Nothing doing: Barty coy on future but set on retirement
Ash Barty has revealed her tennis retirement plans were set before having “one last crack” and marching to a dominant Australian Open title.
Ashleigh Barty speaks to the media the day after announcing her retirement from tennis at the age of 25, less than two months after winning the Australian Open in Melbourne. (AAP Image/Jono Searle)
The world No.1 and three-time major champion sensationally announced her retirement at age 25 on Wednesday.
Speaking alongside coach Craig Tyzzer on Thursday, she revealed a wedding date with fiance Garry Kissick had been set but remained coy on her next professional move.
Winning an Australian Open wasn’t essential though, Barty explaining she had “never been a prisoner” to the profession she had already walked away from once as a prodigious teenager.
“The Australian public allowed me to be myself. They allowed me to make mistakes. They allowed me to be imperfect,” she said.
“It really did make that Australian Open so much more enjoyable for all of us to be able to go ‘you know what, this is one last crack, let’s see what we can do’.
“It was really cool.”
Tyzzer admitted he wasn’t surprised by Barty’s decision, given she had cheekily asked if she could retire after her 2019 French Open victory and that her limp Olympic singles campaign last year had been telling.
“After (winning) Wimbledon that was an obvious goal for us and once she achieved it and once we got to the Olympics, it sort of hit home for me that there wasn’t much left in her,” he said.
“The motivation wasn’t there, except when she played doubles with Storm (Sanders) and mixed with John Peers, her singles really went by the wayside.
“She wasn’t fussed.
“So I felt that she had climbed where she needed to get to and it was going to be a hard slog to keep her involved.”
The Queenslander has already played professional cricket and is an accomplished golfer and high-profile fan of AFL club Richmond.
But Barty, who lives nearby the Brisbane Lions’ new AFLW headquarters in Springfield, offered a smile, wink and a “you’ll have to wait and see” when asked several times about what might be coming next.
Tyzzer said her approach since returning to the sport in 2016 should serve as a lesson for others.
“Hopefully they have seen what Ash has done and understand that you can be yourself … just be the best version of you,” he said.
“And that was really what we were about; it was never about the success.
“It was just trying to find the best that Ash could be, and it turned out that she’s the best there is.”
