New York: American Todd Martin announced his retirement after losing to Fabrice Santoro of France in the first round of the US Open on Monday. The 34-year-old bowed out with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 defeat and made the announcement to the fans who had stayed late into the evening for his match in the Louis Armstrong Stadium.

“This might be a big mistake, I might be in tears at any moment,” Martin told the crowd. “It’s been a pleasure playing in front of you.”

Martin gave special thanks to his family and his support group. “I’m one of the lucky guys who ran into some people who knew a lot about the game, cared and shared their knowledge with me, otherwise I would never have been here in the first place. I thank you all.”

Martin reached two Grand-Slam finals, the Australian Open in 1994 and the US Open in 1999, although he will also be remembered for losing a 5-1 lead in the deciding set of his Wimbledon semi-final against fellow American MaliVai Washington in 1996. “I’m going to miss it terribly,” he added in a news conference.

“Obviously, it’s been a huge part of my life. Probably through my life the greatest success — I guess it’s given me more self-esteem in me as a person than any other one thing in my life.”

“I’ve been thinking about it for probably a couple of years. I am sure had I had better results in the past couple of years I wouldn’t have thought about it as often.

“The last few months it’s gone from a lot less thinking to a lot more feeling and that makes it fairly clear. As far as wins and losses there are no regrets.