Former doubles grand slam champion Jurgen Melzer announces retirement

Jurgen Melzer has had a very long and storied career with the Austrian now formally announcing his retirement from tennis.

Austrian Jurgen Melzer and his partner fourth-ranked singles player Alexander Zverev were beaten in straight sets 7-6 (7-3), 7-5 by John Peers and ninth ranked doubles player Filip Polášek. Melzer only played five matches this season after he became the sports director for the Austrian Tennis Association in February.

In his long career, Melzer reached a career-high singles ranking of 8, a career-high doubles ranking of 6 with 725 wins, and 22 career titles in singles and doubles combined. The retirement came back home in Austria to which Melzer said:

"I viewed this as a bonus, to get to play one last match at home. Saying goodbye at home is special to me. It’s where my career started, it’s where I had a lot of success.” I’ve always tried to be a good ambassador for the sport and make this sport as likable as possible."

Melzer further added:

"What I liked today is the past two days, [for those] playing on this court in the city there were not a lot of spectators. But today they actually showed up and I could say goodbye and that meant a lot to me…I will remember this one for sure.”