Sidney, Europe Brief News – Top-ranked Australian tennis player and world number one Ash Barty announces a surprise retirement.
The announcement sparked shock news on social media as it comes two months after winning the Australian Open.
“I just know at the moment, in my heart, for me as a person. This is right,” Barty said in a video posted to her social media account.
“It’s the first time I’ve actually said it out loud and, yeah, it’s hard to say,” Barty said during an informal interview with her former doubles partner, Casey Dellacqua.
“I don’t have the physical drive, the emotional want and everything it takes to challenge yourself at the very top level anymore. I am spent.”
She held back tears as she broke the news to Dellacqua in the video.
“That’s the first time I’ve said it out loud, and it’s hard to say,” Barty said. “But I am so happy, and I’m so ready, and I just know at the moment in my heart [that] for me as a person, this is right.
Emotional Farewell
“I know I’ve done this before, but in a very different feeling. And I’m so grateful for everything tennis has given me – it’s given me all my dreams plus more.
World No. 1 Ash Barty has announced her retirement from tennis at the age of 25. Read a transcript of her Instagram video interview.
Ash Barty on why she’ll ‘never stop loving tennis’ and why she had to retire.
Barty said she had been thinking about retiring “for a long time” and had “a gut feeling” after last year’s Wimbledon win.
“There was just a little part of me that wasn’t quite satisfied, wasn’t quite fulfilled,” she said. “And then came the challenge of the Australian Open, and I think that for me just feels like the perfect way, my perfect way to celebrate what an amazing journey my tennis career has been.”
Barty withdrew from this month’s Indian Wells tournament and the Miami Open, saying she needed to focus on recovering from her exploits at Melbourne Park, with both Roland Garros and Wimbledon on the horizon.
