Andrea Petković was born in Yugoslavia.[2] but at the age of five, the family relocated to Germany. Petković first took to the tennis courts when she was six; Her father Zoran Petković, former Yugoslav tennis player and member of the Yugoslavia Davis Cup team,[3] was a coach at a club in Darmstadt at the time. He introduced
her to the sport and later became her coach.[4] She was able to finish high school before competing in tennis full-time because Zoran never influenced her into joining the professional circuit.
Apart from tennis, she likes to educate herself by reading; her favourite authors are Goethe and Wilde.[4] Her
mother Amira is a dental assistant while her younger sister Anja is a student.[4] Petković graduated from high school in 2006 with an Abitur from the Georg-Büchner-Schule in Darmstadt, a Gymnasium. She has been studying Political science at the Distance University of Hagen since 2008.[6]
Since the beginning of her professional career, she keeps a diary at irregular intervals about her life on the WTA-Tour in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a major German newspaper.[7] Petković obtained German citizenship in 2001. She speaks Serbian, German, English and French.[4] Petković is of Serb ancestry and
was born in present day Bosnia and Herzegovina (then part of SFR Yugoslavia), in a 2009 interview with the WTA she stated how her parents might move to Novi Sad, Serbia, where they have a second home.[8] When asked how German she feels Petković replied that "Obviously I'm German, but I always say my soul is still Serbian. Germans are generally more cool, reserved. I'm very emotional, have lots of fire in my personality. In that sense still feel very close to my heritage. For all that, there is much to appreciate about Germany. I feel like I am part of the 'system' and feel very rooted there
Petković turned professional in 2006 after she finished school,[4] but she had already won 4 ITF titles. She was the winner of the tournaments in Antalya, Podgorica (both in 2004), Davos and Alphen aan den Rijn (both in 2005).
In April 2007, she became a member of the German Fed Cup team. She played her first Grand Slam at the 2007 French Open, where she reached the second round after coming through the qualifying without losing a set and beating Jarmila Groth. There she lost 6–0 2–6 3–6 to later Wimbledon-finalist Marion Bartoli. After this, and having some success on the ITF-Circuit (she won the ITF title in Contrexéville in July 2007), she reached the Top 100 in the WTA-Ranking for the first time. Because of that, she was able to play in the 2007 US Open main draw without having to qualify. She once again reached the second round after beating Audra Cohen. Petković turned professional in 2006 after she finished school,[4] but she had already won 4 ITF titles. She was the winner of the tournaments in Antalya, Podgorica (both in 2004), Davos and Alphen aan den Rijn (both in 2005).
In April 2007, she became a member of the German Fed Cup team. She played her first Grand Slam at the 2007 French Open, where she reached the second round after coming through the qualifying without losing a set and beating Jarmila Groth. There she lost 6–0 2–6 3–6 to later Wimbledon-finalist Marion Bartoli. After this, and having some success on the ITF-Circuit (she won the ITF title in Contrexéville in July 2007), she reached the Top 100 in the WTA-Ranking for the first time. Because of that, she was able to play in the 2007 US Open main draw without having to qualify. She once again reached the second round after beating Audra Cohen. In round two she lost to Lucie Šafářová 3–6 3–6.
At the Australian Open in January 2008, in her first round match against Russia's Anna Chakvetadze, she suffered a cruciate ligament rupture in her right knee after only two minutes of play. This prevented her from playing any tournament for almost eight months, which caused her ranking drop down to a lowest level of 465.[4][6] After the injury, she started playing mostly on the ITF-Circuit again where she could win a tournament in Istanbul in November 2008. She finished the year with
