The world number seven made the surprise announcement at a media conference today following her second round 3-6,6-4, 6-1 defeat at the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati to Simona Halep.

A dejected Bartoli told media that she felt the time was right to hang up her racquet after being hampered with injury in recent times to the point where she claims to experience pain just from walking.

"That was actually the last match of my career, sorry," she said.

"It's time for me to retire and call it a career.

"My body just can't do it anymore.

"I've already been through a lot of injuries since the beginning of the year.

"I've been on the tour for so long, and I really pushed through and left it all during that Wimbledon.

"I really felt I gave all the energy I have left in my body.

"I made my dream a reality and it will stay with me forever, but now my body just can't cope with everything.

"I have pain everywhere after 45 minutes or an hour of play.

"I've been doing this for so long, and body-wise I just can't do it anymore."

Just six weeks on from her fairytale Wimbledon win, Marion Bartoli has announced her retirement at the age of 28 due to persistent injuries

The powerful Frenchwoman also admitted that she had to play through the pain barrier at SW19 last month to finally achieve her Grand Slam dream with a straight sets win over Sabine Lisicki of Germany.

"When you dream about something for so long and you've been on tour for many, many, many years and you've been through ups and downs and highs and lows and already a lot of injuries since the beginning of the year, my body was really starting to fall apart, and I was able to keep it together, go through a lot of pain throughout Wimbledon, and still make it happen," she said.

"That was probably the last little bit of something that was left inside me."

After turning professional in 2000 at the age of 16, Bartoli has reached two Grand Slam finals, both at Wimbledon in 2004 and this year, and has won eight Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Tour titles, amassing just over $11 million (£7.1 million/€8.3 million) in prize money along the way.

The announcement comes just two weeks before the US Open, where Bartoli would have been considered as a strong contender for the title at her current career-high world ranking of number seven.

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