4 notable Tennis players who retired in 2018

The 2018 tennis season is drawing to a close and a few noteworthy veterans have decided to hang up their racquets and retire from professional tennis. Last year saw the retirement of multiple Grand Slam champion Martina Hingis and former World Number 1 Ana Ivanovic. The year 2018 also was the first full season of Czech star Petra Kvitova since her horrific knife attack. The year also saw comeback mom Serena Williams make two consecutive Grand Slam finals appearances.

Ageless wonders Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Angelique Kerber all aged 30 and above won Grand Slams this year. Serena Williams has confirmed her participation at 2019 Australian Open and the world will watch with bated breath as she continues to battle it out in her quest to achieve the distinction of being the holder of the most Grand Slam titles of all-time.

We take a look at 4 notable players who will not play a part in the 2019 tennis season :

#1 Roberta Vinci

The Italian Roberta Vinci who was a runner-up in the all-Italian US Open final of 2015 has decided to call it quits this year. A prolific doubles player, Roberta Vinci won 5 Grand Slam Doubles titles and reached Number 1 in the WTA doubles rankings. Her highest singles ranking of Number 7 came in May 2016. Vinci most notably put a stop to Serena Williams' chase of a Calendar Slam at the 2015 US Open semi-finals.

Serena was bidding to become only the 4th woman to win all 4 Grand Slam titles in the same year. At the age of 33, she became the oldest ever player to be ranked inside the WTA Top-10 for the first time. Vinci who is one of the few players in the Tour to employ a one-handed backhand won a total of 35 WTA titles.