"I experienced beautiful emotions and I met fabulous people"

Après 17 ans de carrière @ppauline86 tire sa révérence. Revenons ensemble sur sa carrière. #WTA #PaulineParmentier #MerciPauPau
Plus d'infos ici 👉: https://t.co/cSMo4ZHh1W pic.twitter.com/xZOve0GFbZ

— We Tennis (@We_Tennis) October 1, 2020

 

It's easy to overlook a player's retirement from the sport when it occurs during a major, but I don't want to overlook Pauline Parmentier's. The Frenchwoman played her last match this week, losing in the first round to Veronika Kudermetova, and then going out in the first round of doubles when she and partner Alize Cornet lost to 12th seeds and U.S. Open champions Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareava.

Parmentier won four WTA singles titles and was a seven-time member of the French Fed Cup team, as well as being a member of the 2008 French Olympic team. Parmentier's highest singles ranking, number 40 in the world, occurred in 2008. 

The 34-year-old Parmentier, who said, in retiring, that she was "at the end of my tennis adventure," cited her 2019 Fed Cup team participation as the highlight of her career. France won the Fed Cup championship in 2019, defeating Australia in the finals. In the fourth rubber of the 2019 semifinals against Romania--with France down 1-2--Parmentier defeated Irina-Camelia Begu, giving her country a chance to stay in the competition.

Parmentier said that the tour's shutdown because of Covid-19 helped her to make her decision about retiring because she realized that she could have a life outside of tennis. The Frenchwoman says of her years on the tour: "I experienced beautiful emotions and I met fabulous people.

"There were difficult times, moments of doubt, but I only remember that happiness and positive memories from all these years.”