"I loved your game and personality "- Chris Evert sends heartfelt message to Anett Kontaveit after Estonian's retirement

Anett Kontaveit bid farewell to tennis after her exit at Wimbledon. The Estonian suffered a lot of injury issues in recent years, which propelled her to retire from the sport.

Wimbledon was her last tournament, and she reached the second round after beating Lucrezia Stefanini 6-4, 6-4. However, she suffered a 6-1, 6-2 loss to 32nd seed Marie Bouzkova.

Chris Evert was one of the many players who paid tribute to Anett Kontaveit after her retirement.

The former World No. 1 stated on social media that the Estonian was among her favorite players and that she loved her playing style and personality. She wished Kontaveit the very best in her life.

"Anett, you were one of my favorites! I loved your game and your personality... Good luck, you have a wonderful life ahead of you," Chris Evert tweeted.

Anett Kontaveit said in her final post-match press conference that she was glad to see several people cheering for her in what turned out to be her last professional singles match.

"Yeah, it was incredible to have Court 18 full of people, so many people cheering for me. Of course, the match didn't go the way I wanted it to, but I was so happy to be able to play in front of so many people, that so many people that love me were able to see me play for the last time - in singles," the Estonian said.

Kontaveit also competed in the mixed doubles tournament, where Emil Ruusuvuori was her partner.

The duo lost 6-3, 6-4 to the Chinese-German duo of Yang Zhaoxuan and Kevin Krawietz. This turned out to be the last tennis match of her career.

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Anett Kontaveit won only four matches in the 2023 season

Anett Kontaveit in action against Marie Bouzkova at Wimbledon

Kontaveit won only four out of 12 singles matches in 2023, with her best performance being reaching the second round at Wimbledon, the Australian Open, the Italian Open, and the Abu Dhabi Open.

The Estonian finishes her career with six singles titles to her name, including three WTA 500 tournament wins. Her last triumph came at the St. Petersburg Trophy in 2022, beating Maria Sakkari in the final.

Anett Kontaveit reached the final of the 2021 WTA Finals as well as two WTA 1000 events in Wuhan (2018) and Doha (2022).

Her best Grand Slam performance was reaching the quarterfinals of the 2020 Australian Open. She attained a career-best ranking of World No. 2 in 2022.