ANKARA

South African tennis player Kevin Anderson announced his retirement Tuesday on his official Twitter account.

"I don’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t playing tennis. I started on the journey 30 years ago when my Dad put a racquet in my hands and told me if I was willing to work hard, I could be one of the best players in the world,” the 35-year-old wrote in his statement.

"Since then, tennis carried me far beyond my roots in Johannesburg, South Africa and truly gave me the world.”

“Today I finally arrived at the difficult decision to retire from professional tennis,” said Anderson after thanking all those who helped him along his journey, adding, "I gave it my best."

Ranked as world no.5 in 2018 as his career best, Anderson could not bag any Grand Slam titles but reached the finals twice: at the US Open in 2017 and at Wimbledon in 2018, losing to Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic respectively.