Former Wimbledon champion marries fan after requesting a photo to announce retirement
Tennis player Garbine Muruguza has declared her retirement from the game.
The eight-time Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza has announced her retirement from professional tennis in order to focus on getting married to her long-term partner.
After 12 years on the WTA circuit and two Grand Slam victories at the French Open and SW19, the Spaniard will retire from the sport.
Injuries hindered Muguruza’s attempts to reclaim her previous glory, and throughout the last years of her career, she fell down the world rankings.
But she will have her fiancé, Arthur Borges, with whom she first connected after he asked her out for a picture, to reflect on her accomplishments.
Muguruza responded, “My hotel was close to Central Park and I was bored, so I decided I should go for a walk,” when asked how their romance began.
When I get outside, I see him in the street. He turns abruptly and wishes you luck at the US Open. “Whoa, he’s really attractive,” was my first thought.
Although her future husband would have probably witnessed Muguruza’s ten career titles during her professional career, she hasn’t participated in a competitive match since last January.
At a press conference, she declared her intention to retire, claiming she never could have imagined the heights she would reach on the court.
“I would have thought this person was crazy if someone had told me 25 years ago, when I started hitting my first tennis balls,
that I would become a professional tennis player, that I would fulfill my dream of winning Wimbledon and Roland Garros, that I would become number one in the world, and that I would win the WTA Finals.”
“In this early stage of my life, tennis has given me a lot. It has been an amazing adventure filled with unusual experiences. I have traveled extensively and encountered a wide variety of civilizations.
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to everyone who has supported and assisted me during this chapter; without them, I could not have reached this point.I am ready to embark on a new chapter in my life, one that will undoubtedly involve tennis and sports in some form,
having developed and evolved in a totally different way than what is generally considered typical.”
The greatest accomplishment for Muguruza was defeating Venus Williams to win her lone Wimbledon singles championship in 2016.
She continued to hold the top spot in the WTA rankings for four weeks, but she soon fell down the list before experiencing a brief comeback in 2020.