After 22 years of playing professional tennis, Max Mirnyi has announced his retirement from the sport after a fantastic career.
The Belarusian ‘Beast’ won six doubles grand slams throughout his career including four Roland Garros titles. As well as doubles success, Mirnyi had a decent singles career having reached a US Open quarter-final in 2002.
As a result of his retirement the 41 year old joins Daniel Nestor in retiring in 2018 in what feels like an end of an era for doubles. Having achieved great success, Mirnyi decided that now was the right time to retire, “I have come to a decision that the 2018 season was my last year competing professionally,” Mirnyi told ATPworldtour.com.
“It was a very difficult choice for me to make as tennis has been my life ever since I can remember myself. I was fortunate to achieve far beyond what a little boy from Minsk, Belarus, could have dreamed of.”
In terms of ranking, Mirnyi was world number one for 53 weeks in June 2003 as well as staying in the top 100 for the 20th consecutive season in 2018. In singles the Belarusian reached a career high ranking of number 18 in the world as he managed to score 16 wins over top 10 players during his singles career.
One of the proudest moments of Mirnyi’s career was winning the gold medal at the 2012 Olympic games in London when he and Victoria Azarenka took the title in what was a memorable moment for Belarusian Tennis.
In his final season he managed to win two titles with Austrian partner Philipp Oswald in New York and Houston to finish his career with a flourish the Belarusian.
From 1994 to 2018 Mirnyi played with 100 doubles partners and thanked all of them in his statement. To conclude the former world number one thanked his supporters who gave him the strength to continue, “And lastly, I wish to thank and hug all of my fans who gave me love and support, who cheered with me in moments of glory but more importantly those that lifted me time and time again at different part of the world when matches and tournaments were lost and times were tough. You gave me the strength and motivation to wake up and keep working,” Mirnyi said.
“I will never forget what it is like to play in front of you, be it on the practice court or a packed house. Going forward, it’s time for me to move on with my life and accept new challenges. I will miss the game greatly, but for certain I will continue to follow it closely and love it from the sidelines.”
