Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky announced her retirement from professional tennis on Friday.

In a tweet, Bacsinszky wrote that professional tennis has "been the most beautiful school of life and I cannot thank you enough for that...18 beautiful years during which I dedicated myself to you. Now it's time for me to turn the page, and write new ones, which I hope will be as intense."

"I am retiring from professional sport today but I will never forget the sparkles had in my eyes," Bacsinszky added.

Photo Gallery: The best of Bacsinszky

Bacsinszky reached seven career WTA singles finals and won four titles. Her first champion’s trophy came indoors at Luxembourg in 2009. Six years later, in 2015, she won back-to-back titles, at Acapulco and Monterrey. Including a quarterfinal run to Indian Wells immediately afterward, Bacsinszky put together a career-high 15-match win streak. 

Bacsinszky reached the biggest singles final of her career at the China Open in Beijing in 2015, where she was runner-up to Garbiñe Muguruza. In Grand Slam play, she advanced to the semifinals at Roland Garros on two occasions. In 2015, she pushed Serena Williams to three sets in the final four, and in 2017, she defeated Venus Williams en route to a three-set loss against Jelena Ostapenko in the semifinals. She also posted quarterfinal results at Wimbledon in 2015 and Roland Garros in 2016.

In 2016 at Rabat, she won her final singles title.

A semifinalist at three junior Slams, Bacsinszky made her WTA main-draw debut at Strasbourg in 2004 and posted successive Top 60 seasons from 2008-2010.

Her progress was halted by a serious foot injury that required surgery in the spring of 2011 and kept her off tour for nearly a year. After this hiatus, and fully recommitting to tennis, she improved her year-end ranking from No.285 in 2013 to No.48 in 2014 and then No.12 in 2015, earning the WTA’s Most Improved Player Award that year.

Bacsinszky made her singles Top 10 debut (at No.10) in October 2015, becoming the fourth woman representing Switzerland to reach this milestone after former No.3 Manuela Maleeva-Fragnière, former No.1 Martina Hingis and former No.7 Patty Schnyder. Bacsinszky peaked at No.9 on May 16, 2016, following a quarterfinal run at Rome and posted Top 20 season finishes in 2015 and 2016.

Timea Bacsinszky and Martina Hingis

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In doubles, Bacsinszky’s record is highlighted by an Olympic silver medal, where she partnered with Martina Hingis at Rio in 2016 (lost to Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the final). Bacsinszky was 5-5 in WTA doubles finals overall. Her biggest title came alongside Vera Zvonareva at St. Petersburg in 2018; earlier victories came at Budapest, Prague and Luxembourg in 2010 (all with Tathiana Garbin) and Luxembourg in 2014 (with Kristina Barrois).

In addition to being a two-time Olympian, Bacsinszky represented Switzerland in Billie Jean King Cup competition. In total, she played in 27 ties and posted a record of 28-25 across singles and doubles. No Swiss player has played the competition more years (14), and only Schnyder has participated in more ties (38).

“Timea has been a wonderful ambassador for the sport of tennis, on and off court, and she will be missed by fans around the world,” Steve Simon, WTA Chairman and CEO, said. “Her results over many years speak for themselves and contribute a terrific legacy to Swiss tennis. On behalf of the WTA family, I wish her the very best in the next exciting chapter of her life.”

During her career, Bacsinszky posted 11 wins against Top 10 players, including Maria Sharapova, Victoria Azarenka, Petra Kvitova, Agnieszka Radwanska and Simona Halep. Bacsinszky played her last match on the WTA Tour at Seoul in September 2019 and leaves the game with a win-loss record of 422-246 and career prize money of $6,665,012.