Garbiñe Muguruza announces retirement from tennis at age 30

Former world No.1 and two-time Grand Slam champion Garbiñe Muguruza has announced her retirement from tennis at the age of 30.

The Spaniard, who last played in January of 2023, made the announcement at a press conference in Madrid on Saturday, which was coupled with the news that she'll become an ambassador for the Laureus World Sports Academy.

In her decade-plus professional career, Muguruza won two Grand Slam singles titles, reached two other finals, and ranked as the WTA's world No. 1 for four weeks in 2017. She also won the 2021 WTA Finals title, making her the first Spaniard to ever win the year-end women's event in singles.

She retires as the second-most decorated female player from her country, behind four-time Grand Slam singles champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.

Muguruza announced herself on the WTA tour as a teenager in 2012, when she reached the fourth round of the Miami Open as a wild card in her tour-level debut. Two years later, she won her first tour-level title, and a year after that, she made her major move with a surprising run to the final at Wimbledon—losing to Serena Williams. But the Spaniard soon became the only player in WTA history to beat both Williams sisters in a Grand Slam final with a run of results over the next 18 months.

In 2016, she became a Grand Slam champion for the first time win her victory at Roland Garros, where she beat Serena Williams in the final, and the next year, she added a Wimbledon singles title to her resume by beating five-time champion Venus Williams in the title match at the All England Club. Later that year, she reached the top of the rankings.

Three years later, at the start of 2020, Muguruza found herself outside of the Top 30 in the WTA rankings, but a resurgent final chapter began when she reached her fourth career Grand Slam singles final at the Australian Open. Twelve months later, she capped her career by winning the year-end championships in Guadalajara, and ended 2021 ranked world No. 3.

Muguruza's last match was a loss to Czech Linda Noskova at the WTA 250 in Lyon, France on Jan. 31, 2023. In all, she ended six seasons inside the WTA's Top 5 (2015-18, 2021-22), won 10 WTA singles titles and posted a career win-loss record of 449-238 (.654). Her $24,813,379 in career prize money ranks 13th on all-time list.

Muguruza announced last April that she would be taking an extended sabbatical from the sport, citing a desire to spend more time with family and friends. She announced her engagement to Arthur Borges, whom she met in New York City during the US Open, last spring, and they're set to marry later this year.