- Anett Kontaveit — who was the world’s No. 2 tennis participant final 12 months — is retiring from the game.
- The 27-year-old introduced on Instagram that her again harm “doesn’t enable for full-scale coaching.”
- Final 12 months, Kontaveit instructed Insider she “by no means thought that it was attainable” to attain all she had.
Only one 12 months after reaching a career-high rating of No. 2 on this planet, tennis star Anett Kontaveit is leaving the skilled ranks.
The 27-year-old introduced on Instagram Tuesday that she had been identified with “lumbar disc degeneration,” a illness by which the cartilage supporting the backbone deteriorates and causes again ache, per Cleveland Clinic. The situation is commonly age-related, nevertheless it will also be attributable to repeated pressure. Kontaveit wrote that her situation “doesn’t enable for full-scale coaching or continued competitors.”
“Right this moment I’m saying that I’m ending my profession as a aggressive athlete,” she posted on Instagram. “It’s unattainable to proceed on the high degree in such a extremely aggressive discipline.”
AP Photograph/Kirsty Wigglesworth
The Estonian star first went professional in 2010 — when she was simply an adolescent — and went on to amass six singles titles on the WTA tour. And whereas she beforehand instructed Insider she had ambitions of profitable extra tournaments, Kontaveit additionally acknowledged that she had already achieved greater than she ever anticipated she would on this planet of tennis.
“I by no means thought till I used to be, I imply, perhaps after enjoying juniors or one thing, I believed that perhaps there’s an opportunity that I’d get even to the highest 100 within the girls’s sport,” she instructed Insider. “So I by no means thought that it was attainable to get this excessive from a small nation.”
“It wasn’t like I knew that I used to be gonna be a high participant,” Kontaveit added. “I by no means had that.”
Robert Prange/Getty Photos
Her success was unprecedented amongst Estonians. Kontaveit turned the highest-ranked tennis participant ever from her nation — man or lady — along with her No. 2 rating in 2022 and, the 12 months prior, was the primary Estonian to play within the WTA Finals.
In her Instagram publish Tuesday, Kontaveit expressed delight that she was ready “to convey the Estonian flag to the tennis courts” in such a profound means.
Take a look at her full assertion under: