Ash Barty retires: World No 1 has 'nothing more to give' as mental toll and homesickness triggers decision
Ashleigh Barty, the women’s world No 1, announced her shock retirement on Wednesday fewer than two months after lifting the Australian Open title due to the mental pressures of being away from home and that tour life has placed on her.
At just 25, Barty was also the reigning Wimbledon champion, having overcome Karolina Pliskova last summer in a memorable three-set final. But she will not be returning to defend her crown this year.
It is not the first time that Barty has retired, having stepped away from the game in 2014 after suffering from depression having grown disillusioned with the sport.
Barty is due to give a press conference in Brisbane on Thursday to further explain her decision, but in the meantime she recorded a brief and tearful Instagram interview with her close friend and former doubles partner Casey Dellacqua to announce the shock decision just seven weeks after her most recent success.
Why has Barty retired?
An emotional Barty told Dellacqua: “I don't have the physical drive, the emotional want, and everything it takes to challenge yourself for the very top level any more. I am spent. Physically I have nothing more to give.”
Barty added: “I'll never ever, ever stop loving tennis. It'll always be a massive part of my life. But now I think it's important that I get to enjoy the next phase of my life as Ash Barty the person not Ash Barty the athlete.”
While Barty’s passion for tennis has never been in doubt, she has always struggled with the travel involved in the sport.
As an Australian on the world tour, it is difficult to take any breaks to visit family and friends once the season starts, and she was away from home for a whopping five straight months last year.
She previously stepped away from the game as an 18-year-old to live a more normal life – a period in which she represented the Brisbane Heat cricket team in the Women’s Big Bash League.
Barty has since said that her cricketing break, which lasted roughly a year and a half, had given her a chance to work on her mental health.
She explained: “It [retirement] is something I've been thinking about for a long time. Wimbledon last year changed a lot for me as a person. [It was] my dream, my one true dream that I wanted in tennis, that really changed my perspective. And I just had that gut feeling after Wimbledon, and had spoken to my team quite a lot about it.
“There was just a little part of me that wasn't quite satisfied, wasn't quite fulfilled,” Barty added.
“And then came the challenge of the Australian Open. That for me just feels like the most perfect way to celebrate what an amazing journey my tennis career has been. Now I want to chase after some other dreams that I've always wanted to do, and to have that really healthy balance.”
Barty has lifted three of the four major trophies, with the odd one out being the US Open. She also won 25 of her final 27 matches, dating back to the start of last year’s Wimbledon.
Her successor as world No 1 will be the 20-year-old Pole Iga Swiatek, who has just won back-to-back titles in Doha and Indian Wells.
Who else retired from tennis early?
This shock decision echoed other abrupt and early retirements that have been announced by previous luminaries of women’s tennis.
Martina Hingis was just 22 when she retired for the first time, citing chronic injury, while Justine Henin was also world No 1 when she quit at 25.
Kim Clijsters was 24 when she retired for the first time, although like Hingis she would later return for a successful second innings.
Having married her boyfriend and given birth to a baby girl, Clijsters went on to add three more major titles to the US Open she had already won.
At 25, Barty clearly has plenty of time to return to the sport if she starts to miss it, and has already shown that time away from the tour can be beneficial towards improving mental health and reigniting the passion to play.
'You are leaving tennis in a beautiful way' - tennis world reacts to Barty news
By Simon Briggs in Miami
Ashleigh Barty's abrupt retirement from tennis in the small hours of Wednesday morning hit the sport like a meteorite and begged one clear question - why would a 25-year-old world No1 on an 11-match winning streak want to simply walk away?
Opinions differed around the locker room. Danielle Collins – the Australian Open finalist who was the last woman to face Barty on the match court – said that she found it “empowering” to think that a tennis player can afford to retire at 25.
Iga Swiatek, who will take over as the new world No1, suggested that the decision was “brave” and “an example that every person should put their own happiness [ahead of] what the world thinks”. Swiatek also spoke of the tears she shed in her hotel room when she heard the news.
But the verdict of 18-year-old Coco Gauff may have caught the moment most precisely: “That's such a savage way to leave.”
It was indeed an uncompromising decision, although an emotional Barty made a decent stab at explaining her thought process to her old friend and former doubles partner Casey Dellacqua.
“I don't have the physical drive, the emotional want, and everything it takes to challenge yourself for the very top level any more,” Barty told Dellacqua, in a short interview broadcast via Instagram. “I am spent. Physically I have nothing more to give.”
She said that winning Wimbledon in 2021 "changed a lot for me as a person and... an athlete. [That] was my dream, the one true dream that I wanted in tennis - that really changed my perspective."
Barty added: “I'll never ever, ever stop loving tennis. It'll always be a massive part of my life. But now I think it's important that I get to enjoy the next phase of my life as Ash Barty the person not Ash Barty the athlete.”
The ATP Tour’s fifth-ranked player, Stefanos Tsitsipas, admitted the announcement had left him "in disbelief" but this is not an unprecedented situation.
Barty’s shock move echoed other abrupt retirements of the past. Martina Hingis was just 22 when she left the stage for the first time, citing chronic injury, while Justine Henin was also world No 1 when she quit at 25.
Kim Clijsters was 24 when she retired for the first time, although like Hingis she would later return for a successful second innings. Having married her boyfriend and given birth to a baby girl, Clijsters went on to add three more major titles to the US Open she had already won.
If there is one leading player today who should be able to empathise with Barty’s decision, it is Naomi Osaka. Arguably the two strongest players of their generation, they have both struggled with the demands of touring life.
“I feel, like, really happy for her,” Osaka said. “I know last year was quite tough. She didn't really go home at all. I think that certainly took a toll. But it was also really inspiring to watch how dedicated she was that entire year. I think she can leave with no regrets. It's cool to leave the game when you're No. 1. You feel like you have nothing left to prove, you feel like you accomplished everything that you wanted to.”
For all the superficial glamour of the tennis world, this is not an easy road to follow, especially for those who are strongly wedded to the comforts of family life.
Osaka’s own struggles at Indian Wells - the tournament before this one – had underlined the point. She lost her second match there after becoming distracted by a heckler. Now she says that she has turned to a therapist for the first time in her life.
“I finally started talking to a therapist after Indian Wells,” Osaka said. “It only took like a year after the French Open [where she withdrew from the event after saying that she felt hurt by hostile questioning in press conferences]."
Asked what had persuaded her to make that jump, Osaka replied “Honestly because my sister seemed very concerned for me. Wim [Fissette, her coach] put it in a really good way. He was like ‘You hire a coach for tennis, for fitness. The mind is such a big thing. If you can get a professional to help you out five per cent, that alone is worth it.’”
