Van Uytvanck announces end of professional tennis career

Former Roland Garros quarterfinalist Alison Van Uytvanck has announced the end of her professional tennis career at the age of 30. The Belgian reached a career-high ranking of No.37 in 2018.

"Making this decision has been incredibly hard," Van Uytvanck wrote on social media. "Over the past few weeks, I haven't felt the same fire it takes to give my all, to fight for every point, and to travel around the world. It was not an easy choice, I have been struggling a lot last year while coming back from a serious injury, both physically and especially mentally."

In 2023, Van Uytvanck was sidelined for eight months due to a back injury. Since returning to action last October, she has collected three ITF titles -- including the Surbiton W100 on grass in June -- and returned to No.228 in the PIF WTA Rankings, but has not won a tour-level match. Van Uytvanck's final professional match was a 6-3, 6-3 loss to Julia Middendorf in the Hechingen ITF W75 second round last month; her last tour-level appearance was a 6-2, 6-2 first-round loss to Jana Fett in the first round of Prague the previous week.

Van Uytvanck played her first professional match in 2009 at the age of 15; two years later, she made a memorable WTA main-draw debut on home soil when she qualified for Brussels (defeating Laura Siegemund and Hsieh Su-Wei to do so) and upset Patty Schnyder in the first round.

Van Uytvanck went on to lift five WTA singles trophies, winning every tour-level final she contested: Québec City 2017, Budapest 2018 and 2019, Tashkent 2019 and Astana 2021. She also captured three WTA 125 titles: Taipei 2013, Limoges 2021 and Gaiba 2022.

Van Uytvanck notched three Top 20 wins, of which her finest was a 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 upset of defending champion and World No.3 Garbiñe Muguruza in the second round of Wimbledon 2018. Other significant victories included her defeats of Ana Ivanovic at Luxembourg 2015 and Petra Kvitova at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021. Van Uytvanck also won two WTA doubles titles, at Luxembourg 2018 and 2021, both alongside then-girlfriend Greet Minnen.

With a game that blended power and touch, Van Uytvanck was known for her prowess on fast courts. Four of her five WTA titles came on indoor courts, as did two of her three WTA 125 titles. On grass, she won one WTA 125 trophy and three ITF W100 tournaments. However, she delivered her best Grand Slam performance on clay, reaching the quarterfinals of Roland Garros in 2015. The only other time Van Uytvanck reached the second week of a major was at Wimbledon 2018, when she made the fourth round.