It has been almost a decade since Ana Ivanovic announced her retirement in December 2016. Regarded as one of the best Serbian WTA players ever, she went on to have a remarkable career, in which she became the World No. 1 and also won 15 WTA titles. This includes her triumph at the 2008 French Open. But the title wins had dried up by 2015, and the last two years of her career were quite tough. Not only did she fail to win any more trophies, but she also suffered from severe panic attacks during matches.

Ivanovic has now opened up about how the stress of playing regularly affected her form and how it led to her developing a fear of playing in front of massive crowds.

“During the last years of my career, I experienced very severe panic attacks whenever I had to walk onto the court,” she said on the show “Neuspjeh prvaka“ which is hosted by the Croatian soccer team’s coach, Slaven Bilic. “I never talked about it, but the panic attacks were incredibly intense.”

“People would wonder what suddenly happened in the middle of a match, why my game would fall apart, but the truth is that I’d be overcome by panic and simply couldn’t go on. Then I’d be overwhelmed by the fear of having to go out and play in front of people again the next day.” [Trans. from Czech]

A great example of panic attacks severely affecting Ivanovic’s game came at the 2014 Cincinnati Masters. She took on Maria Sharapova in the semifinals of the event. The match was quite intense, with both players giving their all on the court. After winning the first set, Ivanovic was cruising towards victory at 5-2. But then she suddenly collapsed on the court.

The Serb appeared to be under a lot of stress and was even seen shedding tears as she was taken to the side of the court. The tournament physician was soon brought in and took her blood pressure. It was from here that the capitulation began as Sharapova went on to win the next five games in a row to force a decider.

But the Russian messed up big time in the third set. She had multiple match points under her belt at 5-4, but a silly double-fault handed Ivanovic the crucial break. Sharapova lost all her momentum after the game and had her serve broken again on the next occasion as Ivanovic triumphed 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 after two hours and 45 minutes.

While she managed to clinch victory on that occasion, her condition worsened as the years went by. If panic attacks weren’t already enough, injury woes also played a major role in Ivanovic’s retirement at just 29 years of age. Her last match took place at the 2016 US Open, where she lost 7-6, 6-1 to Denisa Satralova.

A recurring wrist injury brought Ivanovic’s 2016 season to an early end and resulted in her dropping to No. 63 in the rankings. This was the final straw, and the Serb hung up her racket later in the same year.

Notably, Ivanovic isn’t the only player to have her career severely impacted by panic attacks. A prominent ATP player had also announced his retirement just a year before Ivanovic due to similar reasons.

Robin Soderling retired due to anxiety and panic attacks in 2015

The former World No. 4’s career came to a sudden standstill in 2011. It was during this year that Soderling developed mononucleosis, a condition that can cause severe and persistent fatigue. This stopped him from playing, and he had to take an indefinite hiatus.

Soderling also started suffering from anxiety and panic attacks regularly. These were the factors that prevented his return to the court. After four years of constantly suffering from multiple physical conditions, Soderling knew that it would be best for him to retire and not drag his career any further.

He eventually did so in December of 2015. While his tennis journey may have ended at the age of 31, his battle with panic attacks and anxiety didn’t conclude until 2020.

The two-time French Open finalist returned to tennis as a coach in 2019. He became the captain of the Swedish team at the 2019 Davis Cup. He later resigned from the position in 2023 due to health concerns.