Ashleigh Barty’s Surprise Retirement
Australian tennis player Ashleigh Barty, the world No. 1 in women’s singles, announced her retirement from tennis at the age of 25 with a surprise post on her personal social media account. Ashleigh Barty is expected to hold a comprehensive press conference in the coming days to explain the reasons for her retirement decision in more detail.
Ashleigh Barty’s Career
Barty became the champion at the Australian Open Tennis Tournament on January 29, 2022, defeating Danielle Collins of the USA 6-3, 7-6, 2-0, becoming the first Australian female tennis player to win the Australian Open since Chris O’Neal’s victory in 1978. The successful racket also became the first Australian to win the title at Wimbledon after Evonne Goalong Cawley, who showed the same success in 1980 by winning Wimbledon in 2021.
She had Quit Tennis Before
Ashleigh Barty, who became junior champion at Wimbledon at the age of 15 and continued her rise until 2014, announced that she was quitting professional tennis after the 2014 US Open, which she participated in at the age of 18. Ashleigh Barty said at the time, “I had been traveling since a young age, which was too much and too fast for me… I wanted to live life as a normal young girl and have some normal experiences.” she used her expressions.
Her former coach Jim Joyce said that Ashleigh Barty returned to the courts thanks to the legendary tennis player Serena Williams. According to Joyce’s account, one day in 2015, Serena Williams texted Ashleigh Barty. Serena Williams’ message “You’re too good a player for retirement, you need to come back” was instrumental in Ashleigh Barty’s return from her retirement decision and managed to become the world No. 1 in her career, which she restarted.
Who is Ashleigh Barty?
She is the highest-ranked Australian in both women’s singles and women’s doubles, and was the world No. 1 in singles in the WTA rankings in June 2019. Barty has won six singles and twelve doubles titles on the WTA Tour, including one Grand Slam singles title at the 2019 French Open and one Grand Slam doubles title at the 2018 U.S. Open with partner CoCo Vandeweghe.
Born in Ipswich in Queensland, Barty started playing tennis in Brisbane when she was four years old. After winning the junior category girls’ singles title at Wimbledon in 2011, she had a promising young athlete career as the women’s world No. 2 in the juniors. As a junior tennis player, Barty achieved early success in doubles on the WTA Tour in 2013 and reached the doubles final with veteran Dellacqua at three Grand Slams, including the final she reached at the Australian Open when she was just 16 years old. At the end of the 2014 season, Barty decided to quit tennis. The athlete, who started playing cricket during this period, was contracted to the Brisbane Heat and took part in the Women’s Big Bash league (Australian Women’s Cricket League), although she had not done cricket training until then.
Barty returned to tennis at the beginning of 2016, shortly before turning 20. Although she won her first tournament back on the ITF tour, she suffered an arm injury and spent this year without participating in any other tournaments.
