Nicole Gibbs announces retirement: 'I owe tennis... the entire life I have'

Former NCAA champion Nicole Gibbs announced her retirement from professional tennis on Monday in a heartfelt message posted on social media.

Retiring with a world ranking of world No. 174, Gibbs' last professional match came last March, as she lost to Shelby Rogers in the first round of the Oracle Challenger Series event in Indian Wells, a WTA 125 event — just days before the sport was thrust into a nearly six-month hiatus as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I knew it was unlikely that I would play professional tennis again on the day that Indian Wells was canceled last March," Gibbs wrote. "Yet, it's taken me nearly a year to process that reality in a way that I felt prepared to share publicly."

The 27-year-old from Cincinnati, Ohio turned professional in 2013 following a decorated career at Stanford University, where she won back-to-back NCAA Division I singles titles in 2011 and 2012. Gibbs made her Grand Slam debut as a wild card at the 2012 US Open, playing 16 Grand Slam main draws in her career. She twice reached the third round at a major, at both the 2014 US Open and 2017 Australian Open.

Peaking at world No. 68 in the WTA rankings in 2016, Gibbs later inspired fans around the world as she overcame a diagnosis of salivary gland cancer in 2019 with the same determination she displayed on the court. Taking the spring off to recover, she returned to the tour in July and reached the final in the first ITF circuit event she played. Later that summer in New York, she pushed reigning Wimbledon winner Simona Halep to three sets in a thrilling first round match inside Louis Armstrong Stadium.

Returning to Stanford to finish her degree during the pandemic, Gibbs says her next steps include plans to attend law school, and she's applied to seven schools.

"While I often grappled with the possibility of a comeback, inertia seemed to pull me towards a new future," she continued, "one full of all the pastimes I never got to fully enjoy when my life was devoted to tennis.

"My dreams and ambitions are continuously morphing and crystalizing as I go through this transition, but I know I wish to work in public service: to give a voice to those who are institutionally silenced or sequestered to the margins of society. Whether this manifests as a career in civil rights law, politics, or writing, I am unsure. Getting uncomfortable with uncertainty has been the main lesson and challenge of this past year."   

In her farewell message, Gibbs also thanked many who had a hand in shaping her pro career, including her father, Paul, who introduced his daughter to tennis in their driveway when she was a toddler.

"As a 5'6" slender girl from northeast Ohio, I never knew to imagine I might one day share the court with Serena and Venus Williams or Caroline Wozniacki — much less did I imagine discovering the privilege of considering them mentors, or even close friends," Gibbs wrote. 

"Ultimately, my story comes back to my father, a man who fearlessly dreamed that anything was possible for his daughter in a world that often wanted to tell her otherwise... I owe tennis, and therefore you, the entire life I have today... I'm excited to find out what's next."