Anett Kontaveit will play one final event before her retirement match in her native Estonia, and it will be in Luxembourg.
Kontaveit effectively retired from the sport earlier this year at Wimbledon, but the Estonian will formally retire in November in her native Estonia by playing her good friend Ons Jabeur. Before that match, though, the Estonian will take part in the Luxembourg Invitation tennis event, which only features retired players.
It's a nice exhibition event for retired players to swing the racquet a bit, reminding fans of their best days. The event generally features 8 former players, and this year, we'll see Kontaviet among them as well. The players that will compete this year outside of Kontaveit are Kim Clijsters, Lucie Safarova, Daniela Hantuchova, Monica Puig, Pauline Parmentier, and Mandy Minella.
The tournament will begin on October 19th and will finish on October 22nd. There is some solid money to be won, but the money is not important for Kontaviet. She just wants to get a few matches in before her farewell match against Jabeur on November 11th.
She kind of alluded to that earlier this year in an interview, noting that she'll need to get some practice time before the match.
I will definitely have to [pick up the racket again] before then to play Ons Jabeur. To do that, I'll definitely have to start training properly. I'm trying to keep in shape now so that training again won't be such a shock to my body. But I will have to prepare properly for a long time before I will be able to keep up with her.
Kontaveit unfortunately retired earlier this year due to a back issue which makes it very hard for her to compete the way she wants. She was number two just two years ago so her retirement came as a shock to many fans but her body couldn't handle it anymore.
0 Comments