4 tennis players who retired in 2024 and more following

• All eyes are on Rafael Nadal as fans see whether he will be among tennis players who will retire in 2024
• The Spaniard will play at the French Open 2024
• It could be his last event as he exits professional tennis

All eyes are on Rafael Nadal as fans see whether he will be among the tennis players who retired in 2024. Nadal is the crème-de-a-crème of the Open Era but injuries are no longer doing him a favour.

The Spaniard will play at the French Open 2024 and it could be his last event as he exits professional tennis. Still, this is subject to confirmation. Already, there are four big tennis stars who called in time.

Tennis Players Who Retired in 2024

Danielle Collins

American tennis player Danielle Collins. Photo/CNN

American tennis player Danielle Collins bids competitive tennis goodbye at the end of the 2024 season. Collins, 30, needs time to focus on her health. She has been battling injuries while fighting endometriosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

The 15^th seed won the Credit One Charleston Open and the Miami Open this season but says she has no more energy to continue. Her biggest test so far is living through her chronic ailments both of which are highly inflammatory.

“Balancing two chronic inflammatory conditions when you’re a professional athlete is not an easy thing,” she said during an interview with Good Morning America.

Collins was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in 2019 and she thought that this was the end of her tennis career. Four years later, she is still going. According to America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), women are more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis. RA is an autoimmune disease that causes painful swelling in the joints and can affect other parts of the body.

In 2021, Collins was diagnosed with endometriosis, a chronic inflammatory gynaecological disorder where the endometrial tissue is outside the uterus. She underwent surgery to correct the disorder and returned to tennis. The American put up with intense pain whenever her menstrual cycle was on but she lived through it.

Garbine Muguruza

Garbine Muguruza has officially retired from tennis. Photo/ESPN

After a 14-month break, Spanish tennis player Garbine Muguruza announced her official retirement. The Spanish tennis ambassador stated during a news conference in April 2024 that time for her to pursue a different career outside of tennis was due.

Muguruza stated that she wasn’t interested in playing tennis in a prior interview with Women’s Health in 2023. All she wanted, as is typically the case when on tour, was to get some rest and mental clarity.

The 30-year-old relished her extra time at the gym and mental respite, something she had not received during the previous seasons. Some of her fans weren’t shocked that she is part of the tennis players who retired in 2024. Her focus moving forward will be keeping fit and spending more time with her family.

Alize Cornet

Alize Cornet of France is retiring. Photo/Medium

Alize Cornet, a French tennis player, will play her final match at the French Open in May of 2024 and retire thereafter.

The Frenchwoman declared her retirement from competitive tennis on Canal + in France. She noted that it was a difficult choice to make and that she is at a stage where she is tired of being pushed. Cornet, 34, declared that her career as a professional tennis player is done and that she plans to start a new chapter in her life off the circuit.

She dropped from world No. 11 to world No. 107 in the last two years due to a lack of performance on the court. She maintained that she would not wait for the moment her performance pushed her out so hard; she preferred to exit the court as early as now.

Ivo Karlovic

Croatian player Ivo Karlovic is one of the tennis players who retired in 2024. Know for his powerful serves, he announced his retirement in February 2024. The 45-year-old played his last match in October 2021 at the Indian Wells.  He described his tennis career as gratifying and the best thing that happened in his life.

He posted on his X account: “I’ve had a very gratifying, unorthodox and long career coming from extremely humble beginnings, especially for a tennis player.”

While these four tennis players have confirmed their retirement, a few other players such as Andy Murray, Nadal, and Venus Williams could also join the list of tennis players who retired in 2024. Diego Schwartzman has confirmed that he will retire in 2025.