Former world number one Garbine Muguruza has confirmed her retirement from tennis with immediate effect.
The 30-year-old, born in Venezuela, announced her decision at a press conference in Madrid on Saturday.
“I feel I am ready to retire, to open this new chapter in my life. A new era, a new life,” she said.
“I was nervous, wanting to say it. I feel good, even if the word retired is a bit strong,” she said.
She retires as the second-most successful female Spanish singles player of all time, behind Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, who won four singles Grand Slams.
Muguruza defeated one of the Williams sisters for both of her Grand Slam titles, at the time becoming only the second tennis player born in the 1990s to win a Major.
She defeated Serena in the 2016 French Open as part of a run of 14 consecutive sets won, having lost to her in the previous year’s Wimbledon final. She then defeated Venus at the 2017 Wimbledon — including a final set bagel — before spending four weeks at world number one later that year.
Muguruza celebrates after bagelling Williams to win Wimbledon in 2017 (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
Muguruza has frequently described the Williams sisters as “role models” for her career since she was growing up, not just in terms of the standards they set for women’s tennis, but for developing a style of play built on power and front-foot aggression that the Spaniard would make her own throughout her career. Writing in El País in 2022, upon Serena’s retirement, she said that Williams “created a “before and after” that forced us to be better”.
Muguruza reached at least the final in three of the four Grand Slams, losing out to American Sofia Kenin at the 2020 Australian Open. Her best results at the US Open came in 2017 and 2021, but she only made the fourth round on both occasions. In 2021, she recorded a surprise victory at the WTA Tour Finals, entering as the fifth seed and coming out on top of a showcase of that witheringly powerful game.
Muguruza’s last match took place at a WTA 250 event in Lyon, where the then world No 82 lost in straight sets to qualifier Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic; her last Grand Slam appearance came in a straight-sets defeat to Belgium’s Elise Mertens in the first round of the 2023 Australian Open.
The two-time Grand Slam champion took an extended break from competition in April last year, to spend more time with her friends and family, and has not played since. In October 2023, she said that “tennis has no place in my routine.”
“I still pay attention to my teammates, from time to time I can play but not intensely but more for fun. It doesn’t occupy my mind, my day or my routines.”
(Han Yan/Xinhua via Getty Images)
