Katie O'Brien declares her retirement at the age of 25 – Tennis News
Twenty five years old and former British No. 1 Katie O'Brien announced her retirement on August the 12th 2011. Katie O’Brien, the former British No. 1 revealed her decision to hang up her racquet at the age of 25. O’Brien
last year had been ranked at world number 84, but later had slipped to 281 in the WTA rankings, nonetheless, she was proud of what she had accomplished.
After having an amazing tennis career this is what she said, "Having been completely committed to tennis for a long time I feel ready to explore different avenues of life,"
Since her retirement, the level of support winging her way through various electronic mediums was enormous; the Yorkshire-born player wanted to explore new horizons and described giving up tennis as “giving up a way of life”. Although,
she will not be playing, she was not completely giving up tennis as she said, “I’d like to stay involved in tennis but probably not in a coaching capacity – events, marketing, media, they are all areas that appeal to me”.
This year, she commenced her season with the start of the Australian Open 2011 but because her ranking was not high enough to be admitted directly into the main draw of the event and hence, had to go through the qualifying first
round, but unfortunately she lost that round to Mandy Minella and therefore was unable to play. She later was given a wild card entry at Wimbledon, but after having lost to the 40-year-old Kimiko-Date-Krumm during the first round on grass court at Wimbledon,
she admitted that life on tour was not fun.
In 2010, O’Brien attempted to qualify for the Auckland but lost her opening match 1-6, 5-7 to Valerie Tetreault. She then moved to the Premier event in Sydney and lost to Anastasia Rodionova in the qualifying first round. Her second
career victory n a grand slam event was when she defeated the Australian Patricia Mayr 6-3, 6-3 in the main draw of the event but lost to the second round and faced eighth seed and former world number one Jelena Jankovic. Although, she put in a spirited performance
she lost the match.
Throughout her career she has played five hundred and fourteen singles matches out of which she has won two hundred and eighty three matches and lost only two hundred and thirty one. Her doubles win loss record is as such that
she has played two hundred and twenty matches out of which she has won one hundred and one matches. In addition, she has won four ITF women’s Circuit singles titles and two ITF women’s doubles titles. Standing at 1.67 meters, O’Brien has bagged a total of
USD 525,141 as prize money in her career.
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