Happy retirement Aleks!

Canadian tennis player Aleksandra Wozniak announced her retirement from the sport today at a press conference in Montréal. Wozniak achieved a career-best WTA ranking of No. 21 in 2009, making her the fourth highest-ranked Canadian singles player of all time, and the first Québécoise to break the top 100 and the top 50. At the tournament in Stanford in 2008, she became the first Canadian in 20 years to capture a WTA singles title (and only the 5th in history at that time) and the first Québécoise to have accomplished such a feat. In addition, she reached the final at the WTA tournaments in Fes in 2007 and in Ponte Vedra Beach in 2009, making her the third Canadian player with most WTA singles finals (with 3). She has also won 11 ITF singles titles during her career, including two ITF 100Ks (in Vancouver in 2011 and in Nassau in 2012).



In 2012, Wozniak became the first Canadian in 20 years to reach the quarterfinals in singles at the Rogers Cup (and only the 4th in the Open Era). Her best results in singles in Grand Slam tournaments were a fourth round appearance at the 2009 French Open, a third round finish at the 2009 US Open and second round appearances at the 2008, 2010 and 2012 Wimbledon, and 2012 Australian Open. She also reached the third round of the French Open three more times, in 2008, 2010 and 2012. During her career, she has four wins over top-10 opponents, including wins over former world No. 1 players Serena Williams in 2008 and Caroline Wozniacki in 2009, former World No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2009, and former World No. 3 Nadia Petrova also in 2009. She has seven more wins over top-20 opponents, defeating Marion Bartoli two times, Amélie Mauresmo, Francesca Schiavone, Sabine Lisicki, Zheng Jie and Jelena Janković.



Over her career with the Canadian Fed Cup team, Wozniak holds the records for most total wins (40), most singles wins (32) and most ties played (36). In 2012, she became the first Québécoise to participate in the singles event of the Olympics, reaching the second round. She received the Tennis Canada female player of the year award in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2012. For her achievements in 2009, she was awarded the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as the Canadian female athlete of the year.

Happy retirement Aleks, thank you for your incredible contribution to Canadian tennis. We wish you all the best in your new projects, and we will miss following you on the Tour.

(Picture : © Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)

