Kvitova announces second pregnancy in family Instagram post

Weeks after she closed the book on her Hologic WTA Tour career at the US Open, former World No. 2 Petra Kvitova is beginning a next chapter. She'll soon be a mother of two.

The 35-year-old announced Thursday that she and husband Jiri Vanek are expanding their family. 

The couple, who married in 2023, already share son Petr, born last July -- and the toddler played a role in Kvitova's second pregnancy announcement. She posted a photo of the family of three wrote in the caption in Czech and English: "Our little boy will soon become a big brother."

Kvitova returned to tennis earlier this year after a 17-month maternity leave, fittingly welcoming her son during the 2024 fortnight of the grass-court Grand Slam she won twice.

The love of the game, rather than returning to her previous glory, brought the left-hander back to the tour in February at the ATX Open -- but she decided by the summer that she was ready to hang up her racquets for good. She won just one of the nine matches she played after coming back, and announced in June that the US Open would be her final event. 

"Mentally, I think I can’t do it any more, as well as emotionally and physically. ... You still remember how you played before, how everything was smooth and I was hitting winners and suddenly it’s not there," she said in New York.

“I’m totally ready. I’m not regretting anything. I still love tennis but everything else, waiting for the practices, waiting for the car, waiting for a match, it’s just tiring. And having a son, it’s a totally different life. I just want to spend more time with him as well."

Kvitova's career ended with a first-round loss to Diane Parry in New York.

Popular in the locker room, Kvitova was an eight-time Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award winner as voted by her peers -- and received a flood of congratulatory messages including from players like Belinda Bencic, Sorana Cirstea, Carla Suárez Navarro and Elena Vesnina.