Marion Bartoli has announced her retirement from tennis at the age of 28 less than six weeks after winning Wimbledon.
The Frenchwoman made the announcement after losing 3-6 6-4 6-1 to Simona Halep in the second round of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.
Bartoli, who beat Sabine Lisicki in the final at the All England Club last month to claim her first grand slam title, said in quotes reported on wtatennis.com: “That was actually the last match of my career. Sorry.
“It’s time for me to retire and call it a career. I feel it’s time for me to walk away actually.”
Bartoli blamed a succession of injuries for her decision citing in particular an achilles problem which was troubling her on the hardcourts.
“My body just can’t do it any more,” she said. “I’ve already been through a lot of injuries since the beginning of the year. I’ve been on the tour for so long, and I really pushed through and left it all during that Wimbledon.
“I really felt I gave all the energy I have left in my body. I made my dream a reality and it will stay with me forever, but now my body just can’t cope with everything.
“I have pain everywhere after 45 minutes or an hour of play. I’ve been doing this for so long, and body-wise I just can’t do it any more.”
Bartoli said she had played through the pain to realise her childhood dream of winning Wimbledon this summer.
She said: “When you dream about something for so long and you’ve been on tour for many, many, many years and you’ve been through ups and downs and highs and lows and already a lot of injuries since the beginning of the year, my body was really starting to fall apart, and I was able to keep it together, go through a lot of pain throughout Wimbledon, and still make it happen.
“That was probably the last little bit of something that was left inside me.”