I believe this is only a rumour at the moment (one I'd heard recently and OEM mentioned it in answer to a question from someone I believe posts on GBTG this morning), but it would explain why she hasn't been seen on any entry lists recently.

If it's true, it would be a great shame, but I guess the life of a tennis player doesn't suit everyone, however much potential they have.

Would be a massive massive shame and a big loss to British Womens Tennis, so much talent  i guess it's only Naomi who knows though and if she does choose to retire, best wishes to her.

She seems to have been around for ages but is still only 21, 3 months younger than David Rice on the men's side who still feels like one of the younger Brits on the scene. Surely at the very least she could have had a career similar or probably better than Emily W-,S although there must be something wrong with the sport if you can make a better living coaching than being a solid 200-300 ranked player.

Hopefully she gives it one last go, it was only last year she declined a main draw Wimby WC in the hope of getting more points in qualifying to boost her ranking in the future, which was partly justified by a win in QR1.

Always possible she may make a return when she experiences a long period off the match court. Sad but not completely a shock as last year her results were heading badly in the wrong direction. Ultimately her fitness wasn't up to tour standard as on tennis talent alone she should have been challenging the top 100. We don't know how much the fatigue illness she had affected her stamina and her ability to train hard enough off the court. With this retirement and the poor form of some of our top players suddenly our playing strength is starting to look a little thin. With the emergence of Heather and Laura this really should have been a period when British women's tennis was experiencing a golden time.

Real pity if Cav truly does retire.  Although her game and rankings movement did seem to have plateaued over the last couple of years, she did have some encouraging looking results towards the end of last year possibly linked to a coaching change.

Re Anna Fitzpatrick I did notice she was on the entry list for the Bournemouth 10K from 25/04, but I see that she withdrew yesterday.  Hopefully she is still pretty close to playing rather than that be indicative of any real setback. Fitzy has been very unlucky with injuries and never seems to get a really prolonged chance to show what she can really do.  It seems some good results, progress, then injury setback. I certainly agree that she is well capable of being solid top 250.

-- Edited by indiana on Wednesday 13th of April 2011 12:56:45 PM

Naomi confirms the rumours:

http://www.lta.org.uk/News/2011/April/2011-04-25/Naomi-Cavaday-Announcement/

Really sad that it didn't work out for her (and for GB tennis, it's not as if we have players with as much potential as Naomi coming out of our ears) but at least she seems to have made it as a positive decision instead of feeling forced into it.

-- Edited by steven on Friday 29th of April 2011 11:49:33 PM

http://www.bromleytennisacademy.com/

if you go to bottom left. "Naomi Cavaday launches womens touring academy" it's not clickable yet but I'm assumign this is what shes going to do?