When should players think about retiring?

The time to retire would only be a decision in the player’s mind but the situations that may lead to one thinking about ‘throwing in the towel’ can be numerous. After over a decade of playing a game that has become one’s entire lifetime, no one ever wants to give it up, but most have to. The first to take a player down is the injuries. Li Na was 32 when 4 knee operations and too many injections for the chronic pain caused her to retire. She also wanted to start a family and a few years after had a daughter. Players don’t have to be playing for decades to retire because of injuries, ailments and chronic pain from surgeries that didn’t get better from rehabbing. Juan Martin Del Potro is still deciding what to do after 4 wrist surgeries, he came back, played the Miami Open and had a re-injury of wrist ailments. The player doesn’t even have to be in their 30s to retire from tennis, it’s just the inability for them to physically play which causes them to give up the playing aspect of the sport.

Another reason for retirement is illness. Robin Soderling retired in 2015 from a chronic setback of symptoms from the glandular fever disease ‘mononucleosis’. Robin had to retire as he’s said …

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