“Ash Barty’s priorities changed” Mats Wilander compares the Australian’s early retirement with the longevity of Big-3 and the Williams sisters who he believes are ‘monsters’
Follow Us
Mats Wilander and Ash Barty
3-time Grand Slam champion Ash Barty shocked the globe when she announced her retirement from tennis at the age of 25. Barty, who became the first homegrown player in 44 years to win the Australian Open, it was a sudden announcement that was not expected at all given she was the World No. 1 for more than 2-years and continued to lead the WTA rankings with a gap of more than 2000 points.
While Barty herself announced the retirement through a video with longtime mentor and former Doubles partner Casey Dellacqua, Barty said that she had achieved all of her goals as a Pro and wanted to explore other things in life outside the world of tennis.
7-time Grand Slam champion and former World No. 1 Mats Wilander discussed Barty’s retirement with that of the careers of Venus Williams (41), Serena Williams (40), Roger Federer (40), Rafael Nadal (35) and Novak Djokovic (34) who despite being quite senior to Barty continue to play at the highest level with a varied mindset.
“We just have to realize that players like Serena, Venus, Roger, Rafa and Novak are sort of monsters. They never, ever have enough. Their priority is always to play tennis and improve. And I think for Ash Barty, her priorities have changed. And I’ll tell you the other part of my answer, which I think is more important,” said Wilander speaking with Eurosport where he is a recurring analyst.
“Ash Barty realised she has more important things than tennis”: Mats Wilander
Barty had earlier ended her 2021 season prematurely after the 2021 US Open and skipped the 2021 WTA Finals in order to spend more time with her family having not visited Australia after January and Wilander highlighted that with the Covid-19 Pandemic affecting tennis as well with many bio-bubbles and quarantine periods, Barty had enough having already achieved quite a lot of success in her career.
“Being a professional tennis player for the last two and a half years of Covid, having to stay in quarantine, having to make the decision as she has done last year, which is to leave Australia for six, seven months in a row, it can kill your enthusiasm for anything in this life. The world is not the same today as it was in 2019, when she won her first Grand Slam.
“After that, she reached the number one place in the world, she won Wimbledon. I mean the world is upside down and maybe she realized it: ‘Okay, I have more important things to do than swing a racket and win tennis matches,” added Wilander further.
Also Read: Ash Barty’s retirement to cost Tennis Australia nearly $500 million
Stay Updated!
Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)