Goodbye to a beautiful backhand. A single-handed shot that could spin or slice, lob, smash or delicately drop.
Although Carla Suárez Navarro could do anything with the shot, perhaps her favourite version was the topspin cross court.
Suárez Navarro had announced that 2020 would be her final year on the tennis tour. As she said, “…the time has come to complete a beautiful chapter and begin to enjoy other areas of my life.”
But ill-health interfered with her plans when she was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, a form of cancer.
She fought the disease for eight months with rounds of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and revealed in April that she had recovered and would now end her career this year.
Although she was to continue on the tour for the rest of the year, her true farewell ceremony was at Wimbledon. Faced with the tough task of playing a first round against World No. 1 and eventual champion Ash Barty, she went down 1-6 7-6 1-6.
But the packed Centre Court crowd stood and cheered for several minutes, celebrating her efforts in returning to professional tennis and her fine play throughout her career.
Her emotional mother Maria Dolores watched from the player’s box and videoed the occasion.
Back in 2008, Suárez Navarro reached the quarter-finals of the French Open as a qualifier.
It was the first of her seven Slam singles quarterfinals – with Wimbledon the exception. Her best Slam result was in doubles where she made the semis at Roland Garros in 2014.
After her showing in the 2008 French Open, she was selected to play for Spain at the Beijing Olympics that year. She also played at London 2012 and Rio 2016, the latter in doubles and mixed as well as singles.
While she had never won a medal, one of her motivations in returning to the tour was to compete for Spain at Tokyo 2020 (played in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic).
“During my treatment I had the Olympic Games in my mind the whole time. I really wanted to be in Tokyo. I’m in and it’s one of the most special events you can play in your career. I’m just so happy I’ll be there.”
Again, there was no medal to take home, just the joy of playing at the Games one last time.
At the US Open, out on Court 5, she lost in the first round to Danielle Collins, 2-6 4-6, and was warmly applauded off the court.
The last matches of her career took place at the Billie Jean King Cup in November – a loss in the singles rubber to Slovenia’s Viktória Kužmová, 2-6 6-3 3-6, but happily a win in the doubles, thanks to Spain’s excellent play in the Match Tiebreak. Suárez Navarro teamed with Sara Sorribes Tormo to defeat Kužmová and Tereza Mihalíková, 4-6 6-2 10-7.
Suárez Navarro reached her highest singles ranking of No. 6 in 2016 and was No. 11 in doubles the previous year. Over her professional career, she won two singles titles and three doubles titles.
It mattered not to fans or her peers that Carla Suárez Navarro never won a Grand Slam or an Olympic Medal. She was fêted into retirement because of her skills, down-to-earth personality and sportsmanship. Not to mention her courage.
She signed off by winning the 2021 WTA Comeback Player and Sportsmanship awards, the latter voted on by her peers on the tour.
Title photo by Jimmie48