JORDANNE Whiley says she leaves tennis with ‘no regrets’ after announcing her retirement from the sport.

The 29-year-old, who lives in Steventon, yesterday brought the curtain down on her illustrious 16-year career.

Whiley won 13 Grand Slam titles and four Paralympic medals, including doubles silver and singles bronze at Tokyo 2020.

She told the Oxford Mail in February last year that she planned to quit tennis after the Tokyo Games, which were then postponed by 12 months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A singles medal was the one prize missing from Whiley’s CV and she made history in Japan, becoming the first British female tennis player on a Paralympic podium.

She said: “There comes a time in everyone’s life where we must close the current chapter and move on to another.

“Wheelchair tennis has been the biggest chapter of my life, with a professional career spanning 16 years.

“Tokyo was the perfect ending to a successful career and I leave the sport with no regrets and a heart filled with pride.

“I have lifted many titles and received many honours, but nothing compares to the people I have shared it all with and the experiences I have had along the way.”

Born with brittle bone disease, Whiley first picked up a racket aged three and became the country’s youngest ever national women’s singles tennis champion in 2007, at just 14.

She claimed bronze at the London 2012 Paralympics and the prizes kept coming.

The Birmingham-born star became the first British player to win a calendar year Grand Slam in 2014 – taking the doubles titles at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open alongside long-time partner Yui Kamiji.

Whiley claimed her only singles title at the 2015 US Open, a year when she also received an MBE for services to wheelchair tennis in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

She also added another Australian Open and Wimbledon to her CV.

Whiley won a further two Grand Slams and another Paralympics bronze in 2016, before bagging another Wimbledon doubles title while pregnant in 2017.

The new mum picked up where she left off after returning to tennis following the birth of son Jackson in 2019.

Whiley won two more Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open and US Open in 2020, before claiming her 13th and final Grand Slam at Wimbledon earlier this year.