Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis announced on Monday his intention to retire after competing in The Championships at Wimbledon, which begins on 1 July.

The former World No. 8, who played his last ATP Tour event at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in February, issued a statement on social media, saying, “I wanted to take the time to write to you all and let you know that this upcoming Wimbledon will be my last tournament as a tennis professional.

“I am extremely grateful to the All England Club for granting me a main draw wild card… and giving me a chance to say goodbye to the sport that I love so much and has been such a big part of my life for the last 30+ years. This decision was not an easy one. It has proven tough for me, especially physically, to come back to where I feel like I belong.”

The 34-year-old, who reached the 2006 Australian Open final (l. to Federer) and reached the Wimbledon semi-finals later the same year (l. to Nadal), finished in the Top 100 for 12 straight seasons between 2005 and 2016. He has compiled a 348-273 singles match record, which includes four ATP Tour titles from 14 tour-level finals. He went 1-2 in doubles finals.

In the statement, Baghdatis added, “Even though my mind wants to do it, the limits of my body have prevented me to maintain and play at a consistent high level as I expect from myself. Especially the last two years have been very difficult for me with recurring injuries and pain.

“Besides that, I have a beautiful wife, two young daughters, and a third child on the way and I could not be more excited to spend more time with all of them at home.”

Baghdatis, the 2003 year-end junior World No. 1, married former WTA player Karolina Sprem in July 2012 and the couple has two daughters, Zahara and India.

“Although I am sad to say goodbye to the sport as an active player, I am very excited for the next chapter of my life – I am going to be staying heavily involved in tennis in a number of capacities, so you will continue to see me on the Tour.

“Lastly, there are so many people to thank who have been a part of this incredible journey with me, starting with my family first and for all. To all the people that have helped me become the person and tennis player I am today, I say thank you, especially to my Mum and Dad who supported me since the age of three to play tennis.

“Thank you for always believing in me and pushing me to become better. My team, my close friends, but especially the fans around the world. You made me feel welcome in each and every city and country I have ever been to, and your love, support, and energy is something I will truly miss.”

10 Things To Watch In Eastbourne

1) Grass 250s: The last stops on the road to Wimbledon are on the lawns of Eastbourne and Antalya. At the Nature Valley International, Guido Pella and Laslo Djere are the top two seeds, and they are joined by two-time champion and last week’s Queen’s Club titlist Feliciano Lopez, Queen’s Club runner-up Gilles Simon, 2016 champion Steve Johnson, and British No. 1 Kyle Edmund.

2) Feliciano Flying: As a 113th-ranked wild card, Lopez defeated Gilles Simon to capture his seventh ATP Tour singles title at The Queen’s Club, before lifting the doubles trophy with Andy Murray. Lopez is the first man to double up at the ATP 500 grass-court event since Mark Philippoussis in 1997. He is rewarded with a special exempt spot in the Eastbourne main draw, and soars 60 spots in the ATP Rankings to No. 53.

3) Pella Power: After losing his first four finals, top seed Pella claimed his first ATP Tour singles title in March at the Brasil Open. The breakthrough was part of a stellar clay-court season for Pella, who is tied with Rafael Nadal for the most clay-court wins this year (21).

4) Djere’s Here: Second seed Djere, like Pella, also picked up his maiden ATP Tour singles title this year during the ‘Golden Swing’ in Latin America. In his first tour-level championship match, in Rio de Janeiro, Djere defeated #NextGenATP Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in straight sets.

5) First Wins Club: Pella and Djere are two of the nine first-time singles champions so far this year. Three of the remaining seven maiden trophy winners are also in the Eastbourne main draw: Radu Albot (Delray Beach), Reilly Opelka (New York) and Tennys Sandgren (Auckland).

