Max Mirnyi has decided to retire from tennis after featuring at the professional level for a whopping 22 years.
Popularly called ‘The Beast’ the former top-ranked player in the ATP Doubles Rankings has decided to move on from playing competitive tennis.
In a statement, Mirnyi announced:
“I have come to a decision that the 2018 season was my last year competing professionally. It was a very difficult choice for me to make as tennis has been my life ever since I can remember myself. I was fortunate to achieve far beyond what a little boy from Minsk, Belarus, could have dreamed of.”
The Belarusian became the top-ranked player in the world in June 2003 and the 57 weeks he spent at the top of the rankings meant it was the 15th best for any player. He went on to win 52 doubles titles in his career.
Mirnyi also had a decent singles career before he turned to making doubles his full-time occupation, climbing to as high as 18th on the ATP Rankings. This included 16 wins against Top 10 opponents.
He won the doubles Grand Slam titles six times including four French Open wins and two at the US Open. There was also a mixed doubles Olympic gold medal in the 2012 Olympics with fellow Belarusian and Grand Slam winner Victoria Azarenka.
Having played at the year-ending ATP World Tour Finals 10 times in the doubles, he won two titles including once in 2006 and then in 2011. His partners in those wins were Jonas Bjorkman and Daniel Nestor respectively.
There were four other mixed doubles titles at the Grand Slam level for Mirnyi, winning the 1998 Wimbledon and the 1998, 2007 and 2013 US Open.
Mirnyi’s last doubles title came at the US Men’s Court Championships earlier this year and while he made it to the final of the Kremlin Cup as well, he and his partner, Austrian Philipp Oswald lost that match to Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram.
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