Australian world number one Ashleigh Barty surprised the world by retiring from the game at the age of 25, at the height of her brilliance.
“The current world number one Ashleigh Barty has announced her retirement from professional tennis following an impressive career in the top women’s competition,” the WTA said in a statement.
For her part, the emotional Barty said in a video on her account on the “Instagram” platform, “Ashley Barty, the human being, has many dreams that she would like to chase.”
What is the reason for Ashley Barty’s retirement from tennis?
Ashleigh Barty said she retired following achieving her goals in the game and feeling tired from the conditions of participating in the tournaments.
And the Australian player indicated that it is not among her dreams to travel around the world and get away from her family and be away from her home, which is the place she loves to be constantly.
“I will never stop loving tennis, it’s such a big part of my life, but I think it’s important to enjoy the next part of my life which is regarding the human Ashleigh Barty, not the athletic Ashleigh Barty.”
This is the second retirement for Barty in her sports career, as she moved away from the game as a teenager towards the end of 2014 due to her annoyance regarding competing in tournaments, but she returned in 2016 and quickly advanced in the rankings.
“I know I’ve done this before, but with different feelings,” Barty said in an Instagram video alongside her best friend and former doubles partner, Casey Delacqua.
“I am so grateful for tennis, it has given me all my dreams and more, but I know now is the time to step away and chase other dreams and put my rackets aside,” the Australian added.
Who is Ashley Barty?
Ashleigh Barty, an Australian born on April 24, 1996, started playing tennis at the age of 5 with the help of her parents Robert and Josie.
Growing up, Ashleigh Barty attended Woodcrest State College and, as a child, decided to play netball alongside tennis.
But later she settled on focusing on tennis and quitting netball. “I thought netball was a game for big girls, and my brothers were better than me,” she says.
After starting her career at the WTA Championships in Australia in 2010, she made her WTA debut in the US Open qualifiers in 2011.
She took a break following the 2014 US Open and had a successful spell with the Brisbane Heat in the Australian Cricket League before returning to tennis in 2016.
What are Ashley Barty’s accomplishments?
Barty’s retirement comes following winning 15 titles, and less than two months following winning the Australian Open, her third Grand Slam title.
Ashleigh Barty has won 3 Grand Slam titles, namely the French Open 2019, Wimbledon 2021 and the Australian Open 2022.
Barty spent a total of 121 weeks at the top of the rankings.
She won 4 singles and 2 doubles titles at the International Federation Championships in 2012, and also won one doubles title at the WTA Championships and reached the doubles final of one of the four Grand Slams 3 times with her compatriot Casey Delacqua in 2013 (Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open).
She won another WTA doubles title in 2014, and following a hiatus from cricket, she returned to tennis, and entered the top 20 in the world in 2017 and won her first singles title at the WTA Tour following participating as a qualifier in Kuala Lumpur, and then reached the final in two tournaments for singles in Birmingham and Wuhan to become the number one seed in Australia.
She won her second and third singles titles at the WTA Championships in Nottingham and Zhuhai to finish 2018 in 15th place in the world.
She won her first title of 2019 in Miami in March before clinching her first Grand Slam title at the French Open when she beat Czech Marketa Vondrosova in the final.
She became the first Australian in 46 years to win the women’s singles title at Roland Garros.
In the same year, she rose to the top of the world rankings in June and also led Australia to the final of the FA Cup for women’s teams for the first time since 1993 before losing to France.
Starting her second season as the world number one in 2020, she won her eighth career singles title in Adelaide and reached the Australian Open semi-finals before losing to champion Sofia Kenin.
She did not participate in the rest of the Grand Slams in 2020 due to the Corona virus pandemic, before returning to the Australian Open in 2021, where she lost in the quarter-finals to Karolina Mokhova, and withdrew from the second round of the French Open due to a groin injury.
She defeated Karolina Pliskova in her first appearance in the women’s singles final at Wimbledon in 2021 to claim her second Grand Slam title.
World number one Barty became the first Australian woman to win the Wimbledon singles title in 41 years.
She finished 2021 world number one for the third consecutive year following winning five titles.
She started 2022 by defeating Danielle Collins in the Australian Open final to win her third Grand Slam title.
