To say it has been a very sad week in Women’s professional sports (so far) would be an understatement. On Tuesday, one of the most prominent figures and the greatest women’s golfer of our era, Annika Sorenstam, announced she is thru, with the game of golf, at seasons end. And on Wednesday, the Belgian-born Justine Henin, announced her retirement from professional women’s tennis.

The 25-year-old, No. 1 WTA ranked player, expressed in her press conference she felt burned out: “I decided, to stop fooling myself and accept it… everything became harder… I felt, deep inside, something was getting out of my grasp.”

Henin, steps away from the game of tennis as the only No. 1 WTA player to ever call it quits, while on top of the rankings.

"I always based everything on this motivation -this flame- that was in me. And once I lost that, I lost many, many things,” Henin said.

Justine Henin steps away leaving a stellar legacy behind:

7 Grand-Slam singles titles

In 1 year (2007), she won 10 tournaments (including 2 mayors)

4 French Open titles (including an active streak of 3-in-a-row; a WTA record)

Won the 2004 Australian Open title

Captured US Open titles in 2003, 2007

Won over $20 Million in career prize money

And, she spent more than 100 weeks ranked No.1 in the world (since November 13th 2006).

With tears in her eyes, Henin concluded: “I had reached my limits, and I feel strong and relieved that I could take this decision… there are plenty of things that I can do. There are no regrets. I did everything I had to do in tennis.”

With the 2008 French Open less than 2 weeks away, Justine Henin was trying to become the first woman (in the Open era) to win 4 consecutive French Open titles. Instead, she says farewell to the game, tied with Monica Seles (with 3 consecutive French Opens titles apiece).

With Justine Henin's abrupt retirement, this automatically makes Maria Sharapova WTA's No. 1 ranked player in the world.  

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