Read Eastbourne: All You Need To Know

6) Going Wild: Top-ranked Brit Edmund picked up a wild card to play his second event of the year on home soil. Two of his countrymen also got wild cards: #NextGenATP talent Jay Clarke, and Daniel Evans, who has already claimed two ATP Challenger Tour crowns on grass this month (Surbiton, Nottingham).

7) Home Team: Three more British players are in the field: British No. 2 Cameron Norrie, who reached the ASB Classic final in January, James Ward, who has qualified for two ATP Tour main draws in a two-week span, and Paul Jubb, the NCAA singles champion from the University of South Carolina.

8) Grass Glory: Johnson joins Lopez as a former champions in the field, although Johnson’s 2016 title run came when the event was played in Nottingham. Former Nature Valley International finalists who are in this week’s draw include Fernando Verdasco, Sam Querrey, Pablo Cuevas and Simon; who fell to Lopez, as he did at The Queen’s Club on Sunday, in the 2013 championship match.

9) More Murray: After returning to tour-level action for the first time since the Australian Open in January, in his first doubles event in over two years, Murray won earned his first doubles title since 2011 with Lopez at The Queen’s Club. Murray will team up with Marcelo Melo in the Eastbourne doubles draw – and just like last week, Murray will face top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in the opening round.

10) Doubles Duty: The two all-British teams who contested last year’s final join Murray in the doubles field: defending champions Luke Bambridge and Jonny O’Mara and finalists Ken Skupski and Neal Skupski. Fifty per cent of the top half of the doubles draw is British, including all five of those players.

10 Things To Watch In Antalya

1) Grass 250s: At the Turkish Airlines Open Antalya, defending champion Damir Dzumhur and two-time finalist Adrian Mannarino lead the field alongside No. 1 seed Benoit Paire.

2) Paire Flair: Paire came into 2019 with one ATP Tour singles title to his name, but he has already hoisted trophies at clay-court events in Marrakech and Lyon this season, and is one of just eight players to have won multiple singles titles this year. Paire will now try to translate that success to grass, after losing his opening grass-court match of the year to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Halle last week.

3) The Champ Returns: Dzumhur downed Mannarino in last year’s final, giving the Bosnian his third career ATP Tour singles title. Dzumhur was 13-17 last year coming into Antalya, but he pulled himself up to a 50 per cent success rate for the season and a career-high ATP Ranking of No. 23, after clinching the title. This year, the World No. 62 enters the draw with a 5-10 record in 2019.

4) Lucky Number Seven: Mannarino experienced a long-awaited career highlight at the Libema Open this month, when he claimed his first ATP Tour singles title at ‘s-Hertogenbosch in his seventh tour-level championship match. Two of those his final losses came in the first two editions of the Turkish Airlines Open Antalya. Mannarino owns 48 career wins on grass, which is the 10th-most of players ranked inside the Top 100 of the ATP Rankings.

5) Viva Italia: Andreas Seppi has the ninth-most grass-court match-wins of the current Top 100 ranked players with 58 career victories on the surface. The 35-year-old had been the most recent Italian grass-court titlist on the ATP Tour (2011 Eastbourne) until Matteo Berrettini triumphed at the MercedesCup earlier this month.

Read Antalya: All You Need To Know

6) Aussie Rules: Third seed Jordan Thompson lost to Mannarino in the ‘s-Hertogenbosch final, but it was still a breakthrough week for the Australian after reaching his first ATP Tour singles final. Thompson owns a 19-12 record this season, a huge improvement from 2018, where he claimed one victory from 12 tour-level encounters.

7) Going for Grass Glory: No. 4 seed Pablo Carreno Busta is one of three former Top 10 players in the draw. The former World No. 10 is seeking his first victory on grass – he is 0-6 on the surface in his career, including four first-round losses at Wimbledon.

8) Perfect 10: Alongside Carreno Busta, fellow former Top 10 players Janko Tipsarevic and Ernests Gulbis are also in the field. Tipsarevic, who reached No. 8 in 2012, missed the entirety of 2018, returned from two hamstring surgeries at the 2019 Australian Open and made his first tour-level quarter-final since 2016 in Houston. Gulbis hit his career-high ATP Ranking of No. 10 in 2014.

