Ashleigh Barty expressed gratitude for "everything that the sports gave her."
Digital Desk: Shocking the sports world, Australian Tennis player and world number one Ashleigh Barty declared her retirement from tennis at the age of 25 on Wednesday (March 23).
The tennis player has mentioned the achievement of her tennis ambitions as well as exhaustion with living on the Tour as reasons for her departure.
"Today is challenging and full of emotion for me as I announce my retirement from tennis," Barty said in an emotional video message uploaded on Instagram.
"I'm so thrilled, and I'm so prepared, and I just feel in my heart that this is the correct decision. I'm happy for all tennis has given me; it has fulfilled all of my ambitions and more," she stated.
"But I know the time has come for me to step away, pursue other dreams, and lay down the racquets," she said in a video address with her close friend and former doubles partner Casey Dellacqua.
Further, Ashleigh Barty expressed gratitude for "everything that the sports gave her."
Recently, Barty became the Australian Open's first home-grown champion in 44 years, joining tennis royalty's most exclusive club with a Grand Slam title on three different surfaces.
She retires with 15 titles, less than two months after winning the Australian Open, her third Grand Slam singles title after winning Wimbledon in 2021 and the French Open in 2019. She held the world's number one position for a total of 121 weeks.
Notably, it is Barty's second "retirement" from the sport; after stepping out from the game as a teenager in late-2014 after becoming unsatisfied with the Tour.
However, she returned in 2016 and quickly climbed the ranks.
Leave A Comment