Stunner: No. 1 Justine Henin retires from tennis...

This is the most stunning retirement in the history of tennis - even more surprising than Bjorn Borg walking away from the game at the age of 26 back in 1982.

Justine Henin, three-time defending French Open champion, reigning U.S. Open champion and top-ranked female tennis player in the world, announced Wednesday that she is leaving the sport that she ruled magnificantly last year when she set a single-season prize money record.

I can't friggen believe it! Justine had a lot of heart and that's why I liked her. She is smaller than her rivals Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport and yet she was able to win more major tournaments (seven) than all of them except for Serena who has eight. She also won the Olympic Gold Medal in 2004. She becomes the first woman to retire from tennis while atop the WTA rankings. Steffi Graf retired in 1999 while ranked number three while Chris Evert walked away 10 years earlier ranked fourth.

"This is the end of a child's dream," Justine said at a news conference in Spain. "This is a definitive decision. Those who know me know it is serious."

Like Graf, there will be no farewell tour. The retirement is immediate: "It is a new beginning for me. I feel like I already lived three lives. I gave the sport all I could and took everything it could give me. I take this decision without the least bit of regrets. It is my life as a woman that starts now."

Justine won 10 tournaments last year, but has been in one of the worst slumps of her career this season. She lost last week in the third round of the German Open and pulled out of this week's Italian Open, citing fatigue: "I thought long about this," she said, her voice cracking and eyes watering. "I started thinking about it late last year. I was at the end of the road. I leave with my head held high."

Her personal life has been a difficult one. She was divorced from her husband last year. And she was only 12 when her mother died of cancer, and became estranged from her father and siblings for nearly a decade before reconciling last year.

In addition to her four French Open titles, Henin won the Australian Open in 2004, and the U.S. Open in 2003 and 2007. The only Grand Slam title to elude her was Wimbledon, where she was the runner-up in 2001 and 2006: "Winning Wimbledon would not make me happier than I am," she said. "I could never dream of Wimbledon. It was destiny. I didn't feel myself capable. It was too much for me."