According to NBC Sports on Monday, Monica Puig of San Juan, Puerto Rico has retired from women’s tennis at the age of 28. Puig stunned the tennis world in winning the gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
One could make the argument Puig’s Olympic gold medal from six years ago was just as stunning as the ATP title victory by Tim van Rijthoven of the Nertherlands this past weekend in Rosmalen. Puig became the first unseeded player to win an Olympic gold medal in tennis history, and the first Puerto Rican to ever win an Olympic gold medal.
Among the players that Puig beat to win the gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro were the 14th ranked and 2021 French Open finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, 6-3, 6-2 in the second round, the third seed, 2016 French Open champion, and 2017 Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza of Spain, 6-1, 6-1 in the third round, the 11th seed, and two-time Wimbledon champion, Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 in the semifinals, and three-time grand slam champion and number two seed Angelique Kerber of Germany, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 in the Olympic gold medal match. Kvitiova won her Wimbledon titles in 2011 and 2014. Kerber won the Australian Open before winning the Oympic silver medal, and the 2016 United States Open and 2018 Wimbledon titles afterwards.
Puig only won one other WTA event. That came at the 2014 Strasbourg Internationaux in France, where she defeated Silvia Soler Espinosa of Spain in the final, 6-4, 6-3. Puig’s best grand slam result was a fourth round appearance at Wimbledon in 2013, and she ranked as high as 27th in the world in 2016.
