Tennis
World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty Announces Shock Retirement From Tennis
by privatebet.com - 2022/03/23
Ashleigh Barty has been ruling the tennis world for quite some time, but she decided it’s time to put her racket down. The Australian player shocked the tennis world by announcing her early retirement at the age of 25. Barty set down with her former doubles partner Casey Dellacqua for an emotional interview, which she later shared on social media. The Australian tennis champion explained she no longer has “physical drive” or “emotional want” to challenge herself at the top professional level. “I’m so grateful to everything that tennis has given me. It’s given me all of my dreams, plus more, but I know that the time is right now for me to step away and chase other dreams and to, yeah, put the rackets down,” explained the world no. 1. This isn’t the first time she decided to take a break from tennis. Barty stepped away from the sport back in 2014 and had a brief stint as a cricket player before announcing her comeback in 2016. Her career has been on an upward spiral ever since. She won her first Grand Slam title at the French Open in 2019 and went on to win Wimbledon in 2021 and the Australian Open in 2022. She spent 114 consecutive weeks at no. 1, marking this the fourth-longest winning streak in the WTA history.