Paris Olympics 2024: Three-Time Grand Slam Champion Angelique Kerber Announces Retirement

Paris: The 36-12 months-historic German player won majors at every tournament with the exception of the French Open at Roland Garros — on the equal clay courts where she is going to bid farewell to tennis after the Paris Games. She faces four-time amazing winner Naomi Osaka of Japan within the first round.

“Formerly than the Olympics , l can already say that I should be in a position to never overlook Paris 2024, ensuing from the true truth it should prefer to be my final professional tournament as a tennis player,” Kerber posted on Instagram. “And whereas this may in actuality be the great resolution, it should prefer to never think that way. Clearly ensuing from the true truth I definitely like the sport with all my heart and I’m thankful for the recollections and preferences it has given me.”

Kerber later validated her retirement when conversing temporarily on stage after the Olympic tennis draw. Guys’s and girls’s first-round play starts Saturday.

Kerber won the Australian Open and the U.S. Open in 2016 — the 12 months she reached No. 1 within the rankings and received a silver in singles on the Rio de Janeiro Games. She won Wimbledon two years later.

“Paris 2024 will mark the conclude line of the predominant big go again and forth I may prefer to have ever dreamed of rising up with a racket in my hand,” Kerber identified. “There are a variation of more issues I say and people to thank, which I should be in a position to do as soon as I applied my final in shape. No matter if for now, I should be in a position to make the hassle and soak up every second of this final episode on court docket.”

World Tennis Federation president David Haggerty praised Kerber’s “stellar profession” and her complete contribution to the sport.

“Her grownup document speaks for itself and her 18 Billie Jean King Cup crew nominations reveal simply how essential an asset she has been to Germany over time,” Haggerty identified. “She made her Olympic debut at London 2012, and I take into account of that winning silver at Rio 2016 became a dream come true for her. In order that is fitting that she is going to deliver the curtain down on her profession wearing her usa’s shades at Paris 2024.”