At just 32 years old and with five Grand Slams under her belt, former world No. 1 tennis star Maria Sharapova stunned the world and announced her retirement from the sport on Wednesday.
It’s been a struggled for Sharapova in recent years, particularly after a 15-month suspension for use of a banned substance. But it was a number of injuries that caught up with her, and in an exclusive essay she penned for Vogue and Vanity Fair, she revealed the one of the moments that she knew her body was telling her it was time to give up the grind that came with competing at such a high level:
Listening to this voice so intimately, anticipating its every ebb and flow, is also how I accepted those final signals when they came.
One of them came last August at the U.S. Open. Behind closed doors, thirty minutes before taking the court, I had a procedure to numb my shoulder to get through the match. Shoulder injuries are nothing new for me—over time my tendons have frayed like a string. I’ve had multiple surgeries—once in 2008; another procedure last year—and spent countless months in physical therapy. Just stepping onto the court that day felt like a final victory, when of course it should have been merely the first step toward victory. I share this not to garner pity, but to paint my new reality: My body had become a distraction.
Sharapova also took to Instagram to say goodbye:
