Barty calls it a day
Less than two months after winning the Australian Open, World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty announced her decision to retire from the game, citing the fulfilment of her tennis goals and fatigue with life on the Tour. The 25-year-old Australian quits with 15 titles, including three Grand Slam singles title.
She won the Wimbledon in 2021 and the French Open in 2019.
“I know how much work it takes to bring the best out of yourself ... I don’t have that in me anymore,” she said in a video posted on her Instagram account.
“I don’t have the physical drive, the emotional want and everything it takes to challenge yourself at the very top level any more. I am spent.”
It marks Barty’s second retirement from the sport, having walked away from the game as a teenager in late-2014.
Barty suffered depression on the Tour after turning professional as a teenager, leading her to quit and briefly reinvent herself as a professional cricketer in her home state of Queensland.
When the COVID-19 pandemic halted elite tennis in 2020, she took nearly a year off from the game to spend time with family rather than rejoin the circuit after it resumed.