“Thank you,” she mouthed, hands clasped to her chest, as she soaked up the crowd’s applause, turning to gaze wistfully at all four sides of the court. Then, with a final glance back over her shoulder – as much, perhaps, at the past 27 years of her life as her immediate surroundings – she turned on her heel and was gone.

“There’s sadness, there’s happiness, there’s a bit of everything,” said Kontaveit, who is retiring because of a chronic back injury, after her 6-1, 6-2 defeat to the Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzkova.

“It was incredible to have Court 18 full of people, so many people cheering for me.

“Of course, the match didn’t go the way I wanted it to, but I was so happy to be able to play in front of so many people, that so many people that love me were able to see me play for the last times in singles.”

Although she remains in the mixed doubles alongside Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori, it felt like a fitting farewell for Kontaveit, an understated Estonian who was ranked No 2 in the world this time last year.

For all her success, Kontaveit has never craved the limelight. Even when she was scheduled on Court 6 in the opening round, raising the possibility that she would play the final match of her career on a stage with just a few scattered benches for spectators, her reaction barely ranged beyond mild disappointment.

“I do hope to get a bigger court next time,” she said. “I was not expecting to play on Centre Court or a huge court anyway. It’s their decision and [there’s] nothing I can do about it.”

That kind of humility is one of the qualities that has made Kontaveit a firm favourite in the locker room. First to congratulate her on a career that reached its zenith with a remarkable late-season flourish in 2021, when she won titles in Cleveland, Ostrava, Moscow and Cluj-Napoca to break into the top eight and qualify for the season-ending WTA finals, was Bouzkova, who embraced her warmly at the net. 

“Congratulations for your incredible career, Anett,” Bouzkova, the 32nd seed, later wrote on Instagram. “You will be missed and we all wish to see you come back.”

Those sentiments were widely echoed. 

“Congratulations on your career and thank you for every memory,” wrote Iga Swiatek, the world No 1.

“Anett, my friend, your joy, your warmth and energy will be missed,” said Ons Jabeur, the sixth seed, in a Twitter post. “Congratulations on an amazing career. Thank you for all the memories. Lots of love.”

Kontaveit, who is studying psychology at Indiana University, said she hoped to remain connected to tennis in her native Estonia, although she has no specific plans at this stage. Given the emotional nature of her final singles match, which ended with both Kontaveit and her mother Ülle in tears, that seems entirely understandable.

Kontaveit’s most notable results came at the 2020 Australian Open, where she was a quarter-finalist, and at the WTA Finals the following year, where she was beaten in the final by Garbiñe Muguruza. However, Kontaveit, who won the last of her six titles in St Petersburg on Valentine’s Day 2022, said her maiden title, which came in s’Hertogenbosch in 2017, would remain her most cherished memory.

“I think nothing beats winning a tournament, so I’d say winning my first WTA tournament,” said Kontaveit.

The Estonian’s retirement comes after a degenerative condition in her lower spine left her unable to train or compete without pain. Unable to sit or stand in the same position for long periods, she is hopeful that her decision to stop will afford her greater comfort in everyday life.

“Now I feel at peace with it, but it was definitely difficult before, especially right before the announcement,” Kontaveit told the WTA. “It was very hard. I was just sad and upset. It’s been my whole life. This is what I’ve done for most of the 27 years that I’ve lived. 

“It was a difficult thing to process. But one day I woke up, and I was feeling happy again. I think time sort of helped me come to terms with it.”

The post ‘Sadness, happiness’: Kontaveit’s career ends at Wimbledon appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Three months after offering a bleak assessment of her long-term prospects in the face of a degenerative condition in her lower spine, the 27-year-old said in a social media post that she was no longer able to train or compete at elite level.

“Today I am announcing that I am ending my career as a competitive athlete,” Kontaveit wrote on Instagram. 

“After several doctors’ visits and consultations with my medical team, I have been advised that I have lumbar disc degeneration in my back. 

“This does not allow for full-scale training or continued competition. Therefore, it is impossible to continue at the top level in such a highly competitive field.”

Kontaveit’s statement comes almost exactly a year after she reached a career-high ranking of No 2 in the world, the high-water mark of a career that took flight nine months earlier, when she won the second title of her career in Cleveland. That victory would be the catalyst for a remarkable winning sequence that brought titles in Ostrava, Moscow and Cluj-Napoca, propelling Kontaveit into the world’s top 10, the first Estonian player ever to achieve that distinction. 

Kontaveit’s late-season surge also earned her a spot at the WTA Finals in Guadalajara, another first for her country, and she went on to reach the final of the year-end showpiece, losing out to Garbiñe Muguruza as she finished the season ranked seventh. 

The following spring brought another significant milestone, Kontaveit edging an epic final against Maria Sakkari to win the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy before reaching the quarter-finals in Stuttgart. With that sequence of results, she extended her run of consecutive indoor victories to 22, a record only bettered by Steffi Graf and Monica Seles in the years since 1989. 

