Henin calls it game, set and match at just 25

She retires from the sport with immediate effect.

The Belgian, who won seven Grand Slam events in a glittering career, made the announcement in her homeland on Wednesday afternoon.

The top seed suffered a third-round loss to Dinara Safina at the German Open in Berlin last week and she withdrew from this week's Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome due to fatigue.

"I'm at the end of the road," Henin, a winner of 41 WTA singles titles, announced at a news conference on Wednesday.

"I have experienced everything I could have. I have lived completely for tennis.

"I am relieved and proud of what I achieved."

She insisted that her decision is final and that she will not make a U-turn at any point in the future.

"A new future is ahead and I won't go back on this decision," she added.

"I'm young in life, but starting to get old on the tour," she said. "I'm growing up and I need different things.

"Even physically, I don't recover as well as I did when I was 20. That's normal.

"Now, I've been playing tennis for 20 years and it's been my whole life, but, as a woman, as you get older, you need to think about the future."

Henin retires on top of the WTA singles rankings in front of second-placed Maria Sharapova by some distance.