Injury-plagued Shahar Peer, Israel's most successful women's tennis player, retires at 29

Jerusalem: Israel’s most successful women’s tennis player Shahar Peer on Tuesday announced her retirement because of a chronic shoulder injury at the age of 29. The former world number 11 reached two Grand Slam quarter-finals, at the Australian and US Opens in 2007, and won five WTA titles. [caption id=“attachment_3309048” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Shahar Peer turned pro in 2004, reaching a career-high world number 11 ranking in 2011, but had dropped to 177th by 2015. AFP[/caption] But she had been plagued by injury in recent years, last playing at the Monterrey Open in 2016, where she lost the opening round of qualifying, and said she had fallen out of love with tennis. “I want to share with you one of the hardest decisions I have had to make in my life,” Peer wrote on her Facebook page. “After 23 years, 13 of which I was an international professional tennis player, I am retiring. “I made this decision following a chronic inflammation in my shoulder that has lasted for more than two years and prevents me from competing at the high level that I am used to and expect of myself.”

Peer turned pro in 2004, reaching a career-high world number 11 ranking in 2011, but had dropped to 177th by 2015. In 2008 she became the first Israeli to compete at a WTA tournament in the Middle East at the Qatar Open. She also played 75 Fed Cup matches for her country and in 2008 represented Israel at the Beijing Olympics. “I lost my desire for the game of tennis and the intense way of life I have lived since I was six-and-a-half-years-old,” she wrote. “I look back on this experience with a huge smile, a lot of happiness and satisfaction.”