Dominika Cibulkova Announces Retirement From Professional Tennis

Published 11/12/2019, 11:41 AM EST

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Former World Number four, Dominika Cibulkova announced her retirement from professional tennis. The Slovakian star lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the opening round of Roland Garros 2019, since then she did not play a professional match. She broke the news at the debut signing of her book “Tennis Is My Life”.

“My last match was at Roland Garros. I wanted to take time to find out how I feel about it, and I feel that today is the perfect day to do it. I’ve thought about it for a long time and I’m excited about my new life,” she announced.

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Today, with mixed feelings, I have special news to share with you all. As you know I haven’t been playing tournaments for several months. What started as a recurring Achilles injury, developed into one of the most difficult moments in my life – deciding on what to do with my tennis career. After a lot of thinking, talks, and support from my family, friends, and my team, I have finally decided that I will not be returning to the courts as a competitive player. It is a moment filled with so many feelings – saddness, fear of the unknown, but also excitement of what life will bring in the future. I was one of the luckiest kids to stumble upon the road of a tennis player thanks to my wonderful parents and I will be forever grateful for their unconditional support. They did everything possible to keep me moving forward no matter how big the obstacles that stood in the way. I was also very fortunate to have a whole « village » of wonderful people around me who helped shape my career and help me achieve goals and dreams that children dream about. I am chosing today as the day I announce my retirement from tennis because this is also a day on which my biography is being launched with all of the details about my career. Writing the book was a journey on its own because it also brought lots of emotions and took a significant effort to open up about my personal life. I am honored to share this special book with all my fans. I am looking forward to step into the next part of my life and take on new challenges, spend happy times with my family, friends, making new friends, visiting new places, and making new memories. I will miss the support of my fans on the tennis court but will never forget you because tennis will always be a part of me. Pomeeee 😉 New chapter begins now…. ❤️

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Cibulkova’s first of eight Tour titles came in Moscow (2011), where she defeated Kaia Kanepi in the finals. She has reached the finals of the Melbourne major and semifinals of French Open. Thrice she made it to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon and in 2010 she reached the last eight round at the US Open

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The 2014 Australian Open finalist, Dominika Cibulkova collected only two victories in the 2019 season. In 2014, her career was peaking. She defeated Maria Sharapova, Simona Halep and Agnieszka Radwanska and set up an Australian Open final against Li Na.

In the midst of her Aussie Open success, she was featured on the cover of The Washington Post that week. That year, she won the Mexican Open title in Acapulco. Later, her quarterfinal victory over Agnieszka Radwanska at Sony Open in Miami opened her doors to the top-ten rankings on the WTA’s ladder.

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Post that, Dominika Cibulkova dealt with injuries and she underwent an Achilles surgery in 2015. However, the Slovakian resurged as a champion in Katowice Open 2016 and Eastbourne International 2016.

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She continued to be victorious at WTA Finals 2019 in Singapore.  She beat the then World Number one, Angelique Kerber in straight sets to claim the WTA Finals 2016 title in her first appearance at the tournament and became the fourth player (after Serena Williams in 2001Maria Sharapova in 2004 and Petra Kvitova in 2011) to win the tournament on debut.

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Mahalakshmi Murali

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Mahalakshmi Murali joined EssentiallySports in 2018 as a tennis author and has gone on to pen more than 1800 engaging articles, probing into various aspects of the sport and its illustrious players. With her expertise on the sport, Mahalakshmi has interviewed stalwarts from the sport such as Serena WIlliams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou and Kevin Anderson’s physio, Carlos Costa. Equipped with her vast experience and a keen understanding of the sport, Mahalakshmi now co-heads the tennis department.
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