Petra Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion, said she was “fortunate to be alive” on Tuesday after a man attacked her with a knife at her home, robbing her of around £155 and leaving her with potential career-threatening injuries.

Police in the Czech Republic were hunting the assailant who conned his way into Kvitova’s flat in the eastern town of Prostejov by posing as an electricity-maintenance worker before trying to rob her at knife-point.

The attack happened before 8.30am local time when Kvitova, who was eating breakfast, answered the doorbell to a man who claimed he had come to read the meter. After being allowed into the flat, he threatened her with the knife, a police spokesman said.

The 26-year-old Czech fought back but suffered cuts to all five fingers of her playing hand, her left, sustaining damage to the tendons, according to the local Prostojovsky Vecernik newspaper. The attacker, described as around 5ft 11in and aged about 35, stole 5,000 koruna before fleeing and is thought to be still at large. Police appealed to the public to report anyone meeting his description.

Kvitova, winner of the singles title at Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014, was taken to hospital in Brno, the Czech Republic’s second city, around 40 miles away, where she had an operation on Tuesday evening, according to her PR manager Katie Spellman. “Petra has undergone surgery for three hours and 45 minutes,” Spellman tweeted on Tuesday evening. “Considering the extent of the damage, the surgery went very well. Doctors repaired to tendons in all five digits of the left hand as well as two nerves. Petra will wear a cast on her hand for six to eight weeks and will be unable to bear weight for three months.

“Doctors are optimistic she will be able to play tennis again,” Spellman later told Press Association.

The player herself posted a message on Facebook and Twitter thanking fans for their support. “As you may have already heard, today I was attacked in my apartment by an individual with a knife,” she wrote. “In my attempt to defend myself, I was badly injured on my left hand. I am shaken, but fortunate to be alive. The injury is severe and I will need to see specialists, but if you know anything about me I am strong and I will fight this. Thank you all again for your love and support.”

Petra Kvitova had been due to take part in a charity tennis exhibition in Brno on Tuesday. Photograph: Vaclav Salek/AP

Kvitova, currently the world No11, is a celebrity in the Czech Republic and her publicist, Karel Tejkal, said she appeared to have been the victim of a “random criminal act” and was not a carefully chosen target. “It was not that they would go intentionally to rob Petra,” he said. “Her injuries are not life-threatening.”

The attack has severely jeopardised Kvitova’s chances of competing at the next grand slam, the Australian Open, which begins in Melbourne on 16 January, and for which she was already doubtful because of a foot injury. That problem had already caused her to withdraw from the Czech Republic’s team for the Hopman Cup, which starts on New Year’s Day in Perth, Western Australia.

Kvitova endured one of her most troubled seasons in 2016, dropping out of the top 10 for the first time in three years although she did win the bronze medal at the Rio Olympics. A stomach problem early in the year affected her form and she went out of Wimbledon in the second round, after a bizarre 6-0, 6-7, 6-0 defeat to Shelby Rogers in the early stages of the French Open. She has recently announced that Jiri Vanek, a former Czech men’s player, will be her new coach in the 2017 season.

The incident evoked memories of previous attacks on elite tennis players. Monica Seles, the then world No1, suffered severe injuries that kept her out of the sport for 27 months after being stabbed in the back at court-side during a tournament in Hamburg in 1993. She returned in 1995 and though she won the Australian Open in 1996, it was her ninth and final grand slam title as she struggled to consistently find her best form thereafter.

In 2007 Russia’s Anna Chakvetadze, a former world No5, was tied up along with her parents during a robbery in Moscow in which masked men stole £150,000 in cash and jewellery.