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Former British number one Elena Baltacha announced her retirement from tennis on this day in 2013.<\/p>\n
Baltacha was Britain\u2019s top-ranked player for 132 weeks between 2009 and 2012 and reached a career-high ranking of 49 in 2010, but subsequently struggled with injury.<\/p>\n
The Kyiv-born Scot died of liver cancer in May 2014 at the age of 30.<\/p>\n
A Fed Cup stalwart, Baltacha\u2019s CV also contained wins over top-10 players Li Na and Francesca Schiavone, while her best grand slam performances saw her reach the third round at the Australian Open in 2005 and 2010 and at Wimbledon in 2002.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just feels it\u2019s the right time,\u201d Baltacha said when announcing her retirement.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy body has taken such a bruising over the last 16 years and that\u2019s finally taken its toll.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have had some amazing experiences through playing tennis \u2013 some incredible highs and some very low lows \u2013 and I wouldn\u2019t change any of them, but now my mind and my body are telling me it\u2019s time to move on to a new phase of my life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still absolutely love tennis and I want to take that passion and put it into learning to be the best coach I can be so that I can take all my experiences as a player and use that to help develop the next generation of British tennis players.\u201d<\/p>\n