A Grand Slam champion will take his leave from the ATP stage this week, with far less fanfare than he deserves. We should give him his due, though, as an impressive career comes to a close.

Olivier Rochus has been handling himself with relative obscurity these past few years, staying in Europe for almost all of 2014 (aside from a brief stint in the Americas). He has been taking a short farewell tour for himself, playing local Belgian Futures in August and now competing in a local Challenger in Mons for what will be his final tournament.
 
Rochus is a unique player, still holding the distinction (until the end of this week) of being the shortest active player on tour, at 5'5” (168 cm). His style has always fit his personality, playing a variety of shots and working his way around the court, never going for too much or playing with too much power. Rochus made his mark very early in his career, winning the World Series tournament in Palermo way back in 2000. The biggest early moment of his singles career, though, is probably his upset victory over then-No. 2 Marat Safin in the second round of Wimbledon in 2002.
 
In fact, Rochus' relative success against top players in his earlier years is something that should be acknowledged. Granted, he went 0-8 against Federer, but who had success against Roger in the middle of the last decade? (It should be noted that he played an all-time classic match against Federer in Halle in 2006, which is great to watch if you ever feel in the mood for tennis highlights of years past.) He went 3-6 against Safin in his career and 1-3 against Lleyton Hewitt. He even beat a very young Rafael Nadal once, way back in 2002.
 
Rochus will be remembered for several of these things:  his wins over Safin, his two singles titles, and that classic match against Federer. But he etched his name in history in 2004, alongside countryman Xavier Malisse, when they won the French Open doubles crown.
 
While doubles titles don't quite carry the same level of prestige that singles titles do, it is still not every day that a Grand Slam champion retires. Rochus has left his mark on this sport in many ways and has left memories in the minds of plenty of fans. On the one hand, it is sad that he is going out in relative anonymity in a Challenger tournament. On the other hand, he will receive fanfare there that he could not get anywhere else. Either way, though, his career has earned the right for us to all acknowledge him once more.