She was born in Yambol, and represented the club Tundzha Yambol. She won silver medals at the 1977 and 1978 European Indoor Championships. In 1977 she was only 0.05 seconds behind the gold medallist Jane Colebrook. Also, she continued a strong tradition of Bulgarian 800 metres runners, who had taken medals at the previous European Indoor Championships in 1972, 1973, 1975 and 1976. Other than Petrova, these medals were taken by Svetla Zlateva, Stefka Yordanova, Rositsa Pekhlivanova, Nikolina Shtereva and Lilyana Tomova.