“I hope I was fun to watch,” Alexandr Dolgopolov announces his retirement from tennis


“I hope I was fun to watch,” Alexandr Dolgopolov announces his retirement from tennis

Alexandr Dolgopolov

Alexandr Dolgopolov, who achieved a career high ranking of world number 13 has announced his retirement from tennis. The Ukrainian reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open 2011, which was his best run at a Grandslam event. The 32-year old has failed to recover from a right wrist injury, he suffered in 2018, which has led to his retirement.

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I hope I was fun to watch,” Dolgopolov told ATPTour.com. “I never broke any tennis records, but I hope I played entertaining tennis for fans. My wrist injury happened in Australia [three years ago] after mis-hitting a return in practice. I felt pain, but nothing serious,” he added.

I reached the Australian Open third round and returned to Europe, but I never realised that it would be career ending. I’ve tried for a couple of years, had two surgeries and I still have pain,” the Ukrainian added.

I needed to be in a good mood to play my best tennis: Alexandr Dolgopolov

Alexandr Dolgopolov made a significant impact at the Australian Open 2021, where he reached the quarterfinals. He scored a five set victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Robin Soderling at the Melbourne Park. His run was ended by Andy Murray in the last eight clash.

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The Ukrainian’s last professional match came against Novak Djokovic at the Italian Masters on May 14, 2018. However, that was his last game on professional tour, after which he underwent a surgery on his wrist.

I needed to be in a good mood to play my best tennis,” admitted Dolgopolov. “It was as simple as that. Sometimes I was tired or in a bad mood and I really needed to want to compete. I needed to be healthy,” he continued.

If I wanted to compete, I always had good results at the start of the year. It was the will to fight and compete, and sometimes that didn’t happen. It was a feeling,” he added.

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