Marinko Matosevic announced his retirement from tennis earlier in the offseason. The 33-year-old Australian peaked at No. 39 in the world in March of 2013 after winning 17 ATP-level matches in 2012. But injuries and poor play plagued him over the past four years, and he last appeared in the top 100 in May of 2015.
“I have mixed feelings due to the fact that I will no longer play the sport I love,” Matosevic explained. “Actually, I stopped playing in February–but I wanted to announce it officially on the day that 14 years ago I scored the first point in the ATP ranking in my career. It was an amazing trip. I would like it not to end, but I feel that I made the right decisionÂ
“When I first took a racket and fell in love with this sport, I wanted to become a professional tennis player. It was a journey full of ups and downs. Tennis is a demanding sport in terms of physical and very brutal in terms of mentality, because failures depend on you. Thanks to sacrifice and hard work, I was able to realize some of my dreams.”
Matosevic will be best remembered for on-court shenanigans as opposed to results.
He is most notorious for knocking over Rafael Nadal’s water bottles during their match at the 2013 Monte-Carlo Masters.
When Matosevic finally won a main-draw Grand Slam match for the first time in his career (at the 2014 French Open vs. Dustin Brown, he celebrated with a barrel roll.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_veABe6B5eQ
In the same match, Federer nailed Matosevic with a tweener–after the point was already over.
interesting character
My favorite is when he blew up at the guy hitting FHs off both sides during a challenger a few years ago