BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP)—Justine Henin is quitting professional tennis, according to a Belgian newspaper.

The 25-year-old Henin, the top-ranked player in the world, will make the announcement Wednesday, Het Nieuwsblad reported.

Henin has been battling fatigue and not playing well.

This year she lost to Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Italy’s Francesca Schiavone. Last week she was ousted from the Berlin Open in the third round and this week she pulled out of the Italian Open.

Henin’s retirement will come a year after Belgium’s Kim Clijsters said farewell to competitive tennis. Clijsters has since married and become a mother.

Henin’s rise to the top began in the mid-1990s.

Despite a troubled personal life—her mother died in 1995, her father did not speak to her for eight years and she divorced in 2007—Henin won an Olympic gold medal and all major tournaments except Wimbledon.

Her best year was 2007, when she earned more than $5 million winning 63 of her 67 matches in 10 tournaments, including two grand slam events.

 

She will be having a press conference on Wednesday where she will probably officially announce it or at the very least, say she will try to close everything at the French Open.

With this news, Justine will be the first tennis player to retire as the world number one.

As mentioned in the news bit, at only the age of 25, Justine is ending her career. It’s been a life needled with issues and personal stories and as a fan, I can recount several:

Childhood:

-         Justine went with her mother to Roland Garros and promised one day that she’d win it. Her mother died of cancer before she could do this for her.

-         Justine becomes estranged from her father.

The ones I’ve known as a fan of hers since 2002:

-         Wins the 2003 French Open, her maiden major, at last. Celebration is somewhat marred by the semi-final "Hand Incident" against Serena Williams, probably her greatest rival.

-         Proceeds to win the US and Australian Opens

-         After being world number one and setting the record for most ranking points total (7626) as well as fastest to earn $1M (which would be broken by Amelie Mauresmo in 2006), Justine’s season is cut short by cytomegalovirus but rebounds to win the gold medal at the Olympics.

-         Becomes the first woman to retire from a Grand Slam final at the Australian Open with an injury.

-         Misses the 2007 Australian Open due to personal reasons (she got divorced from her husband soon after)

-         Won her third straight French Open title then goes undefeated after Wimbledon including finally winning the Year-End Championships

-         2008 and the end(?) begins

 

There’s so much more but as successful as she was, many of her victories just seemed to make her lonelier if not isolated even further from the love of tennis fans. Oh she was indeed popular but she was also cerebral and aloof, keeping to her team but never failing to use her achievements to further her own charitable causes. She was an artist on the court, both frustrated and frustrating genius as she possessed what has been deemed as the most beautiful backhand in all of tennis including all the shots yet at times succumbed to her nerves. Every performance was a true experiment of a painting in the mind being executed before an audience’s presence and while it was not always perfect, it was still an experience of art, both thrashing and thrashed by peers and critics. Justine was simply her own woman but at many times fragile yet still a winner.

Bless her in her future endeavors after a career in tennis. I will miss her when she goes.

(Note: We must wait for her press conference as to her decision whether it is retirement or an extended break.)