Farewell to a legend as Esther Vergeer retires

Has there ever been a better sportsperson than Esther Vergeer? The Dutch wheelchair tennis player, who is unbeaten in 470 matches dating back to January 2013, today announced her retirement from the sport at the age of 31.

I first came across Vergeer while I was covering the Paralympics in the summer. At London 2012, she won her fourth consecutive gold medal in the singles, winning all six matches in straight sets and allowing her opponents to win just seven games between them all tournament.

She has won an incredible 21 major singles titles since her first such success at the 2004 Australian Open. Wheelchair tennis only has three annual major tournaments: Wimbledon has doubles events but not singles (in any case, she won three ladies’ doubles events at SW12 between 2009 and 2011).

Her career record was 687 wins from 712 matches, a winning record of more than 96 per cent.

Vergeer has also been number one in the world for what is surely an unprecedented (in any sport) 14 consecutive years.

And she seems pretty cool as well:

“I think as an athlete it’s probably one of the best compliments you can get, if somebody gets inspired by you to go and play sports, or to get a better life or to change their lives. And so I feel proud that I’m in that position.”

UPDATE: Jahangir Khan, of Pakistan, won 555 consecutive squash games in the 1980s. Which leads nicely into a forthcoming post…