Sad end for Sugiyama

Japan's Ai Sugiyama was forced to retire from the final singles match of her 17-year career at the Pan Pacific Open due to illness.

Former doubles No.1 finishes career with a defeat

Japan's Ai Sugiyama was forced to retire from the final singles match of her 17-year career at the Pan Pacific Open on Monday due to illness. The 34-year-old was losing to Russian Nadia Petrova 6-0 2-1 after just 39 minutes when she pulled out feeling unwell. The defeat at the Tokyo tournament brought an unhappy ending to Sugiyama's singles career, during which she reached a career-high ranking of eight and made a record 62 consecutive appearances in the main draws of the grand slams. Sugiyama was a singles quarter-finalist in the 2000 Australian Open and became the world number one in doubles in the same year. The 2004 Wimbledon quarter-finalist said she had reached her goal of making the top 10 but wishes she had aimed higher.

Scary

"Why did I not set my goal to become the world's number one?" she said. "When I joined the top 10 - and it took a long time for me to achieve the dream - I found myself becoming comfortable. "It's scary when you achieve your dream. I reset a new goal to become the world's top five, but I am still asking myself why I did not set my original goal to become the world's number one when I was a child?" She remains in the Tokyo tournament in a doubles pairing with Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia.