Former Wimbledon semifinalist and World No.17 Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia has announced that she will retire from professional tennis after next month's Fed Cup Finals in Budapest.
A winner of four WTA titles, the 31-year-old Slovak was best known for a stunning run to the final four at the All-England Club three years ago, reviving her career after an injury hiatus that kept her away from tennis for nearly a year.
A 2006 junior finalist at Wimbledon, Rybarikova's penchant for grass courts was evident even early in her career. All four of her WTA titles came before she turned 25, and she ended seven seasons inside the Top 100 between the years 2008 and 2016.
A seven-month absence due to knee and wrist surgeries in late 2016 through early 2017 saw her ranking dip to outside the world's Top 450, but she shocked the world by reaching the final four at the All-England Club.
Having never before advanced beyond the third round of any Grand Slam event, her Wimbledon run included victories over then-World No.3 Karolina Pliskova, who was set to rise to World No.1 after that year's tournament, in the second round, and then-No.25 CoCo Vandeweghe in the quarterfinals.
She lost to eventual champion Garbiñe Muguruza in the semifinals but skyrocketed back to World No.33 after the tournament, which was also thanks in part to winning four ITF titles in the two months prior to her Slam run.
She later cracked the Top 30 for the first time that September, after reaching the third round of the US Open, and ended the season at World No.20 after qualifying for the WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai.
The Slovak reached the third round or better at all four Grand Slams in her career, reached eight WTA singles finals in all, and earned 10 career wins against Top 10 players.
Somewhat fittingly, her last match victory to-date came over World No.11 Aryna Sabalenka at Wimbledon last summer, despite her then-ranking of World No.139.
"I had time to think about it. [Fed Cup] will be a nice spot in my career [to retire]," she said of her decision on Slovakian television on Thursday, as reported by the Slovakian tennis outlet Tenisový svet.
“The year 2017 was my best, but the year before I had two operations and I was already considering whether it would work, and whether I would go back. Then, unfortunately, the injuries came again. I had a lot of them. Last year, I went from injury to injury."
Slovakia qualified for the Fed Cup Finals, which will run from April 14-19, by virtue of a 3-1 win of Great Britain in Bratislava last month, and will face the United States and Spain in Group C in Budapest.
