Tennis News: Mario Ancic retires from tennis at 26 with bad back
26 year old Mario “Baby Goran “ Ancic authenticated the news at a conference held in his hometown of Split, that he is taking retirement from tennis after ten years due to back injury.
The 26-year-old announced his retirement from the professional tennis due to reappearing mononucleosis on February 21, 2011.He narrated in a press conference held at the Firule Tennis club on February 23, 2011 that; "Heart wanted,
but body couldn't, this is the toughest moment of my life. I have never run away from responsibility. I've always stroved for perfection, and when I realized that my body cannot provide the kind of tennis I can play, there was no other solution"
When he was questioned about his future plans, he replied: "I will continue practicing law." As he spoke about his law and tennis experiences and the doping cases at Harvard Law School and he has also done a thesis on "ATP Yesterday,
Today and Tomorrow", this thesis briefs the legal organization and foundation of the ATP tour.
“Super Mario” a nickname accredited to Ancic by British media when he defeated Federer on Center Court at Wimbledon in 2002, started his tennis career at the age of seven and by the age of 10, he started practicing tennis with
countryman Goran Ivanisevic.
Continuing his ascent, he made his debut on tour in 2002 when he was granted a wild card at the Miami Masters but unluckily he failed to make it past the opening ground. A qualifier in the event, at the 2002 Wimbledon Championships,
he defeated the 7th seeded, Roger Federer in just two hours and nailed his Grand Slam Debut. Ancic was the first teenager to win on his Wimbledon debut on center court since Bjorn Borg came out on top in 1973.
A rising star, Ancic reached his career high on the 2006 ATP Tour when he won 55 matches and two ATP titles while breaking into Top 10 by moving past Fernando Gonzalez a top seed but unfortunately he failed to make it past the
final round, going down in straight sets to Jarkko Nieminen, putting in their appearance he clocked in his career high at Masters Series by reaching into semi-finals at Hamburg Masters. A week before Wimbledon, Mario took his 2005 title at ‘s-Hertogenbosch
and after Wimbledon, Ancic reached No. 7; his career high in singles.
Ancic had a very unlucky 2007 as compared to a significant 2006 since he dropped 74 places, from number 9 to number 83. Ancic was also diagnosed with mononucleosis at Marseille and later on retired from the first round as he himself
confessed that the virus had almost certainly started to affect him. So Ancic spent next the ten weeks in bed due to illness.
Reappearance of mononucleosis, brought with it fatigue and weight loss, forcing Mario to drop out from the 2008 summer Olympic and the US Open.
In the year 2009 Ancic planned to start on European ATP Challengers as his best result was a runner up in a Futures event in the USA .He continued to play challengers with and without success as he made it to the third round at
the 2010 BNP Paribas Open after beating Bobby Reynolds and Julien Benneteau but he lost to Nadal, and later he lost the game against Koellerer in Munich.
The Croatian also holds six wins and one loss in the Davis Cup doubles matches throughout his professional tennis career. In the year of 2005 he had won the decisive point for Croatia for the first time.
Ancic ends his career with 3 titles, 208 wins and 135 losses and a prize money of $4,024,686.
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