Tennis world number one Ashleigh Barty retires at 25

Ashleigh Barty has been at the top of the world women’s tennis rankings for 114 consecutive weeks – longer than only three other players before her. Now the Australian suddenly withdraws “to pursue other dreams”.

The Australian Ashleigh Barty after her victory at the Australian Open in January 2022. Just a few weeks later she surprisingly announced the end of her career.

Paul Zimmer / Imago

You have to go back a long way to find a resignation in the history books of tennis that came as surprising as that of Australian Ashleigh Barty – maybe almost four decades ago. At that time, Björn Borg withdrew from the tennis circuit after a tournament in Monte Carlo. At that time, the Swede was an eleven-time Grand Slam winner, but only number 262 in the world rankings. Exhausted from the exertion, he had only played one tournament the year before before he put the racket aside after the home tournament in Monte Carlo.