Injury forces Hungarian tennis star to retire

24-year-old Hungarian tennis player Ágnes Szávay, has announced her retirement from competitive tennis due to a vertebral injury she has long been suffering from. She hopes to capitalize on her experience in teaching tennis to children.

During her career, she won five individual and two doubles titles in WTA tournaments. In 2007, when she made it to the quarterfinals in the U.S. Open, Szávay was voted as the top female athlete in Hungary.

In a statement, she said that “it is a very emotional and shocking moment in my life, which has basically been around the tennis sport in the past more than ten years. That’s what I can do, that’s what I have liked to do and probably, the peak of my career would have come later since I’m only 24 years old.”

She also points out that it took a lot of time and a long way to reach this decision but she cannot do otherwise, she cannot risk her health. “It is not possible to continue competitive sport with a fractured vertebrum.”