Former best tennis player in the world, Monica Seles announced her official retirement from professional tennis yesterday.

Seles had not participated in tennis competitions for five years because of an unlucky succession of foot injuries, but she had not actually retired until now.

“Tennis has been and will always be a huge part of my life. I have for some time considered a return to professional play, but I have now decided not to pursue that. I will continue to play exhibitions, participate in charity events, promote the sport, but will no longer plan my schedule around the tour,” the 34-year-old Seles said in a statement released by her agent, Agence France-Presse informs.

Monica Seles was born in former Yugoslavia, but she became a U.S citizen in 1994. She won nine Grand Slam singles titles and became the youngest champion in the French Open in 1990, at the age of 16. In 1993, she was forced to retire from the world of sport for two years, after a spectator stabbed her in the back with a knife. She was quite successful when she returned on the tennis field in 1995, but, unfortunately, she could never regain her best form. The last prize she won was at the Australian Open in 1996.

In 1999, she suffered stress fracture to her right foot and since then, she has been struggling with repetitive injuries.

Seles  said she would now concentrate on humanitarian work, after being chosen as Goodwill Ambassador and Spokesperson for its Global Sports for Peace and Development Programme Initiative by the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition, in October 2007.