World No.1 Australian tennis player Ash Barty declares her shocking retirement; PM Scott Morrison honors her inspiring career

Australian World No.1 Ash Barty has stunned the donning scene with the declaration she is resigning from tennis at only 25. The three-time Grand Slam champion Ashleigh bows out on a high, having claimed the Australian Open title in her latest competition.

Australian world No. 1 Ash Barty declared her shock retirement from tennis in a social media post. Ashleigh Barty, the No.1-ranked WTA player for 114 back-to-back weeks and then some, reported her retirement from tennis on Tuesday. The outgoing Australian is one month short of her 26th birthday.

Ashleigh Barty is physically and emotionally spent, and Ash Barty will retire in the information she has “given absolutely everything” to tennis.

The world No 1 dazed the tennis world on Wednesday by reporting her takeoff from the sport at 25 years old, delivering the bombshell news in an interview with Casey Dellacqua through her social media channels.

The 25-year-old said she was “so happy and so ready” and admitted she had been thinking about it for a long time before disclosing her decision public on Wednesday.

“Today is difficult and filled with emotion for me as I announce my retirement from tennis,” Ashleigh Barty wrote in a post on Instagram, alongside a video of the interview.

“I wasn’t sure how to share this news with you so I asked my good friend @caseydellacqua to help me. I am so thankful for everything this sport has given me and leave feeling proud and fulfilled.

“Thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way, I’ll always be grateful for the lifelong memories that we created together.”

As well as the Australian Open in January, Ash Barty won Wimbledon last year and Roland-Garros in 2019 and has spent over two years as the top-ranked player in the world.

It’s the second time she’s moved back from the game, having previously retired in 2014 to play cricket.

Ashleigh Barty leaves the sport at the peak of her powers, as the reigning Australian Open and Wimbledon champion who has stood firm on the world No 1 position since winning the 2019 French Open.

It was the Queenslander’s second coming after she enjoyed some time off in 2014, while ranked outside the top 200, because “it was too much too quickly for me as I’ve been travelling from quite a young age”, saying she wanted to experience life “as a normal teenaged girl”.

The 25-year-old, who recently became engaged to her partner Garry Kissick, said completing her career with a success on Rod Laver Arena is the ideal approach out.

On Wednesday she kept down tears as she informed Dellacqua in the video.

“That’s the first time I’ve said it out loud, and it’s hard to say,” Ash Barty said. “But I am so happy, and I’m so ready, and I just know at the moment in my heart [that] for me as a person, this is right.

“I know I’ve done this before, but in a very different feeling, and I’m so grateful for everything tennis has given me – it’s given me all my dreams plus more.

Ash Barty said she had been pondering retiring “for a long time” and had “a gut feeling” after last year’s Wimbledon win.

“There was just a little part of me that wasn’t quite satisfied, wasn’t quite fulfilled,” she said. “And then came the challenge of the Australian Open, and I think that for me just feels like the perfect way, my perfect way to celebrate what an amazing journey my tennis career has been.”

Ashleigh Barty withdrew from the current month’s Indian Wells competition and the Miami Open, saying she expected to focus on recuperating from her exploits at Melbourne Park, with both Roland Garros and Wimbledon on the horizon.

“I know how much work it takes to bring the best out of yourself and I’ve said it to my team multiple times, it’s just I don’t have that in me anymore,” she said. “I don’t have the physical drive, the emotional want, and everything it takes to challenge yourself at the very top of the level anymore.

“I just know that I am absolute – I am spent – I just know physically I have nothing more to give. And that to me is a success. I have given absolutely everything I can to this beautiful sport of tennis.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison honored her inspiring career.

“On the way here we learned the news that Ash Barty would be retiring from tennis. I was able to leave a message for her before we got out of the car, and to her and Gary I want to wish them all the very best for their future,” he said in Rockhampton.

“I just simply want to say thank you for inspiring a generation of young people and particularly a generation of young Indigenous people in this country.

“You are all class.

“I do want to say thank you for inspiring a country, inspiring a nation at a time when this country really needed a good shot in the arm.

“Of course, none of us will forget the triumphant win in Wimbledon and none of us will ever forget that incredible comeback down there at the Australian Open this year.”

WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon said Ashleigh Barty could never be forgotten.

“With her accomplishments at the Grand Slams, WTA Finals, and reaching the pinnacle ranking of No.1 in the world, she has clearly established herself as one the great champions of the WTA,” he said.

