John Isner shares tournament and moment he realized it was time to retire

• Tennis News
• ATP Tennis

John Isner, 38, reveals he realized after the French Open it was time for him to retire and his Wimbledon result just confirmed his verdict. At the French Open, former world No 8 Isner suffered a first-round defeat to Nuno Borges.

In his next tournament at Wimbledon, Isner also lost in the first round to Jaume Munar. For Isner, the Wimbledon loss to Munar was his seventh consecutive loss. Last week, Isner announced the US Open would be the final tournament of his career.

On Tuesday, Isner started his final tournament with a 6-4 6-3 7-6 (1).

Isner on when he knew for sure it was time to retire

"That's a great question. My plan at the beginning of the year was not to retire. Truthfully, I wanted to play this sport for as long as I can, but I wanted to play it at a high level.

My ranking is really bad right now. I haven't ranked this low since I came on tour. It's been 17 years of amazing consistency. Just trying to build my ranking back up with how my body's feeling didn't seem too appetizing for me.

To answer your question, yeah, probably maybe after the French. After Wimbledon I think that confirmed that as well. I didn't play a great match there. It's fine. I mean, I've had an amazing run, so... I wasn't going to announce it then.

I knew probably after Wimbledon that I wanted this to be my last tournament, and here we are," Isner said.

Isner, who turned pro in 2007, admitted it just felt "tough" when he realized his career was coming to an end.

Also, Isner admitted that when he was younger he didn't really think about this day. "It's tough. When you're in the midst of your career, you don't think about this ever happening, but you know it will. Eventually every player is going to retire.

10 years from now it could be Taylor and Frances playing their last match here. Of course they're not thinking about that, but it is going to happen," Isner said.