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Tennis is a very demanding sport and can take its toll on the mind and body of a player. These days, with the improvement in sports medicine, training and nutrition, most of the tennis players play until their late 30s.
However, a few players in the history of the game retired quite early while still being at the top of their game. In this article, we will talk about five such players who retired from tennis while being in the top 10 in the world rankings. Let us get on with the list:
#5 Justine Henin
Henin was one of the top players in women's tennis in the 2000s. She was one of the best players of her generation on clay. The Belgian won seven Grand Slam titles, including four French Open ones, in her brief career and also spent 117 weeks as the world No. 1.
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Henin was only 25 at the time of her retirement and was also the world No. 1 among women. She dealt with frequent injuries during the latter part of her career and that might have influenced her decision to retire.
#4 Martina Hingis
Hingis burst into the scene in the mid-1990s and climbed to the No. 1 ranking as a 16-year-old in 1997. She spent a total of 209 weeks as the world No. 1 and also managed to win five Grand Slam titles in singles. However, a series of injuries forced her to retire from the game in 2003, while she was still a top-10 player.
Hingis made a comeback in 2006 and finished the year as a top-10 player. However, she was then forced out of the game in 2007, only to make a comeback later. She finally retired in 2017, having picked up a few doubles titles in Grand Slams in the process.
#3 Kim Clijsters
Clijsters was another Belgian aside from Henin, who made her mark in the 2000s in women's tennis. She was a fantastic player on hard courts and won each of her four Grand Slam titles on the surface. However, she retired in 2007 at the age of 24 as the world No. 4. She was still at the top of her game at that time.
However, she made a comeback to tennis in 2012 and then again in 2019, neither of which were successful. Clijsters finally retired from the game in 2022 at the age of 39 but has been able to leave a legacy in the game.
#2 Bjorn Borg
Borg's retirement remains one of the biggest surprises in the history of the game. He retired in 1983 at the age of 26, having already won 11 Grand Slam titles including six French Open and five Wimbledon titles, and spent more than 100 weeks as the world No. 1. Borg cited burn-out as the reason for his early retirement, but was a top-10 player at the time of retirement.
Borg made a brief comeback in the early 1990s with a wooden racquet but with undesirable results. However, the Swede remains one of the greatest players to have wielded a tennis racquet.
#1 Chris Evert
Evert is one of the greatest female players of all time in tennis. She retired from the game in 1989 after having a 17-year-long career. Evert won 18 Grand Slam singles titles in her sparkling career and was a top-10 player at the time of her retirement. She was 34 when she decided to call it a day.
Evert formed a great rivalry with Martina Navratilova and spent 260 weeks as the world No. 1. She also remains probably the greatest player ever on clay and holds the record for second-most singles titles (157).
