Kvitova is a two-time Wimbledon champion (©GettyImages). A man has been arrested for allegedly making threats of a serious nature to Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.
Czech police confirmed they arrested a 23-year-old man who had made threats towards a “publicly known person” in a phone conversation on Thursday, though it has not been confirmed that the person on the receiving end of the threats was Kvitova.
Serious threats
Police spokeswoman Gabriela Holcakova said that the man was arrested as the threats were deemed to be serious.
Karel Tejkal, a spokesman for the 24-year-old, said that the Czech number one had not been spoken to or threatened directly, but that the police “did a good job.”
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Tax avoidance
It is believed that any threats that could have been made towards the world number four were linked to her moving her place of residence to Monaco last November as part of a tax avoidance plan, which she was criticised for by a member of parliament.
Monte Carlo is a tax haven, with individuals being able to not pay income or property taxes, and Kvitova is not the only well-known tennis player that lives there when on a break from the tour, as Novak Djokovic, Milos Raonic and Bernard Tomic are all players from the men’s game who have a property there, as well as Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka from the women’s game.
Controversy
Stanislav Huml, a Czech politician, went as far as to say that the Prague-born player should lose her Czech citizenship.
Huml said to Radio Impuls, a Czech radio station: “I think that we should all have a long and hard think about the fact that if someone leaves the Czech Republic and becomes a member of another state, then they should lose their Czech citizenship.
“Because I don’t know that the few percent less in taxes that she stands to pay in a country like Monaco deflects from the fact that perhaps the Czech Republic actually helped her achieve some of her success.”
Support
The situation sparked debate in Kvitova’s country, as she was backed by Ivo Kaderka, the head of the Czech tennis association, who said he was “very sorry” to hear such criticism about her.
Kvitova has represented her country in the Federations Cup, and she helped guide them to victory in the competition in 2011 and 2012, though her position in the team could cause further controversy.
Wimbledon win
The news of her tax saving scheme broke just days after Kvitova claimed victory at Wimbledon, which she won for the second time last Saturday after beating Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard 6-3, 6-0 in the final.
It had been three years since Kvitova won her first title at SW19, as she caused a shock in 2011 by beating former champion Maria Sharapova in the final, though she had not achieved similar success in the time between her two Grand Slam titles.
Her victory over the Russian made her the first Czech-born woman to win a Grand Slam since Jana Novotna at Wimbledon in 1998, and despite runs to the semi-finals of the Australian Open and French Open in 2012, she has not reached the quarter-finals of any other Grand Slam in the last two years.
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