9) Wild Ones: Three Turkish players received the main-draw wild cards: 23-year-old Cem Ilkel, 22-year-old Altug Celikbilek, and 20-year-old Ergi Kirkin. All three are seeking their first victory in an ATP Tour main draw; for Kirkin, this will mark his tour-level debut.

10) Doubling Up: Last year’s champions Marcelo Demoliner and Santiago Gonzalez are back in Antalya – but not paired together. Demoliner and partner Divij Sharan are seeded second, while Gonzalez is third-seeded alongside one of the 2017 Antalya champions, Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi. Reigning Roland Garros champions Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies are the No. 1 seeds.

A LOOK BACK
Ilkley Trophy (Ilkley, UK): What was the key for Dominik Koepfer in claiming his first ATP Challenger Tour title and clinching a Wimbledon wild card? How about a dish of pasta carbonara at Piccolino’s. Every night.

“Ilkley is a nice little town and I went to the same dinner spot every night. One of those superstitions.”

The grass-court swing concluded in thrilling fashion on Sunday, with Koepfer clinching his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title in a deciding tie-break. The 25-year-old rallied past Dennis Novak 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) to reign on the lawns of Ilkley. He saved one match point at 4-5 30/40 in the third set, eventually prevailing after one hour and 49 minutes.

A steady diet of low backhand slices – and plenty of pasta carbonara – was the key to victory for Koepfer, who was competing in just his second Challenger final. Under the guidance of former pro Rhyne Williams, the German had been making steady progress in recent weeks and pushed eventual champion Daniel Evans to the brink of defeat in Nottingham. One week later, he would not be denied, reeling off 10 sets in a row to reach the final. The run included a pair of Top 100 wins over Yannick Maden and Ugo Humbert, before ousting an in-form Novak in the championship.

“For the first set and a half he was dictating and I was just defending too much,” said Koepfer. “I couldn’t find my rhythm. But later in the second I just found a way. The third set was a battle back and forth. Any point could have gone either way but to pull it out in the tie-break was lucky.

“Obviously I knew what was on the line. It’s a title and a Wimbledon wild card. My first main draw at a Grand Slam. There were nerves in the first set for sure, but I started to play a little looser and found a way.”

As is tradition for the Ilkley champion, a main draw wild card into Wimbledon was awarded to Koepfer. One year after falling to Norbert Gombos in five sets in the final round of qualifying, the former Tulane University standout will make his Grand Slam debut at the All England Club.

Our 2019 #IlkleyTrophy champion @DominikKoepfer ? looks forward to @Wimbledon ? pic.twitter.com/sbrxHaClXn

— ILTSC (@Ilkleytennis) June 23, 2019

Internazionali di Tennis Emilia Romagna (Parma, Italy): What a day for the 37-year-old contingent! Earlier on Sunday, Roger Federer reigned in Halle and Feliciano Lopez prevailed at Queen’s Club on the ATP Tour. Meanwhile, on the Challenger circuit, it was Tommy Robredo who turned back the clock with a heart-pounding victory over Federico Gaio in Parma.

Robredo claimed a thrilling final encounter over the home hope Gaio, taking his second title of the year 7-6(10), 5-7, 7-6(6) after three hours and 15 minutes. After saving six set points in the opener, he would later storm back from 0-3 down in the deciding set. It is the longest final of the 2019 season thus far.

The former World No. 5 is mounting a serious charge up the ATP Rankings in his quest to return to the Top 100. His victory in Parma boosts his position by 42 spots, rising to No. 174.

Robredo, who also prevailed in Poznan, Poland, just two weeks ago, is the oldest player to win multiple titles in a single season. He has now lifted 19 trophies in total in his illustrious career, with 12 coming on the ATP Tour and an additional seven on the ATP Challenger Tour.

