It’s always difficult for any athlete to know when the right time is to say goodbye.

Do you go out on top when the cheers are still ringing in your ears, knowing that maybe you can possibly compete for a few more years?

Or do you wring out every ounce of athletic glory you can, and stay on long past your best years?

There is no one correct answer. For every Pete Sampras, who left tennis after winning the 2002 US Open, there is a Muhammad Ali, who stayed in boxing and suffered some defeats he may not have earlier in his career.

For Dana Mathewson, a legend in wheelchair tennis, the decision wasn’t an easy one, but she’s sure it’s the right one.

Mathewson announced that next year will be her final one as a competitor, and since the Paralympics will take the place of the US Open in 2024, this week she’s competing at her home Slam for the final time.

Mathewson was defeated in the women's wheelchair singles by No. 2 seed Yui Kamiji of Japan, 7-5 6-1, in what will be her last US Open singles match.

In the women's doubles, she and partner Manami Tanaka won a thriller against Momoko Ohtani and Aniek van Koot, 6-3 3-6 10-7.

Mathewson will play at least one more US Open match.

“Those thoughts, about this being my final US Open, aren’t quite in my head yet,” Mathewson said. “I’m a very sentimental person, and so I’m sure next year around this time at the Paralympics I’ll be thinking ‘this is the last serve I’ll ever hit,’” and lots of things like that.’”

Mathewson, 32, has had an illustrious career in wheelchair tennis, accomplishing so many firsts it takes a while to list them all.

In July 2022, Mathewson made history for US tennis when she and Kamiji captured the doubles title at Wimbledon, making her the first American woman to win a wheelchair Grand Slam title.

During her 15 years as a pro, Mathewson can also claim a host of other US milestones, including being the first American woman to play in all four Grand Slams, while she has represented the United States twice in the Paralympics.

Mathewson is also an 11-time member of the US World Team Cup team (the wheelchair tennis equivalent of Billie Jean King Cup and Davis Cup).

A native of San Diego, California, Mathewson has been ranked as high as No. 7 in singles and No. 4 in doubles.

In short, it’s been an amazing and fulfilling career, one that will end after the Paralympics next year in Paris, scheduled for 28 August-8 September.

Asked if she’s had second thoughts at all about setting an end date for her retirement, Mathewson was decisive. Mostly.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve had zero second thoughts, but more about things I’m really going to miss,” Mathewson said. “Why I want to stop has nothing to do with tennis. I love competing, I love tennis, it’s just the lifestyle I’m ready to hang up.”

Mathewson cited the travel involved with wheelchair tennis, when top players can be on the road 20-25 weeks a year, as a reason she’s ready to put her rackets down. 

Dristin Hughes, Mathewson’s fiancé (they’re getting married in December) is here in New York with her, and Mathewson wants to spend more time with him.

This past May she graduated with a Ph.D in audiology.

“More than the tournaments or trophies won, I’m going to miss all the relationships and friendships I’ve been so lucky to have,” Mathewson said. “There are so many people I’ve grown close to because of all the time we’ve spent together.”

Mathewson has been a trailblazer in wheelchair tennis, and a role model for other young players. Paralysed from the age of 10 when she contracted the rare autoimmune disease transverse myelitis, Mathewson is a partial paraplegic. She found her passion for adaptive sports soon after, and tennis became something she excelled in.

With so many young girls idolising here, who was Dana Mathewson’s Dana Mathewson when she was growing up?

It was a US wheelchair player named Karin Korb, who participated in the Summer Paralympics twice. The two met a few years after Mathewson had become paralysed.

“She was strong and beautiful and she came up to me and I was in awe of her, she had this presence,” Mathewson said. “I never knew you could be all of that in a wheelchair.

“When little kids who are in wheelchairs come up to me and idolise me, I can’t believe a person would do that. I remember when I saw wheelchair tennis for the first time, I had no idea people could do that. I was in awe. And if I never saw people the way people see me today, I’d never be here.”

With the end near, Mathewson is savoring her favourite parts of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center: courts she’s had great triumphs on, special areas of the grounds that hold a place in her heart.

And if she could win two more doubles matches with Tanaka and win another Grand Slam …

“That would mean everything to me,” Mathewson said. “The icing on the cake.”