Former Roland Garros champion Schiavone retires

Former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone announced her retirement on Wednesday, saying there was nothing left to achieve.

The 38-year-old Italian, who defeated Samantha Stosur in the 2010 French Open final and was runner-up to Li Na in Paris the following year, won eight titles in her career.

She was the first Italian woman to win a Grand Slam singles title.

However, the former world number four has seen her ranking slump to 454 after last winning a match on the main tour at Wimbledon in 2017.

“When I was 18 years old, I had two dreams. First one was to win Roland Garros, and the second was to become top 10 in the world. I accomplished that,” she said.

“So I'm very, very happy and lucky that, as we say in Italia, 'It's done. This part is done'.

“After 20 years of career and life, I have new dreams.”

Schiavone helped Italy to three Fed Cup titles in 2006, 2009 and 2010 and made the quarter-finals at least at all the Slams.

She also won the longest women's match at a Grand Slam when she defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 1-6, 16-14 in the fourth round of the 2011 Australian Open.