Unlike Graf and Seles, however, Kontaveit was unable to replicate her success at the grand slams, where her best result was a quarter-final finish at the 2020 Australian Open. She spoke of her desire to alter that record but, although she would go on reach three further finals in 2022, the beginning of the end came in October, when back pain forced her to abandon her title defence in Ostrava and call time on her season. Another two-month break followed in February, but there has been no respite, the Estonian winning just three of her 10 matches this year.

“Tennis has given and taught me a lot, and I am very grateful for that,” wrote Kontaveit. “It has been important for me to bring the Estonian flag to the tennis courts and to be able to play in front of my supporters and fans all over the world.  

“I am ready for new challenges after my last effort as a professional tennis player – to enjoy the game and compete as hard as I can at Wimbledon.”

The post Kontaveit to retire after Wimbledon due to back injury appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

She may not win it – although few would rule that out now, after her dramatic 7-6 (7-4), 2-6, 6-2 victory over Anett Kontaveit, the second seed – but at the deepest, most visceral level, the tournament is hers. She knows it, her adoring New York public know it, and her opponents have not been allowed to forget it.

Who else gets to walk out to a pre-match video montage? At what other major would a home favourite benefit from Queen Latifah, no less, declaring over a blaring sound system that the opposing player is about to face the queen of “never, ever going down without a fight”, and that “you don’t stand a chance if you see this face”? Kontaveit must have felt she had been thrown to the lions even before the warm-up had begun.

The US Open would surely do well to rethink the timing of its big-screen tributes to Williams. Like Danka Kovinic on Monday, Kontaveit was made to enter the cauldron of Arthur Ashe Stadium – where 29,959 emotionally inflamed spectators lay in wait – before the video rhapsody to the six-time champion was played. Yet convention dictates that the higher-ranked player takes to the court last and Williams, who announced her impending retirement earlier this month, arrived in New York at No 605 on the ladder. Forcing her opponents to wait courtside while the razzamatazz plays out feels inappropriate at best, brazenly partisan at worst. 

Kontaveit handled it all with grace, courage and admirable determination. But as the crowd greeted every Williams success with a wall of enraptured noise, regardless of whether their joy was sparked by a Williams winner or a Kontaveit error, a line was crossed. Williams tacitly acknowledged as much early in the decider, sportingly raising a hand to quieten the clamour as Kontaveit prepared to serve after a close call had gone in the Estonian’s favour, averting a break.  

Amid the unbridled passion and noise that cascaded down from the stands, the combatants staged a contest of rich quality. Both women remained unsparing in their commitment to attack; each stubbornly refused to give ground in the face of setbacks. When Williams smashed down an ace to take the first set, having earlier faltered as she attempted to serve out at 5-4, Kontaveit responded with an irresistible passage of play, storming into a 5-1 lead in the blink of an eye. 

But this US Open belongs to Williams, and down the stretch she was irresistible. She returned from a bathroom break to cruise through her opening service game, wrested Kontaveit’s serve from her with a searing forehand winner, and shrugged off the subsequent loss of her own delivery with some mighty returning to restore her advantage. She would not be caught.

There was a warm exchange between the pair at the net afterwards, and the cordiality extended into the press room, where Kontaveit hailed the performance of the “amazing” Williams even while admitting it was hard to compete in such a febrile atmosphere. Asked if she felt Williams has become bigger than the sport, Kontaveit declined to take the bait, simply acknowledging that the occasion was about her opponent. 

“It was her moment,” said Kontaveit, whose own frequent brilliance was met with stony silence by the otherwise raucous audience. “I was trying to do my own thing. I mean, of course, this is totally about her. I was very aware of that.”

Later, though, once the conversation had switched to Estonian, Kontaveit was overcome with emotion as she responded to an inquiry about the crowd, offering a halting answer before abruptly leaving the room.

“It was something I never experienced before,” she said through a veil of tears. “I don’t think it’s a personal attack against me or anything. I mean, it’s fair. I definitely had no shame losing to Serena… It was very difficult with the crowd.”

As Kontaveit would be the first to acknowledge, none of this is on Williams. The adulation lavished upon the 23-time grand slam champion this week has been earned countless times over in the 27 years since she played her first professional match. From the United States Tennis Association to the fans and the media, there is an overarching desire to give Williams the send-off she deserves (even if she has left the door open for an improbable about turn). Rightly so. Yet it is also important to respect the boundaries of fairness. 

It would be a shame if all the hoopla surrounding Williams, who faces Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic next, tarnished her farewell. Nobody wants to see a palpably decent and respectful young woman like Kontaveit reduced to tears, and while it would be foolhardy to suppose that tens of thousands of baying New Yorkers can be controlled, the timing of video tributes is another matter. 

Throughout her career, Williams’s tennis has always spoken for itself; she does not require a narrator, and needs no introduction.

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