Tennis pro Marion Bartoli on Wednesday announced her retirement from the sport. The reigning 2013 Wimbledon champion retired following her opening round loss to Simona Halep in the Cincinnati Masters, the New York Times reports.
The French 28-year-old, ranked No. 7 in the World, tearfully bid farewell to professional tennis.
"This will be my last one," she said following her lost, via The Times. "I will have won Wimbledon this year in 2013, and I will stop with that. It was magnificent. You will certainly see me at tournaments again, but not playing."
Bartoli, who is 22-13 this season, cited the wear-and-tear on her body as one of the factors in her decision.
"I can't permit myself to do things halfway; I never was like that," she said. "It becomes an ordeal when I can't even really walk because I have so much pain in my Achilles tendon, or I have so much pain my shoulder or my rib or in my lower back that I can't even serve after one set.
"It all means that at a certain point, the body has its limits and I went past them. I was obliged to do so many times to make it, and I achieved the most beautiful goal of my life, my career. And now it's time to move on to other things."
One person unsurprised by Bartoli's announcement was her father and longtime coach, Walter Bartoli.
"He understood; he even sensed it," Bartoli said in French. "And he is just so proud of me: what I did to be able to make it and he will support me in all my projects. He was not at all telling me, 'But no, you will continue.' Quite the contrary. He is very happy for me, for all I did. He is very proud and that is the most important."
Bartoli isn't the first to retire at an early age. As for a taking a hiatus and eventually coming back?
"I'm not like that. I won't come back," she said. "It's done."
