Other prominent retirees this year who deserve mention include Nicolas Massu, who will forever be the guy who won two improbable gold medals for Chile in the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, Xavier Malisse and his ponytail, who I will remember watching win the Chennai Open from the front row, and the duo of Anne Keothavang and Elena Baltacha, the primary British female hopes in the period immediately leading up to Laura Robson.
As the annual tennis cycle prepares to begin again, we realize we will get on the wheel this time without these competitors, all of whom have contributed in their own ways to our understanding of sport and its sportsmen. We thank them for all the memories, and wish them the very best in their new endeavors off the court.