Tennis pro lifestyle 'became quite unsustainable' and 'had just worn me down' - Simon Carr

Just a few short months ago, Simon Carr took time out of his busy schedule to chat to RTÉ Sport ahead of an exciting opportunity for Irish tennis to showcase itself.

Ireland was about to play a home Davis Cup tie for the first time in nine years and the Mullingar native was a key part of Conor Niland's five-strong squad that would face a highly-fancied Austria at Limerick's UL Sports Arena on the first weekend of February.

Fast-forward three months and RTÉ Sport is catching up with Carr again but in very different circumstances.

This time, it's about closing a huge chapter in his life and looking forward to opening new pages after announcing his retirement from professional tennis at the age of 24 this week.

The decision was long in the making and one that he ruminated over amid injury setbacks before ultimately making the curtain call.

"It was a long, long drawn out process. To pinpoint one exact moment is difficult," says Carr.

"There's a lot of times where you question yourself and those became, I suppose, more regular throughout the last couple of years.

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"Obviously I had quite a few struggles with my body. I had a lower back fracture, a few torn hamstrings, hip problems, impingements in both hips, so I didn't really have the rub of the luck body-wise and those sorts of things take their toll over time."

The solitary nature of the sport coupled with the uncompromising travel schedule to far flung locales on the ATP Challenger Tours and ITF World Tennis Tour proved exacerbating