Tennis World #1 Ash Barty announces retirement

[aotearoagal]

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Women's World #1 Ash Barty (25) surprisingly retired from tennis at age 25 while ranked No. 1. The announcement, made via her instagram account comes less than two months after winning the Australian Open for her third Grand Slam singles title.

Comments

[xdecadentx]

Genuinely stunned by this. I almost hope it's a retirement like she had before and she'll come back to the sport in a few years (she's only 25!) but either way, congrats to her on a great career.

I'll miss her on tour, she was a great player to watch.

[neuroticismette]

I have a lot of hope for young people. Good on Ash and good luck to all that she wants to achieve yet.

[adb7]

Wild! I thought she'd go for the US Open and then retire. Good for her though. I don't think we'll see the current crop of players playing into their mid-late 30s.

[neev]

I wonder if this is something that will become more common in sports? I feel like we've maybe reached the edge of what we can push the human body to in terms of athletic performance and the rewards associated with that maybe don't seem so appealing to young people who can also see the full careers of people coming before them. It's one thing to love a sport and quite another to willingly sign on for a lifetime of physical injury (or at least a high risk of injury) and relentless scrutiny by both the media and the public.

Anyway, good for her for recognizing when she had reached her limit.

[trynabme]

So she retired before and doing it again. Odds she's just burnt out and taking time to recharge and she might come back again in a few years?

[kamikashi]

Idk I honestly don’t think she’ll comeback. Wasn’t her previous retirement break as a teenager and now she’s a married adult? I’m sure all the pandemic stuff helped push her to this point. Feel like she’s prob just gonna focus on her marriage/family to do whatever next within just Australia. I don’t think she wants that tour life anymore.

[fimh]

yeah and from what im reading she didnt actually retire. she just needed a break. like her mindset wasnt "im done with tennis" from her wiki

"Barty had no intention of retiring and continued to play casually during her hiatus, saying, "It was never in mind that I'd retired as such... I'd been coaching and holding a racket pretty much every day so I wasn't completely out of practice.""