Dinara Safina officially retires from professional tennis

Russian Dinara Safina has officially retired from professional tennis following an emotional on-court announcement during the trophy awarding at the Mutua Madrid Open 2014 women’s singles championship on Sunday. Safina had a glamorous tennis career, highlighted with 12 WTA titles, three Grand Slam singles runner-up trophies and an Olympic silver medal in singles.

Safina’s ranking rose to world number one back in April 2009, the year where she reached two Grand Slam singles finals at the Australian Open and French Open. She also won the inaugural Madrid Open that year which helped her ranking back then.

However, back injuries have forced her to take a break on tour in the next two years after that. Her last match was at Madrid in 2011 where she lost in the earlier rounds. She would go on to take on a break and her future was uncertain back then.

Her announcement on Sunday formally closes her professional tennis career. But she can always make a comeback if she wants to or if she’s healthy enough to do so.

WTA Tour has prepared a couple of tributes to the Russian tennis sensation.

Legend of Dinara by Courtney Nguyen

Dinara Safina’s Best Moments Gallery