Anett Kontaveit's career might have ended at age 27, but the Estonian is comfortable with what she achieved in the sport.
Anett Kontaveit was having a really good time on the tennis courts when she injured her back, which ultimately caused her to retire at 27. It was a terrible thing to happen, and it came at the worst possible time, just when Kontaivet was seemingly establishing herself as one of the best players in the world.
She peaked at number two in the rankings, she played at the WTA Finals, and then, not even a year later, her career was basically over. Back injuries are notoriously tough to handle and Kontaveit simply couldn't find a way to do so.
She couldn't compete the way she wanted to, and it gave her too much pain away from the courts. It was unfortunate, but she was comfortable with the decision and didn't regret it.
In a talk with ERR, Kontaveit opened up about her career and her thoughts now that she's been retired for a while.
Ever since I was a child, it's always been about making sacrifices. The competition is huge in tennis – it's the most popular women's sport in the world according to some statistics. There are so many people who want to be there, and in order to get there, you have to work harder than others or you have to be something special.
She's right, and the competition was always pretty tough. When you put that into perspective, her career as it unfolded has been a huge success because the likelihood of it happening was very low. Stuff like that makes it easier to move on even though she could have given more to the sport.
I think to be in the top 20 in such a highly competitive sport is a great achievement. Of course it was a constant sacrifice all the time, training, being abroad, being away from family. All the things that other people might take for granted, I often didn't have. It was a lot of hard work, and it was a lot of hard work to go out and compete.
In the end, now, looking back, Kontaveit is quite happy about what she achieved. She doesn't have any regrets which is pretty rare. More often than not, people have many regrets, but she's fine with how everything went.
When I think back on my career, I'm the kind of person who doesn't have many regrets about anything I've done, even if it hasn't gone exactly the way I wanted it to. Because I always give a hundred percent and I know that throughout my career I gave as much as I could every time. In that sense, I'm very proud of myself and I'm very happy with what I achieved.
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