The Australian Olympic team shared photos of her in green and gold, referring to Ash Barty as “one of the greats”.

“Congratulations on an amazing career Ash Barty. Once an Olympian, always an Olympian,” the post read.

Federal Labor leader Anthony Albanese congratulated Barty on her “magnificent career”.

“An inspiration, a magician on the court, a champion of Wimbledon and the Australian Open – World Number One. As you climbed to the very top, you lifted us all,” he said.

“For every young girl that has looked up to you. For every one of us that you’ve inspired. For your love of the game. Thank you, (Ash Barty) for the incredible mark you’ve left on-court, off-court, and in our hearts,” WTA said on Twitter.

Thanasi Kokkinakis, who claimed the doubles title close by Nick Kygrios at the current year’s AO, tweeted: “Respect it @ashbarty.”

The Richmond Football Club, to who Ash Barty introduced the premiership cup in 2020, said she was “always welcome at Tigerland.

“Thank you for inspiring us all and good luck in the next chapter,” the club said.

Former men’s world number one, Andy Murray, said he was “gutted for tennis” yet “what a player” Ashleigh Barty was.

World No.1 made the declaration in an emotional video message via social media on Wednesday morning.

It’s incredibly uncommon for a professional athlete in any sport to step away while at the actual top of her game, however, Barty leaves with a sterling set of credentials that will in all likelihood land her in the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Barty won three major singles championships on three unique surfaces – the 2019 French Open, the 2021 Wimbledon, and, back in January, the Australian Open. Altogether, she gathered 15 titles in singles and 12 in doubles – more than some other active player in that span.

Across all levels of play, Ash Barty created a 305-102 record in singles and a 200-64 record in doubles, earning total career prize money of $23,829,071.

Ashleigh Barty’s present reign as No.1 is the fourth-longest streak in the history of the Hologic WTA Tour, behind Steffi Graf (186 weeks), Serena Williams (186), and Martina Navratilova (156). Her 121 total weeks are No.7 all-time.

Ash Barty has generally been unconventional concerning her stellar career. She and Dellacqua had tremendous achievement playing doubles, arriving at the finals of the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open in 2013. Yet, after one year, ranked outside Top 200 in singles and No.40 in doubles, Barty – then, at that point, simply 18 – decided to take a break.

Her 21-month sabbatical from tennis incorporated a stretch playing cricket with the Brisbane Heat of the Women’s Big Bash League. She returned in May 2016, playing a $50,000 ITF event in Eastbourne – winning three qualifying matches and three additional in the main draw. After one year, she was ranked No. 88 and before the finish of 2017 Barty was an established Top 20 player.

A semifinal loss to Petra Kvitova in Doha in February was the last match she played in 2020; Ashleigh Barty remained at home in Australia for the balance of the season when the global pandemic arose. Following a half-year on the road in 2021 and after coming out on top for five championships – including her second major at Wimbledon – Barty finished her season suddenly after a loss to Shelby Rogers at the US Open. Her No. 1 ranking qualified her for the Akron WTA Finals, however, Barty withdrew, refering to proceeding with COVID-19 travel and quarantine limitations.

Ashleigh Barty didn’t lose a match in her abbreviated 2022 season, going 11-0 and winning 25 of her final 26 matches. She opened with a title run at the Adelaide International, then, at that point, completed her career with a flourish, as it ended up, winning the Australian Open. She became the first Australian to bring home the title at her home Grand Slam event in 44 years.

Ash Barty becomes the second reigning World No.1 ranked woman to retire while on top, following Justine Henin, who retired in May of 2008, following 61 successive weeks at No.1. Henin got back to play two years after the fact.

Kim Clijsters retired for the first time in 2007 at 23 years old and ranked No.4. She returned two years after the fact, won consecutive US Open titles, then retired a second time from 2012-20. Clijsters is as of now an active player. Eleven-time Grand Slam champion Bjorn Borg retired at 26 years old in 1983, then returned to play from 1991-93.

Ashleigh Barty has said she has partaken in her time after the US Open surrounded by loved ones in Brisbane. In November 2021, Barty and Australian professional golfer Garry Kissick declared their engagement.

Ash Barty’s latest Grand Slam victory came as she claimed the Australian Open title in January in dominant fashion. Her first Grand Slam singles title came in 2019, the same year she rose to the world no.1 ranking.