Peer Considered Retiring

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 13th August 2013

French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros

Peer Considered Retiring

epa03719879 Shahar Peer of Israel in action during her 1st round match against Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland at the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 27 May 2013. EPA/CHRISTOPHE KARABA |

Former top 20 player Shahar Peer of Israel says that she considered retirement very recently. Peer, who won the $125,000 in Suzhou Saturday, told Army Radio that it seemed at times that all was lost.

“I reached some very difficult places,” she said. “Ten days ago, when I reached the final in Baku, I felt like ‘I’m not there, I can’t handle tennis anymore, I’m not strong enough for this and I’m not succeeding’ that is touching on very inner and unpleasant places. Tennis isn’t who I am, it’s what I do. In the past six months there were at least five or six times when I said ‘All right, I’m done with tennis. I had a great career and reached amazing places, but enough is enough. There are more important things in my life.’

The 26 year old broke out in 2006, winning three titles and reaching the fourth round of both Roland Garros and the US Open. The all court player cracked the top 20 the next year. But over the past two years she has been unable to reach that level and had become a borderline irrelevant player.

“I’m not ashamed to say these things. People not involved in sports also say such things,” Peer said. “All in all, I have something which I really love. I love being on court, I love winning and losses just kill me.”

Peer said that at Wimbledon last month, when she was ranked 179, her agent told that she would crack the top 100 again by season’s end. Few thought that goal was realistic.

”Of course nobody believed it would happen so quickly — it’s crazy to rise from 179 to 80, but that was my choice,” she said. “He told me, ‘If you want to quit, quit, but do it from a lack of love for tennis, not because of your ranking,’ so my object was to get into the top 100 by the end of the year. Obviously my aim is to get as far as can, win some titles and if possible, a grand slam. But I’m still very far away from that.”