I'm going to play tennis again.
That was the first thing Petra Kvitova told her team when she came to after surgeons had finished trying to repair the slashed tendons in her racket hand last December.
From that moment on, even when doctors told her she only might have a one in a hundred chance of making a full recovery, she believed she could fight her way back to the top; the violent home intruder who inflicted the damage would not wreck her career.
Kvitova exercised her left hand for three or four hours every day, one finger at a time, to strengthen it. Today she is reaping the rewards; one of the favourites for Wimbledon after just two comeback tournaments, with the title from Birmingham's Aegon Classic already in the bag, Kvitova's peers on are almost queuing up to pay tribute to her.
"Humbling," was what Johanna Konta called Kvitova's remarkable return. Angelique Kerber said she was "really happy" for her and Simona Halep called the turnaround "amazing". The 27-year-old Czech is one of the nicest players on tour and the goodwill towards her reflects that.
"The players at tournaments sent me nice messages, which was really kind and made me very happy," Kvitova, with her typical modesty, told ESPN. "I was surprised how much they cared."
Kvitova set her sights on playing at Wimbledon, a tournament she has won twice and said feels like home, from the start. She has shown formidable commitment to get there but credit, too, must go to the team around her.
Coach Jiri Vanek and fitness trainer David Vydra have seen her through a journey of the unknown and the way she embraced them at the side of the court moments after completing her Birmingham triumph spoke volumes.
"I was a little bit scared at the beginning because nobody can tell you what to do with someone who has had that type of injury," said Vanek. "We started to play with small, soft balls, then heavier ones and did a lot of stuff around the court with the right hand, like squash.
"It was tough but she took it seriously and was totally focused on that. That was the key to her coming back early."
It was a significant help to Kvitova that her father trained her to become almost ambidextrous when she was a child -- the rationale being that it would improve her balance in terms of strength and movement.
The ability to play sports such as table tennis and squash with her right hand enabled the world No. 16 to maintain hand-eye coordination, timing and anticipation, and enjoy court-based rehab options. Her ambidexterity also helps to explain why she has such a fearsome double-handed backhand.
Dealing with the psychological side of things was at least as important, however. "If this happens to you I think it can destroy you, or help you mentally," said Vanek.
Forced to call on all her reserves of self-belief, Kvitova's success has boosted her faith in her resilience. There have been lows, of course, with a notable one at the French Open, she said, but it is getting better "every day, every week".
"I'm trying not to think about what happened," Kvitova added. "It's weird if I say I'm a mentally strong person, but I think I must be."
She has a mental coach and has been working with him "often" since the incident and, at least, questions about the incident have been off limits, with the WTA citing the on-going police investigation. "He helped me a lot to get over this bad experience," Kvitova said.
Having to relive such a nasty moment would probably be nightmare-inducing, but Kvitova would surely have been asked to do so by someone by now; that's the life in the media spotlight at the top of her sport.
Kvitova's team have also been creative, keeping things fresh in her recovery by regularly switching location, making things fun, getting plenty of down time, and using it well. They worked in Monaco, where she lives, Prague and Lanzarote; went walking, to the cinema, out to restaurants.
They were due to arrive in Wimbledon on Wednesday after Kvitova pulled out of Eastbourne with an abdominal strain, edging closer to the moment she has been waiting months for.
"It's weird if I say I'm a mentally strong person, but I think I must be." Petra Kvitova
The pressure that could bring may not be helpful for her chances. Kvitova played poorly in the final in Birmingham, and admitted she didn't handle the nerves of a more high-profile situation well. That she could win anyway showed she had guts, and she took satisfaction from that, but it left question marks for Wimbledon.
Kvitova will need to produce more of the form that took her to the final to make inroads in SW19. She was hitting hard and low, as ever, and her serve -- with 39 aces in five matches -- has lost none of its potential, even if she double-faulted far too often.
Encouragingly, she dispatched world No. 12 Kristina Mladenovic at the Edgbaston Priory Club, which was good preparation for the type of test she will face at Wimbledon. But if there was one person not getting carried away, it was Kvitova.
She has found a new perspective after her trauma, which puts the importance of sport in its rightful place. Whether she lives up to her pre-tournament billing at The Championships will be far from her thoughts -- she's just glad to be alive.