Anke Huber, Germany's top woman tennis player, said today she planned to retire from the game after next year's Australian Open as she was tired of the lifestyle.
"I've had enough. At the end of the year, it's over. I feel like I'm doing the same thing over and over, seeing the same people, always on the road. I'm sick of this life. I want a normal life," Huber, 26, said in an interview with Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
Huber, who is ranked 17th in the WTA tour tennis rankings, gave the interview at the Fed Cup in Hamburg where she beat Argentina's Maria Emilia Salerni on Saturday.
"I had five months to think during a recent hand injury. I made my decision then and I intend to stick to it," Huber said.
Huber became the great hope of German women's tennis after the retirement of Steffi Graf. Along with Graf, Boris Becker and Michael Stich, she was one of the players who did a lot to popularise the game in Germany.
Huber said that the pressure to become a "second Steffi" was enormous.
"I recognised pretty early on that I would never have her success. But I was still always measured against her, so whenever I got into the quarter-finals or the semis of a Grand Slam tournament it counted for nothing," she said.
In 1997 she reached her highest position in the world rankings, fourth. The previous year she reached the final of the Australian Open.
She said her last game would be at the Australian Open in January next year.
"I'm a bit sentimental on this because my career really began in Melbourne. And that's where I had my greatest success with the final against Monica Seles. I just want to go there one more time. And then that's it."