I Spoke Too Soon: Elena Retires

All was well in the tennis world when I went to sleep last night. The Doha semifinalists were set, so I didn’t anticipate any exciting news to come from today’s meaningless matches. Then I woke up and checked my twitter, only to find hundreds of tweets about Elena Demetieva’s retirement in Doha. In my sleepy haze, I first assumed this meant Elena had retired from her match against Francesca Schiavone, but as I read on, it became clear that this was much bigger news. Elena Dementieva had lost her final match at the Year End Championships in Doha and had announced her retirement from tennis. I was floored. I mean, I know Dementieva hasn’t had her best year. She lost in the second round of the Australian Open and was unable to play Wimbledon due to an injury. However, she made the fourth round of the US Open and was a semifinalist at the French, where she was forced to retire due to injury. For someone who seemed to be injured all year, she was still doing pretty well. She is currently ranked 9^th in the world and has performed noticeably better than several uninjured former top 10 stars. Image from Getty.

After the news settled in a bit and about a thousand articles appeared on the subject, I decided to watch the on court ceremony from after her match against Fran. There wasn’t a dry eye in the stadium, or in my living room. All of the other Doha ladies showed up to support Elena and even stoic Sam shed a tear. Elena is incredibly poised and I honestly don’t think anyone on tour has a more adorable mom. Elena is never the center of controversy and has always been an incredible ambassador for the sport. For the women’s tennis, that’s actually saying something.

I have to say I like her style. She managed to keep a huge secret all year and avoid the “How do you feel about playing your last (insert tournament here)?” question that accompanies announcing your retirement at the beginning of the season. Her announcement also wasn’t overly showy, it fit her perfectly.

I know Elena is generally referred to as the best player never to win a Grand Slam, but instead of looking at what could have been, let’s recap some of her accomplishments.

• 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist
• 2000 Olympic Silver Medalist
• 2 time Grand Slam Finalist
• 3 time Grand Slam Semifinalist
• 2 time Tour Championships Semifinalist
• Former World #3

Not too shabby, is it?

I wish Elena the best of luck for her life after tennis.

Not to be upstaged, Kim Clijsters had an announcement of her own today. She plans to call it quits (again) after the 2012 Olympics in London so she and husband, Brian, can have a second child.