Puerto Rican Monica Puig, crowned Olympic champion in 2016, announced on Monday that she was retiring at the age of 28 due to too many injuries.
Monica Puig throws in the towel. Diminished by too many injuries, the Puerto Rican tenniswoman announced on Monday that she was stopping her career, when she will celebrate her 29th birthday in September. The 2016 Olympic champion expressed herself in a long message published on social networks: “It is not a goodbye, but a see you soon. For the last 28 years of my life, tennis has been my constant. He gave me some of the most exciting and memorable experiences I could have ever dreamed of. But sometimes good things come to an end. Today, I announce my retirement. After a tough three-year battle with injuries and four surgeries, my body has had enough. This decision is not easy as I would have loved to retire on my own terms, but sometimes life has other plans and we need to open new doors that lead to exciting possibilities. I would also like to announce that I will be very active in the world of tennis as a new full time member of the family. ESPN, while diversifying into many other sports that fascinate me! I will also explore consulting roles for promising young tennis players at academies. »
A dream course in Rio
Turned professional in 2010, Monica Puig played three finals on the WTA circuit and won one, in Strasbourg in 2014. She reached the best ranking of her career in September 2016 by becoming 27th in the world, a few weeks after having won an improbable Olympic title at the Rio Games. After defeating Polona Hercog, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Garbine Muguruza, Laura Siegemund and Petra Kvitova, the then world 32nd faced Angelique Kerber in the final and beat her 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, to give her country the first Olympic gold medal in its history (the second came last year thanks to Jasimne Camacho-Quinn over 110m hurdles in Tokyo). But since 2019, his career has taken a turn for the worse, due to an elbow injury, which spread to his shoulder. Monica Puig, who had not played a game in 2021, returned to competition in Madrid, where she lost to Danielle Collins before retiring for what will remain the last game of her career, against Fiona Ferro at the ITF tournament in St-Malo in early May.
