Former British No. 1 Johanna Konta announces retirement from tennis, says she's "incredibly grateful" for the career she had

Former British No. 1 Johanna Konta announced on Wednesday that she is calling time on her professional tennis career. Konta said she had fulfilled her dream of becoming a tennis player and expressed her gratitude at how her career panned out.

"Grateful! This is the word I've probably used the most during my career, and is the word that I feel explains it the best at the end. My playing career has come to an end, and I am so incredibly grateful for the career it turned out to be," Konta wrote on Twitter.

The 30-year-old turned professional in 2008 and made her breakthrough in 2016 when she reached the semifinals of the Australian Open and the quarterfinals of three WTA 1000 events.

The Brit finished the year as the World No. 10 and continued her rise with a victory at the Miami Masters and a run to the Wimbledon semifinals in 2017.

Konta suffered a dip in form in 2018 but her performances improved the following year as she reached the semifinals of the French Open and the quarterfinals of Wimbledon and the US Open. She also reached the final of the Italian Open.

But the Brit's form has deteriorated once again this year, with her ranking slipping to a lowly 113.

Despite her struggles, Konta said she was feeling "incredibly fortunate" with how things turned out.

"All the evidence pointed towards me not "making" it in this profession. However, my luck materialised in the people that came to my life and impacted my existence in ways that transcended tennis. I am so incredibly grateful for these people. You know who you are," Konta said.

"Through my own resilience and through the guidance of others, I got to live my dreams. I got to become what I wanted and said as a child. How incredibly fortunate I count myself to be. How grateful I am."

"I'm a poster child for people who ever feel too old to make it in anything" - Johanna Konta

Johanna Konta reached three Grand Slam semi-finals

Johanna Konta spent most of her early career on the ITF circuit, but she was able to turn things around and become a formidable competitor on the WTA Tour.

The Brit said she was a "poster child" for late bloomers and hard workers in any profession.

"I'm a poster child for people who ever feel too old to make it in anything," Konta told WTA Insider. "I'm a poster child for people who have been told they're nothing special or not that good or that their time is gone or they don't show that much promise. I'm a poster child for those players and those people who just base their career on resilience and on hard work."

The 30-year-old ends her career with four singles titles and three Grand Slam semifinals to her name. Konta's best-ever ranking was 4, which she attained in July 2017.