Australian tennis player Ashleigh Barty, world No.1 in her discipline, announced her retirement on Wednesday, to everyone’s surprise. “I want to chase other dreams that I’ve always wanted to achieve,” the athlete said of his decision in a video posted to Instagram. “I’m going to retire from tennis. It’s the first time I’ve said it out loud, and it’s hard to say. But I’m very happy and I’m so ready. I just know right now from the bottom of my heart , for me as a person, which is the right thing to do,” she said visibly emotional in this video, in the form of a conversation with her former doubles partner Casey Dellacqua.
World number one since 2019, she has won three Grand Slam singles titles, at Roland-Garros in 2019, then at Wimbledon in 2021 and at the Australian Open this year.
She had become in January the first local champion in 44 years to win the Australian Open, joining the restricted club of Grand Slam crowned on three different surfaces.
“Success for me is knowing that I gave it my all, everything I might. I’m fulfilled, I’m happy, and I know how much work it takes to give your best,” said three-time Grand Slam champion.
“It’s just that I don’t have that in me anymore. I don’t have the physical energy, the emotional will and everything else to push myself at the highest level,” she continued. , adding to be “absolutely exhausted”.
Barty, one of the most respected and beloved players on the tour, quickly became the best, with her dizzying range of slices, precise serves and flawless forehand.
Few athletes can boast such a varied CV. She started playing tennis as a child in Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, and won the Wimbledon Junior Championship title aged 15 in 2011.
But expectations of success got the better of her, and three years later she gave up tennis for cricket, signing with the Brisbane Heat in the inaugural Women’s Big Bash League.
But the lure of tennis was never far away and she returned following a season away, claiming her first Grand Slam triumph at Roland Garros in 2019 and becoming the world’s first No.1 Australian since Evonne Goolagong-Cawley 50 years earlier.
She finally won the longed-for title at Wimbledon last year before her triumph at the Australian Open in Melbourne in January.
Only before her Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Serena Williams had finished three years in a row at the top.
“Being able to win Wimbledon was my dream, my only real dream in tennis. It really changed my perspective. I had this intuition following Wimbledon and I talked a lot regarding it to my team” confessed the champion.
“There was just a little part of me that wasn’t quite happy (…) And then came the challenge of the Australian Open and I think for me that’s the way to go. more perfect” to leave.
The Women’s Tennis Association hailed “an incredible ambassador for the sport”. “Thank you, @ashbarty, for the indelible mark you left on the court, off the court and in our hearts,” the federation tweeted.
“I want to thank you, Ash, for inspiring a country, for inspiring a nation, at a time when this country really needed a boost,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.
The Australian said following her victory at the Australian Open that she wanted to take time to reflect on her career, thus skipping the prestigious hard-court start-of-season tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami.
She got engaged last year to longtime boyfriend Garry Kissick, who was always on the court when she played.
