Robin Soderling left the tennis world reeling in shock when he sent the-then four-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal out of the 2009 Roland Garros in the fourth round. But misfortune struck the former World No. 4 Swedish ace a couple of years later. The two-time French Open runner-up suffered from a bout of mononucleosis, which rendered him inactive on the ATP Tour in 2011, and he has not returned since.
On Wednesday, Soderling buried all hopes of a comeback as he officially called it a day. In an open letter on the Swedish tennis website tennis.se, the 31-year-old wrote: “In all the years I have believed that I would be able to take me back to the world elite in tennis but now I’ve realized that I will not be healthy enough that I will be able to play tennis at the level I demand of myself. The reason I have decided to end my career as a professional tennis player.”
Trending
“I’ve realised that I will not be healthy enough to be able to play tennis at the level I demand of myself. For that reason I have decided to end my career as a professional tennis player,” the letter continued.
“A few weeks before the ATP race the Swedish Open in Bastad in 2011 I became ill with glandular fever. Since I was not then realized the seriousness of this, I made the mistake of continuing to train and compete with the virus in the body which also resulted in that I suffered a sharp overtraining syndrome,” he explained.
He went on, “I have since struggled to recover completely from this. With the disease it has been impossible for me to train one hundred percent and I forced to rest after any physical effort. Some periods I felt so bad that I was completely bedridden. This past year, however, my health improved and I have been able to increase my exercise dose, but my recovery after exercise works unfortunately still not as I would like.”
Soderling, who turned professional in 2001, also reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon and the US Open. But it is the clay of Roland Garros where he achieved the most success. One year after beating Nadal, the Swede returned to cause another major upset as he upended the defending champion Roger Federer in the quarter-finals.
Quite fittingly, his final match happened at home, with the Swede prevailing over then-sixth ranked David Ferrer to win the Skistar Swedish Open at Bastad in 2011.
In recent years, Soderling has taken on a behind-the-scenes role in tennis; he has been a tournament director at the Stockholm Open and has also launched his own company called RS Tennis, which manufactures tennis balls. The 10-time title holder now intends to focus on improving and developing his company.
