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Reigning Wimbledon Champion, France’s Marion Bartoli has announced her retirement from professional tennis at a relatively young age of 28.
The Wimbledon champion has been laid low with a string of injuries and has had to fight through them for most of her career. She made a tearful announcement after she lost a match at the Western & Southern Open, saying that she could not cope with the constant pain on court.
“My body was really starting to fall apart and I was able to keep it together, go through the pain — with a lot of pain — throughout this Wimbledon and make it happen,” said Bartoli, as reported by ESPN.
“That was probably the last little bit of something that was left inside me.
“I’ve been playing for a long, long, long time, and it’s time for me now. It is.” said Bartoli, unable to hold back the tears.
Bartoli was able to win this years Wimbledon after beating Sabine Lisicki of Germany in the final, and promptly celebrated with her father Walter whom she credits to have been a constant source of support.
But after losing here in a three setter to Simona Halep with a scoreline of 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, she called her father and then came to the decision.
“I have pain everywhere after 45 minutes or an hour of play,” she said. “I’ve been doing this for so long. And yeah, it’s just body-wise, I can’t do it anymore.”
Bartoli has had injury issues with her left foot, right hamstring, right ankle and an Achilles tendon injury, and said that she was troubled by all sorts of pain in her match on Wednesday night, and that it has been like this for a while now.
Marion Bartoli was able to move up to number seven in the world ranking and was also able to win her first Grand Slam in her 47th attempt, the longest wait for any women player in history.
“You know, everyone will remember my Wimbledon title,” she said. “No one will remember the last match I played here.
“It’s been a tough decision to take. I don’t take this easily. I mean, I’ve been a tennis player for a long time and I had a chance to make my biggest dream a reality. I felt I really, really pushed through the ultimate limits to make it happen.
“But now I just can’t do it anymore.” she concluded.
