TENNIS

Kvitova facing six months of recovery after attack

Petra Kvitova could return to tennis in about six months, the surgeon who operated on the two-time Wimbledon champion’s left hand said Wednesday.

Kvitova was injured Tuesday when a knife-wielding intruder attacked her at her home in the Czech town of Prostejov. The attacker is still at large.

Kvitova underwent nearly four hours of surgery on Tuesday at a specialized clinic in the northern town of Vysoke nad Jizerou.

“When we talk about (playing tennis), it will take about six months,” said surgeon Radek Kebrle of the Hand and Plastic Surgery Institute. “It’s a serious injury and we have to deal with that accordingly.

“She’s young and healthy and has long, slim fingers,” he said. “That’s a good prognosis.”

Earlier Wednesday, Kvitova’s spokesman, Karel Tejkal, said the surgery was successful and Kvitova was feeling good.

Kvitova sustained damage to the tendons in her left hand, along with injuries to all five fingers and two nerves.

AUSTRALIAN OPEN: Organizers say they will offer 50 million Australian dollars ($36.2 million) in prize money for the 2017 tennis tournament, a 14 percent increase.

HOCKEY

AHL: Arizona Coyotes minor leaguer Craig Cunningham, a former Boston Bruin, could be released from the hospital this week, over a month after collapsing on the ice before a Tucson Roadrunners game.

Cunningham, his mother and his doctors at Banner-University Medical Center Tucson met with reporters Wednesday, his first public appearance since suffering cardiac arrest on Nov. 19.

The 26-year-old Cunningham required more than 85 minutes of CPR and doctors said he was lucky to have made it.

Doctors from Banner-UMC and Carondelet St. Mary’s Hospital performed a series of innovative medical procedures to help save Cunningham.

He had hoped to be released from the hospital to a rehabilitation facility on Wednesday, but a lingering infection has delayed that.

RUNNING

BOSTON MARATHON: Galen Rupp, who won bronze in the marathon at the Rio Olympics, will run the Boston Marathon for the first time in April.

The U.S. Elite Team for the April 17 race will also include 2014 Boston winner Meb Keflezighi and Jared Ward, who joined Rupp and Keflezighi on the U.S. team in Rio.

Shalane Flanagan and Desi Linden, who finished sixth and seventh, respectively in Rio, will lead the U.S. women’s field in Boston. Flanagan ran the fastest time by an American woman at Boston in 2014 when she finished in 2:22:02. Linden finished second at Boston in 2011.

WEIGHTLIFTING

DOPING SUSPENSIONS: The International Weightlifting Federation has suspended 16-year-old Alina-Alexandra Popovici for four years and Yuliya Kalina for two years for doping.

The federation said Popovici, Romania’s national champion in the 48-kilogram category, tested positive for the anabolic steroid Stanozol in an out-of-competition test.

Popovici tested positive after she won the national title this year.

Kalina won bronze at the 2012 Olympics but was stripped of her medal this year after a reanalysis of her doping sample.

SOCCER

BUNDESLIGA: United States forward Julian Green is leaving Bayern Munich for second-division Stuttgart, seeking an opportunity to play regularly.

Copy the Story Link