Who said farewell to tennis in 2025?

First up are two Grand Slam champions: Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova. Halep announced her retirement in February 2025 after a first-round loss at the Transylvania Open in her native Romania. The two-time Grand Slam champion captured the 2018 French Open and 2019 Wimbledon titles during an illustrious career that saw her reach the World No. 1 ranking. Despite reducing a doping suspension from four years to nine months following a successful appeal, persistent knee and shoulder injuries ultimately ended her comeback attempt. Halep finished her career with 24 singles titles and will be remembered as Romania’s greatest tennis player.

Kvitova announced in June that the 2025 US Open would be her final tournament, bringing closure to a remarkable career that included two Wimbledon championships. The Czech star, who achieved a career-high ranking of World No. 2, won 31 singles titles during her time on tour. She made history in 2011 as the first player born in the 1990s to win a Grand Slam, then claimed her second Wimbledon crown in 2014. After returning from a 17-month maternity break earlier in 2025, she received a wildcard for one last appearance at her beloved All England Club before bidding farewell at Flushing Meadows.

The next two players hail from France in Caroline Garcia and Alize Cornet. Garcia shared in May that 2025 would be her final season on tour. The 31-year-old Frenchwoman peaked at World No. 4 in singles and reached No. 2 in doubles during a versatile career. Garcia captured 11 singles titles, with her crowning achievement being the 2022 WTA Finals championship and the impressive Wuhan-Beijing double in 2017. She also excelled in doubles, winning eight titles including the French Open in both 2017 and 2022. After struggling with injuries in recent years, Garcia will be remembered as one of the most dynamic players of her generation but will continue to be in the tennis space with her podcast.

For Cornet, this is more of a permanent retirement as she said goodbye last year but appeared in a handful of tournaments in 2025. The 35-year-old joined the professional tour in 2006 and reached a career-high ranking of No. 11. Known for her longevity and consistency, Cornet won six singles titles and three doubles titles during her career. She holds the record for the most consecutive Grand Slam main draw appearances with 69, but played in 72 total.

Eugenie Bouchard bid farewell to professional tennis in July, with the National Bank Open in Montreal serving as her final tournament. The Canadian sensation burst onto the scene as a teenager and was once considered one of the sport’s brightest young stars. 2014 saw an incredible season with semifinal appearances at the Australian Open and Roland Garros before reaching her lone Grand Slam final at Wimbledon. While injuries derailed what many believed would be a long career full of titles, Bouchard’s impact on Canadian tennis remains significant and she hopes to continue torch bearing in professional pickleball.

Yanina Wickmayer is another veteran who played her final professional match at Wimbledon. The Belgian, who reached a career-high ranking of World No. 12, enjoyed a 20-year career that included five WTA singles titles and more than 500 career wins. Her most memorable run came at the 2009 US Open, where she advanced to the semifinals and earned the WTA’s Most Improved Player award. Wickmayer won titles on all surfaces and also holds Belgium’s Billie Jean King Cup singles win record, cementing her legacy as one of her country’s finest players whose era included Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters.

Two other Top 30 players in Michaella Kraijcek and Lauren Davis also bid farewell this year. Kraijcek was celebrated with a special ceremony in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. The Dutch player turned professional in 2003 and reached a career-high of No. 30 in singles and No. 23 in doubles. She won three singles titles and five doubles titles, including a memorable victory at Libéma Open in 2006 when she was just 17 years old and a Wimbledon quarterfinal the following year. Davis is the most recent retiree, announcing just last week. Turning pro in 2011, the American was a mainstay in the Top 100 for many years, peaking at No. 26 and won two singles titles in her career.

On to links!

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Five at The IX: 2025 Retirees final pressers

Q. What makes you most emotional now as you think about where you are today and where you have been on this ride?

PETRA KVITOVA: I don’t think about today that much. I think it was the past, those years I have been playing pro, the years I have been small kid, playing in my small city since I been four.

You know, it was long journey to get to the top 100 and to get really up, up. It was many years playing under the pressure as well as being top 10 for a long time. Being Grand Slam champion, it’s great pressure to have, for sure. It was a lot of pressure overall in my tennis career. On and off the court, as well.

But I enjoyed it. I think I did it quite well.

Q. What are you proudest of about your time in tennis as you prepare to leave it? And separately, what do you think you’ll miss the most?

PETRA KVITOVA: I think I would be proudest of many things. I think especially, as I already mentioned, the mental side, I think. All the seasons, pretty long seasons already before, and I was quite okay to handle it even with some injuries and sickness and kind of this stuff.

I’m very proud of how I handled the pressure, how many times I have been in the top 10. It was very, very special for me. Even I never been World No. 1, but I think still those two Grand Slam wins is above the World No. 1. So that’s how I gonna take it, especially the Wimbledon ones. Yeah, I’m proud of many, many things.

What I gonna miss, it will the tennis itself. It’s a beautiful sport. Everything you do on the court, it’s your fault or your win. I think that’s the beauty of the sport, as well. So that’s it.

Some people, as well, of course: opponents, people in the WTA, ATP, all the Grand Slams, who is just taking care of us. They are great. Yeah, I will miss them too. But I will be around at some point.

Q. What are the emotions you’re feeling right now?

CAROLINE GARCIA: No, I mean, it’s kind of weird to say, but, you know, I’m very happy. It was a great run. I did a great thing on court, and I went until what I could achieve. You know, obviously you can always achieve more, and I was dreaming of achieving more. But I’m very happy and in peace with my decision to move forward with my life and close the chapter of being a tennis player.

Q. Specifically, what were some of the things that led you to this decision?

CAROLINE GARCIA: I think it’s many things, you know. The last couple of years for me were hard, were tricky, and kind of dark. I was able to, yeah, to pass them, to learn a lot. I almost left last year by hating tennis, and I thought it was the worst sport out there (smiling).

But I did a lot of work on myself to understand what was going on, and yeah, do one more season, leave it my own way, and building again my love for the sport and my passion for tennis.

You know, at one point competing and everything it takes to be at the top, I didn’t want to do it. I couldn’t handle it anymore, but I still love tennis.

Q. Congrats on your career. As far as I’m concerned, it was a pleasure to interview someone who is so genuine. You published on your social networks a picture of you as you were a teenager when you played for the first time here at the French Open. If you were to meet with that teenager, what would you tell her today?

ALIZE CORNET: That’s not easy to foretell anything to a 15-year-old player about her 20-year career coming up. So I would just say stay as you are and be yourself. Don’t fight to be perfect, because you will never be perfect, and you will waste a lot of energy doing so.

Be genuine. Be loyal and truthful, and people will accept you as you are or not. At 15 years old, the teenager that I was already knew what she had to do as far as tennis was concerned but it’s another thing to accept one’s self as we are as a person.

Q. You’ve had some amazing highs in your career. Despite the result today, where would you rate this day, coming back and playing a first match?

SIMONA HALEP: I would rate it as a special day, honestly, considering the period I had. Playing so well, feeling so well on court, feeling so well outside of the court with so many people that are very nice to me and giving me the love, I would say that this day is going to stay very special for me.

Of course, I had many results in the past, big results. But here it’s something more than tennis, it’s something personal. I really love to see that people are appreciating me beside tennis and beside everything that happened.