Former Top 10 player and British No. 1 Johanna Konta announced her retirement from professional tennis on Wednesday at the age of 30.
"Grateful. This is a word that I've probably used the most during my career, and this is the word that I feel explains it best at the end," Konta wrote on social media on Wednesday. "My playing career has come to an end, and I'm so grateful for the career it turned out to be."
A three-time Grand Slam semifinalist, Konta's best result at the US Open was a quarterfinal showing in 2019. In all, she played in eight main draws in New York dating back to her debut in 2012, where she qualified and reached the second round.
Considered a late-bloomer by some in her career, Konta first reached the Top 100 at age 23, but skyrocketed into the world's elite after a career-changing run of form that began at the 2015 US Open. That year, Konta came through qualifying—beating eventual two-time Open champion Naomi Osaka along the way—and reached the fourth round. In Round 2, she upset Garbiñe Muguruza in 3 hours and 23 minutes, in what was at the time the longest women's singles match in New York since the tie-break was introduced in 1970.
Konta went on to reach the semifinals at the Australian Open (2016), Wimbledon (2017) and the French Open (2019), and peaked at a career-high ranking of world No. 4 in July of 2017. With her run in Melbourne, she was the first British woman to reach a major semifinal in 32 years, and by reaching the Top 10, was the first since Jo Durie in 1984 to reach the world's elite.
Born in Australia to Hungarian parents, Konta moved to Great Britain at age 14 and played for the country beginning in 2012. She won four singles titles on tour, including the WTA 1000-level event in Miami in 2017, and earned 22 Top 10 wins over the course of her career.
"All the evidence pointed to me not 'making' it in this profession. However, my luck materialised in the people that came into my life and impacted my existence in ways that transcended tennis," she continued.
"Through my own resilience and through the guidance from others, I got to live my dreams. I got to become what I wanted and said as a child.
"How incredibly fortunate I count myself to be. How grateful I am."
Konta struggled with a knee injury for much of 2021, and her last competitive match came during the US Open Series in August with a first-round loss to Karolina Muchova at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. She retires with a ranking of world No. 113.
