The 33-year-old from Burton, the 2006 Commonwealth Games singles champion, is the second high-profile British player to retire in recent months.

 

Gail Emms, the 2004 Olympic mixed doubles silver medallist, quit after the Beijing Games.

 

She said: "Since the Olympics in Beijing I have had chance to take stock and I think now is the right time to stop.

 

"I have a lot of happy memories, particularly winning my first English National title by finally beating my great rival Julia Mann and then winning the Commonwealth gold medal.

 

"That made up for the disappointment of losing in 2002 against a player I had beaten in the team event.

 

“Having won a women’s doubles title at the 2008 English National Championships without any preparation, I would have like to have carried on playing doubles but it wasn’t to be.”

 

Hallam won two English Nationals singles titles and one women’s doubles crown as well as titles on the international circuit to go with her 81 England appearances.

 

On the international circuit she won titles in France, Vietnam, Romania and Israel as recently as 2007 and Taipei in 2005.

 

But perhaps her best performance at Open tournaments was in finishing runner-up at the 2006 Malaysian Open.

 

In 10 years at the top she climbed to number seven in the world and reached the last eight in three consecutive World Championships between 2005 and 2007.

 

She fought back from a career-threatening ankle injury to qualify for Beijing and her second Olympics, having reached the quarter-finals in Athens in 2004 when she beat Denmark's former world champion Camilla Martin for the first time in the second round.

 

In Beijing she reached the third round before bowing out.

 

She also helped England win the bronze medal at the Sudirman Cup world mixed team championships in Glasgow in 2007.

 

Hallam's decision to leave the sport on the eve of the All England Championships, which start in Birmingham next Tuesday, caught many by surprise.

 

England head coach Ian Wright said: "We are sorry to lose Tracey.

 

"She has led the way in women's singles for the last eight years.

 

"She has been a credit to the sport, particularly with the way she fought back from her 2006 injury.

 

"She will be a hard player to replace but it has been a pleasure working with her.”