Bratislava Open (Bratislava, Slovakia): Three years ago, Norbert Gombos prevailed on home soil in Bratislava at the indoor hard-court Challenger. Now, he has an outdoor clay-court trophy to add to his collection. Gombos triumphed at the inaugural Bratislava Open on Sunday, defeating Attila Balazs 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

The only city to host a Challenger on multiple surfaces, Bratislava made its debut on clay to rave reviews. Packed crowds featured at the TK Slovan, with former Top 20 stars Miloslav Mecir and Dominik Hrbaty lending a helping hand throughout the week.

Internationaux de Tennis de Blois (Blois, France): Top seed Pedro Sousa rallied past Kimmer Coppejans 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) to claim his sixth ATP Challenger Tour title in Blois. The Portuguese did not drop a set en route to the final and he would be made to work on Sunday, rallying from a break down in the decider.

Coppejans, meanwhile, was appearing in his first final of the season after saving a combined six match points in the quarter-finals and semi-finals. He rallied from a set and a break down in both matches.

Fergana Challenger (Fergana, Uzbekistan): Learn all about Emil Ruusuvuori’s maiden triumph, as the #NextGenATP Finn became the fifth-youngest winner of 2019…

A LOOK AHEAD
With the majority of today’s Challenger stars competing in Wimbledon qualifying, the lone tournament of the week is held in Milan. Hugo Dellien is the top seed, with Giulio Zeppieri and Lorenzo Musetti leading the Italian #NextGenATP charge. Zeppieri, aged 17, is coming off a semi-final appearance in Parma.

This week, the Fergana Challenger celebrated its 20th edition on the ATP Challenger Tour. On Sunday, its champion reveled in a milestone of his own.

Emil Ruusuvuori etched his name in the history books with a 6-3, 6-2 win over 12th seed Roberto Cid Subervi, earning his maiden title. He is just the fourth player from Finland to capture a Challenger crown in the last 30 years and the first since Jarkko Nieminen in 2013.

The Nordic nations are making a splash on the #NextGenATP scene, with 20-year-old Ruusuvuori joining Norway’s Casper Ruud and Sweden’s Mikael Ymer as recent Challenger champions. The Helsinki native is now the highest-ranked Finnish player, rising to a career-high No. 300 in the ATP Rankings.

It was an impressive week for Ruusuvuori on the hard courts of Fergana, in just his 10th Challenger appearance. After rallying from a set down to upset top seed Pedja Krstin, he needed a deciding tie-break to defeat home hope Khumoyun Sultanov in the semis, before streaking past Cid Subervi in one hour and 21 minutes on Sunday.

Finland has been in search of a new standard bearer in singles ever since former World No. 13 Jarkko Nieminen retired in 2015. Henri Kontinen is leading the charge in doubles and Ruusuvuori is hoping to join his countryman in flying the Finnish flag.

Youngest Winners In 2019

Moreover, Ruusuvuori is the fifth-youngest champion on the Challenger circuit this year, joining Ymer, Jannik Sinner, Corentin Moutet, Ugo Humbert, Jay Clarke and J.J. Wolf as #NextGenATP winners.

ATPChallengerTour.com spoke to the flying Finn after his victory in Fergana…

Emil, congrats on winning your first Challenger title. How does it feel to lift the trophy?
It feels amazing. I didn’t expect it to go this well, but everything worked from the first match and I’m just really happy to win my first title.

To win your first title is never easy. What was the key this week?
It’s of course very challenging mentally, especially the last few matches. There’s a lot of pressure and nerves, but you just have to keep focusing on your game and play your best.

Take us through the final. Did you feel nervous today against Roberto?
Of course, in a first Challenger final you’re going to feel extra nervous. But I still played good tennis and I think it was a good quality final.

