Lol to the tennis troll: Andrea Petkovic returns online critic's volley

There may not be a stack of Grand Slam championships à la Serena Williams but Andrea Petkovic's time on the international tennis circuit has been successful nonetheless. Six singles titles and more than 8 million euros in prize money since she turned professional in 2004.

Perhaps more trophies could have come the former world number nine's way had she not been hit by a series of back and knee injuries.

Renowned as one of the more thoughtful and amiable on the women's tour, the 32-year-old German had lined up the 2020 season for her farewell.

But the suspension of tournaments due to the coronavirus pandemic forced a rethink of retirement plans.

On Monday at the bett1 Aces grass court exhibition event in Berlin, Petkovic, who is returning from surgery on her left knee in February,  faced the former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.

In 10 official meetings on the circuit, it was honours even between the two. 

But after a close first set, the 12th ranked Czech ran away with the second to register a 6-4, 6-1 victory and progress into Tuesday's semi-final against Belgium's Kiki Bertens.

After the defeat at the Steffi-Graf stadium, Petkovic opened up her social media accounts to find several complaints about her abilities.

Abuse
"You are so terrible! I think you should quit tennis and do [sic] a different career," wrote an Instagram user. 

Petkovic, sharing the message on Twitter, smashed back the volley.

"Bro, have you been living under a rock? 1) I have 3 careers going at the same and hate to toot my own horn but I'm awesome and 2) you try returning Petra's leftie serve on grass and then get back to me. Love."

As well as her tennis, Petkovic is a presenter for the German broadcaster ZDF. An autobiography is due out in October and she runs an online book club, which has just under 5,000 followers on Instagram.

"I got used to these things years back and do not care whatsoever. i had ten of these today AFTER AN EXHO [exhibition match]. but the career thing was funny to me - wrong person, buddy, wrong person."