This is according to tennisreporters.net:

http://www.tennisreporters.net/

MONDAY, MARCH 15 Former world No. 7 and two-time Grand Slam semifinalist Nicole Vaidisova has retired at the age 20, sources told TennisReporters.net. She's scheduled to marry Czech player Radek Stepanek in July.

Despite a huge amount of talent, the powerful and tempermental Vaidisova really hit the skids in the past two years and will end her career ranked No. 176 after taking a second round loss in Memphis last month. She just informed the tournament in Miami that she's turning down a wild card and pulled out of all her events the rest of the year.
A winner of six WTA titles, Vaidisova reached the semifinals of the 2006 French Open and 2007 Australian Open before beginning to lose her desire and battling with her stepfather and coach, Alex Kodat. She went 11-17 in 2009 and didn't respond to either encouragment or stern words from her friends and family. She couldn't contend with losing, no longer had the desire to compete hard and began to dislike the sport

I find this very sad. Her career ended before it really ever got started. There was a time when I thought she, Sharapova and Ivanovic would be duking it for slams as the generation that replaced the Belgians and the Sisters.

Retiring at 20? Damn, most college kids haven't even decided what they want to do with their lives at that age.

It takes a young lifetime of work to get to the point you'd reach #7 in the world. She had to have really loved the sport to put in so much dedication. If she couldn't take the pressure, or couldn't take losing, or couldn't take the hard work required to keep winning, then she shouldn't be in it...and good riddance. But could she have been that oblivious to those three real elements her entire (brief) tennis life? I dunno, I get the feeling she either really over-acheived for her talent way too young, or something else is going on.

As the founding member of Club Vaidisova, though, who's she going to pass the torch to? Ivanovic seems to be the heir apparent, with Chakvetadze and Paszek also heavily vying for the role.*




*Safarova has been strongly admonished by the club for her recent success at Open Suez GDF. In order to regain favor as a Platinum Card carrying member, she had two first round losses at the Monterry Open and Indian Wells. Her status is still unknown.

I really thought Vaidisova had everything going for her (in terms of game, not mentality) that Sharapova did and for her to fizzle as dramatically as she has is shocking. My best guess is that her early success was a result of being pushed hard by psycho tennis parents and that she never really had the desire to win for herself. So once she was old enough to make her own decisions...

With Sharapova on the skids and Ivanovic doing her best Iva Majoli impersonation, this is shaping up to be an even more underachieving generation than Mandlikova/Austin/Shriver/Jaeger.

I wouldn't even put the generations in the same sentence. Evert and Navritilova had 36 slams between them, and didn't leave much room for anyone else for so long. The fact that Mandlikova eeked out the '85 open (beating both Chris and Martina while both were at/near their primes) and Austin beat them both to get her US Open titles (Martina twice, Chris once) at a time when both of them were at their prime is saying something. In fact, Mandlikova won 4 slams between '80 and '87, winning the AO twice, while both were very much in the picture. And Hana made 4 other slam finals, as well.

Venus and Serena haven't been a Chris and Martina. Sharapova isn't a Mandlikova...yet, but she'll have to win another slam, and at least make 4 more slam finals on top of it to be considered. Shriver at least had one slam final and 8 slam SFs. Jaeger at least had 2 slam finals and 5 slam SFs. If Sharpie is still not a Mandlikova and Ivanovic is still not an Austin, and Venus/Serena still aren't Chris/Martina....I'm not sure how the challengers of this generation can even be in the same realm.

Not to take issue with the Club Vaidisova requirements, but I would think to be in the club, you had to have been at least a top 10 player and at some point a threat at slams while being relatively young. Thus Ivanovic and Chakvetadze fit this bill, but not so sure about Paszek and Safarova. The former two showed promise at an early age and achieved some actual success, the latter two, so far, have only shown promise at an early age. By way of example, if Wozniacki flames out this year, she may qualify for entry into Club Vaidisova. If Kleybanova flames out this year, she would not in my mind.

I don't know the requirement either, but Lucie did make the QFs at the AO in '07. Paszek and Szavy may be just junior members.

HUGE GAG. Sorry but I can't stand that homely Stepanek guy and his way of "getting the gal" He seems to snag these good looking women. OK, I'm jealous.

I just hope Nicole dumps him and comes back. She didn't need to be #1. Whatever happened to love of the game?

Actually, I'd stick Paszek and Szavay in a different club. Call it Club Lucic or Club Krasnoroutskaya or maybe even Club Linetskaya.



I say she divorces that lug in a year and then starts plotting her comeback in two years. She'd only be 22. Navratilova didn't even win her first slam until she was 21 I think.

I guess it depends. If Safarova, Paszek and Szavay make a few slam quarters or maybe even a slam semi, and never do much more, but stick around for a long time hovering in the top 20-40 area then they belong squarely in Club Hantuchova. But if they do those things and then completely disappear, then maybe Club Lucic.

Club Vaidisova has higher high rankings followed by free-falling low rankings. Yeah Ana Ivanovic and Chakvetadze definitely belong there.

We have to come up with some ATP clubs.

If we're lowering the bar to making QFs, Szavay reached the USO quarters in '07 - the same year Chakvedatze reached the semis.

So, yeah. It's highly disappointing but not really surprising. Maybe Nicole just wants to join in all the un-retiring fun. I don't mean the high-profile Belgians. See: Molik, Alicia and Johansson, Joachim, who were each 'back' something like a year after grandly announcing retirements. And they had fallen just as far as Vaidisova, former Top 10 with a few good runs at Slams; however, in their case, injuries/illness played a role. Still, they're still giving it a shot, and Alicia reached the round of 16 as a wildcard this week, falling to Zheng in a third-set tiebreaker, having left it all out there. Of course, maybe Vaidisova can take the long view and pull a Kimiko Date Krumm in, oh, eleven years or so.

Anyhow, the last match I remember really seeing of hers, where she played at a reasonably high level, was against Peer at the USO (again at '07). It was a titanic three-set struggle, a classic offence vs defence deal. In fact I mainly just remember her in slams ... the two tough tiebreakers semi against Serena at the AO, humbling Mauresmo at both the FO and Wimbledon (I don't think Amelie ever managed a win against her), and something of a bratty loss to Jankovic at the FO.

I wish her the best in her marriage and wherever she goes from here, although it wouldn't shock me to see her making Harkleroad-esque headlines in her personal life down the road.

Amélie was 2-3 against Nicole. The first two times they played in '05 and '06, Amélie beat her in straight sets. Nicole won their last 3 meetings, all in three sets, with the two big ones being in the round of 16 at the FO in '06 and the same round at the Big W in '07. Vaidisova really seemed to like her loopy stuff.

who cares