledon champion might never play tennis again.

In Kvitova's first career, she quickly gained a reputation as a big-stage player. Racking up five Grand Slam semifinals between 2010 and 2014, inconsistency at warm-up tournaments was no barrier to the big-hitting left-hander bringing out her phenomenal "peak Petra" level when it mattered most, as the two routs she delivered in her Wimbledon finals to Maria Sharapova and Eugenie Bouchard demonstrate.

But although the 28-year-old showed that the knife attack had not robbed her of that level, she admitted after crashing out of last year's Wimbledon in the first round to Aliaksandra Sasnovich that something had changed: "When I was kind of younger, I played better on the Grand Slams than the other tournaments," she mused. Now, though, "probably I wanted [it] too much".

Today, Kvitova said that she and her team had been "trying everything" since Wimbledon to resolve this. "I was nervous during this tournament as well, especially the first round," she recalled.

"And actually the last round when I played Anisimova, as well. There are matches when I am nervous, but I can't really do anything with that. I just need to have a good warmup to kind of stress it out and play from the first point, which I did today, as well. That was important. I felt more relaxed afterwards."

Kvitova also drew on her enforced hiatus - which had both made her hungrier and given her more perspective. "That year I didn't play here, I was watching TV when other players played," she remembered. "It wasn't really great feelings, to be honest. I really missed that a lot."

However, there's another side to winning and losing that Kvitova now sees. "I know it's just the sport, it's just the tennis," she said. "Always when you're doing something, you want to do best. Of course, losing hurts a lot because you are doing everything for it.

"On the other hand, like the day after... I'm always looking back [to] see what I been done and what I achieved from the time. It's always both sides. But in the end, always the life wins."

Kvitova admitted that her on-court tears had been down to the fact that "it wasn't really easy for me to see myself being in a semifinal after everything". But she's ready to embrace a new start: "I'm calling it my second career," she announced. "So it's the first semifinal of the second career. It took me while, for sure."

Seven years ago in Melbourne, Kvitova was one set away from taking the World No.1 ranking - but fell 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in the semifinals to Maria Sharapova. This year, the top spot is again up for grabs - and she's in front running to capture it for the first time. Not that it's been on her mind.

"Actually that's the first time what I'm hearing this," she told the press. "I don't really care, to be honest. I'm in the tournament, in a Slam. I don't think there's any room here to think about it [pointing to head. In the next match, playing Danielle [Collins] in the semifinal. That's what matter right now."

Nonetheless, it would be fitting if Kvitova's inspiring comeback came full circle this fortnight - and, having not dropped a set so far, she enters the last four with her confidence and form as high as they've ever been.