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Rio de Janeiro Olympics gold medalist Monica Puig introduced her retirement from skilled tennis at age 28 through a submit on social media Monday.
Puig grew to become the primary athlete to win gold for Puerto Rico in any sport at an Olympics along with her girls’s singles triumph in 2016. She additionally was the primary lady representing her nation to earn an Olympic medal of any color.
“After a tricky 3-year struggle with accidents and 4 surgical procedures, my physique had sufficient,” Puig wrote Monday. “This choice isn’t a simple one as a result of I’d’ve liked to retire alone phrases, however generally life has different plans and we’ve to open new doorways that result in thrilling prospects.”
Puig mentioned she’s going to work for ESPN and will probably be “exploring consulting roles for younger, up and coming tennis gamers, in addition to with packages and academies.”
She leaves the tennis tour with a profession document of 303-215, one WTA singles title along with her Summer season Video games victory, a career-best rating of No. 27 and greater than $3.5 million in prize cash.
Puig stopped enjoying within the first set of what can be her closing match match final month in France in opposition to Fiona Ferro. She performed in a single different official match this season, on the Madrid Open, dropping to Australian Open runner-up Danielle Collins.
In any other case, Puig had not competed since a first-round loss on the French Open in October 2020.
She introduced in June 2021 that she would wish to sit down out the Tokyo Olympics and the remainder of final season after having surgical procedure on her proper shoulder. That was her second operation to restore her rotator cuff and biceps tendon.
Puig additionally had surgical procedure on her proper elbow in December 2019.
On the Rio Olympics, Puig was unseeded and ranked thirty fourth, however she capped a run of peculiar outcomes by beating three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 within the closing. That adopted wins in opposition to two different main champions, Petra Kvitova and Garbiñe Muguruza. Puig was the primary unseeded lady to win the singles title since tennis returned to the Olympics in 1988.
Puig’s finest displaying at a Grand Slam match was attending to the fourth spherical of Wimbledon as a young person in 2013.
“Over the previous 28 years of my life, tennis has been my fixed. It has given me among the most thrilling and memorable experiences I might have ever requested for,” Puig wrote Monday. “However, generally, good issues come to an finish.”
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