Henin quits at No.1
15/05/2008 8:52 AM
topped the WTA rankings for more than a year - since March 2007 - with Wimbledon the only major title to have eluded her.
Henin is the first woman to retire from tennis while ranked world number one - a position she still occupies thanks to a stunning 2007 season in the face of adversity.
She started the year by withdrawing from the Australian Open as she negotiated the separation from her husband of little more than four years, Pierre-Yves Hardenne.
That was the latest in a series of personal setbacks for Henin, who lost her mother at the age of 14 and, until last year, had been estranged from her family for many years.