How important is a week like this as you’re transitioning from Futures to Challengers?
It’s really important, since there’s a lot of points at stake. It helps my ranking a lot so I can enter Challengers more easily now, and is just important with everything I’m pushing for.

You haven’t played many Challengers. Did you expect this success to come so quickly?
Well, maybe I didn’t expect to win the title, but I’ve been improving a lot in the last few weeks. I don’t set any limits for myself, so I know my level. I’m happy with this.

As you’ve moved from juniors to pros, what have you learned about your game at this level? How has your game grown?
It’s really challenging at this level and everyone plays so well. It’s all decided by the smallest of things. A few points here and there can make the difference. I have to play closer to the baseline and be more aggressive. Just do everything better [than in juniors].

You are just the fourth player from Finland to win a title in the last 30 years, and the first since Jarkko Nieminen. How special is that? Do you hope to inspire your country to play tennis?
I actually didn’t even know that. It’s great to represent your country. That’s good to hear. I hope this drives the kids to start playing more tennis. We don’t have too many players at the moment, so I hope there will be more in the future.

Finnish Challenger Champions (since 1990)

What did you enjoy most about your time in Fergana?
I didn’t see much outside of the courts and the hotel, but everything here was great. The facilities are good too and everyone working here has done an excellent job. I have nothing to complain about.

For those of us who don’t know much about you, what do you enjoy doing off the court?
Pretty simple. If I’m at home in Finland, I like to just hang out with friends and go fishing. And of course watch ice hockey.

After undergoing hip surgery in January, Andy Murray considered it a victory to not have pain when he played with his kids. On Sunday, he recorded one of the most meaningful wins of his career by teaming with Feliciano Lopez to take the doubles title at the Fever-Tree Championships.

“I just won the doubles with Feli, with a metal hip. It’s mental, really,” said Murray. “That’s a cool thing to be able to have done just because of where I was a few months ago. I wasn’t thinking about this… I was really happy to be pain-free and enjoying life, literally just doing normal things. It’s really special. It’s more special than a lot of the singles tournaments that I’ve won for a lot of different reasons.”

Murray arrived at The Queen’s Club with no expectations for results or performance. But the Brit was on song from the first ball as he and Lopez defeated top seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in the opening round. Another major victory followed in the semi-finals over third seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers before they won the final over Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury.

Even though his game proved good enough to beat the world’s best doubles teams at an ATP 500 tournament, Murray believes his form can improve even further.

“In terms of how I was hitting the ball, I think I did okay,” said Murray. “There’s things I can do better. I think a lot of it is positioning on the court, like where to stand after Feli has hit a return or where to position ourselves at the net.

“But one of the things that’s quite difficult with doubles is that you’re never going to find the partner who has everything, and you yourself don’t have everything. I have flaws in my game and Feli will have weaknesses in his game. But we used our strengths and complemented each other very well. You need to be able to do that and not get frustrated with yourself.”

Murray’s competitive streak never wavered throughout the week, but he also displayed a more relaxed attitude by smiling after great points and laughing with Lopez during changeovers. His fans are hopeful that the successful doubles run will lead to a quick transition back to singles, but the Brit is content to enjoy the ride for now.

“I’m happy with playing tennis and training and having no pain anymore. If I keep progressing, I would like to try to play singles,” said Murray. “My schedule could potentially be a bit different. I might not play three weeks in a row or two weeks back-to-back, for example. But I’m just quite happy doing what I’m doing now and just taking each week as it comes.”

Even if Murray’s hip doesn’t allow for a singles comeback, it may not mean the end of his career. After picking up his first ATP Tour doubles title in eight years, he said focusing solely on doubles is an option for his remaining years on tour.

“I didn’t see that as being something I would do [in January] just because I got zero enjoyment out of playing tennis then,” said Murray. “It’s fun for me to play doubles this week and just hit tennis balls and have a good time on the court again. I hope to get back to playing singles again, but if not, it’s probably something I’d consider.”