German tennis player Julia Görges on Wednesday announced her retirement from tennis at the age of 31.

The announcement was made in a note on her official website titled "Time to say Goodbye". Görges did not give any reasons as to why she decided to end her career.

Görges said she was "ready" to leave the sport which she began playing from an early age.

"I am writing to you, because I am ready to say 'Goodbye'. When I started playing tennis at the age of 5, I would never have thought that we would go such a long way together."

"I always knew how I would feel when it is time to say goodbye to you, and that moment has arrived. I am ready to close the tennis chapter of my life and open a new one, which I am really excited about," she said.

"You have given me so many different types of emotions throughout our journey and I am very thankful for everything you have shown and taught me. I learnt how to deal with the toughest losses but also enjoy the most amazing wins of my career, to fight back many times when I was struggling with you and through it all we never lost sight of our dreams."

She thanked her family, friends, team, sponsors and fans for supporting and believing in her while acknowledging that she could not have achieved what she had without them.

Görges made her professional debut on the ITF Circuit in Germany in 2005 and rose to as high as ninth in the WTA Rankings.

Her best performance at a Grand Slam was a semi-final appearance at Wimbledon in 2018. Together with Nenad Zimonjic, she finished as a runner-up at the 2014 French Open mixed doubles event. Overall, she won seven career WTA singles titles and five doubles titles.

(With input from agencies)