Former world number two Anett Kontaveit to retire after Wimbledon in 2023

Anett Kontaveit (Tatiana Kulitat, Wikimedia Commons)

According to ESPN on Tuesday, former world number two Anett Kontaveit of Tallinn, Estonia plans to retire following Wimbledon next month at the age of 27. The reason for the retirement is because Kontaveit has experienced significant back pain over the last year. Doctors have determined that the Estonian’s back condition is in fact degenerative and that Kontaveit has what is called lumbar degenerative disc disease.

Kontaveit ended her 2022 tennis season in October because of the back problem and then took another two months off starting in February, following a second round loss where she withdrew from the Qatar Open in a match against American Shelby Rogers. Kontaveit has only won one match since Qatar, and that was in the first round of Rome, where she beat American Alycia Parks 6-1, 6-1. At the French Open, Kontaveit lost 7-6, 6-2 to American Bernarda Perra in the first round.

From August of 2021 to February of 2022, Kontaveit won five times on the WTA Tour. She was victorious in the final of the 2021 Tennis in Cleveland event where she beat Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania 7-6, 6-4, the 2021 Ostrava Open in the Czech Republic where she beat Maria Sakkari of Greece, 6-2, 7-5, the 2021 Kremlin Open in Russia where she beat Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, the 2021 Transylvania Open in Romania where she beat Simona Halep of Romania 6-2, 6-3, and the 2022 St. Petersburg Trophy in Russia where she beat Sakkari again 5-7, 7-6, 7-5. Kontaveit’s other WTA tournament victory came at the 2017 Rosmalen Championships in the Netherlands, she beat Natalia Vikhlyantseva of Russia in the final, 6-2, 6-3.

When Kontaveit was ranked second in the world, she had just lost in the first round of the French Open to Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia 7-6, 7-5. She also had  coronavirus which impacted her play during the 2022 clay court season. As a result, she dropped from second to 79th. Kontaveit’s best grand slam result was the 2020 Australian Open. There she lost 6-1, 6-1, to Halep, who is currently suspended for drug use. 

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