The shock of Ashleigh Barty’s retirement from tennis is yet to subside.
The tennis ace from Down Under decided to zip up her racket bag for good while on top of the world.
The three-time Grand Slam champion has spent 120 weeks at the pinnacle of WTA rankings, but announced she is ready for life’s next chapter.
Some elite athletes are able to time their exits and step away from the sports in which they’ve excelled over a sustained period of time. They reach a level of fulfilment and quit on their terms.
Barty, however, is only 25 and her adoring fans will feel she has lots more to give at the apex of the sport.
The ability to step away, especially at a young age, requires courage.
“Absolutely spent”, “physically I have nothing more to give” and “chase other dreams” formed part of her explanation for moving on.
“I’m so happy and I’m so ready. I just know in the moment in my heart, for me as a person, this is right,” Barty was quoted as saying.
She wants to be at home. The wind beneath her wings is no longer the accumulation of silverware in far-flung places. It is to be at home with those she holds dear.
Barty decided to retract from the demands of managers, agents, sponsors, tournament promoters and fans. Though she is adored in Australia, she would have felt the pressure of being the country’s flag bearer in the sport. Her path to glory in the Australian Open earlier this year bears testimony to this.
The ability to step away, especially at a young age, requires courage.
Players, of course, quit for different reasons while they are at the top. Some feel the emotional strain, while others work their bodies to the point of no return.
Justine Henin quit in the middle of the 2008 season after 61 weeks at the top of the rankings.
The Belgian withdrew from the Italian Open citing fatigue and announced her retirement two weeks before the French Open, where she was the three-time defending champion.
For another tennis ace it was the fear of losing that drove him into near obscurity.
Though a Wimbledon singles title eluded her, the seven-time Grand Slam champion also quit while she was ahead at the age of 25.
For another tennis ace it was the fear of losing that drove him into near obscurity.
Björn Borg surged to 11 Grand Slam singles titles between 1974 and 1981 before deciding he had served his time.
Though he had beaten John McEnroe in an epic Wimbledon final in 1980, he was haunted by the sheer toll it took to down the Superbrat from New York.
Borg, two and a half years McEnroe’s senior, realised the gap between him and his rapidly rising adversary was only going to shrink.
In that final, after he fell behind, Borg for the first time felt the fear of losing. In McEnroe he had a redoubtable opponent who on the surface appeared poles apart, but with whom he shared the drive and deep sense of purpose to be No.1.
Borg’s fears weren’t misplaced.
When the two met again in the 1981 final it was McEnroe who stood arms raised.
Borg played just one tournament in 1982 and announced his retirement in early 1983, at the age of 26.
It’s not just tennis players who have a propensity for pulling the plug early. The effervescence of the celebrations that marked Nico Rosberg’s Formula 1 success had barely evaporated when the 31-year-old pulled the steering wheel from his cockpit for the last time.
He had just pipped teammate Lewis Hamilton in an at times acrimonious 2016 championship battle when he shocked the world. Rosberg argued he had reached the pinnacle of his career and wished to spend more time with his family.
He was the first reigning F1 champ to quit since Alain Prost did the same in 1993. Prost by then had four championship titles and, like Borg, was feeling the breath of a rapidly closing tyro.
Barty wasn’t driven to the exit. You get the sense she’s craved its embrace.
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