Ashleigh Barty reveals her heartbreaking struggle with body image and mental health during the grueling world of tennis touring
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Ashleigh Barty
Tennis star Ashleigh Barty recently revealed her struggle with maintaining body image and mental health issues that she has gone through during her initial career days. That’s not all, the Australian tennis champion even talked about her perceptions regarding her physical appearance and battling mental health issues in its entirety to her viewers and fans. In a recently released cover of her book ‘My Dream Time: A Memoir of Tennis and Teamwork’, she opened up about her journey not only as a professional tennis player but as a person.
The former World No 1 made a shocking retirement announcement just a few weeks after winning the Australian Open in 2022, while she was just 25 years of age. She totally dominated women’s tennis and remained at the top of the WTA rankings for 86 consecutive weeks. Her 114 consecutive weeks at No. 1 is the fourth-longest streak in WTA history.
During an interview ahead of her book release, she opened up regarding her struggles with her physical appearance, which led to discomfort, unease, and terror. But she vowed to encourage the younger generation not to be afraid of imperfections.
She said, “I went through that like a lot of people do and a big part of my passion now is to encourage girls and boys to be comfortable in themselves. It helped me realize that imperfections are part of all of us and they are OK. By sharing some of my insecurities, hopefully, it can help them realize a lot of people go through it. This is a very common issue.“
Continuing her train of thought, she further added, “I had enough issues just being a girl in the world. I’m not built like other girls. I’m built like an athlete. I hated the way the training showed. I couldn’t celebrate being unique because I was too worried about being seen to be different. I didn’t tell anyone what I felt like sharing a locker room with women who looked athletically gifted and aesthetically beautiful goddesses from South America and Eastern Europe.“
Ashleigh Barty revealed about losing the burning desire to play further after winning Wimbledon in 2021
The 2022 Australian Open champion stated that after winning the Wimbledon Championship in 2021, she felt like the fire in her has died. She could not get the motivation to continue playing, although winning Wimbledon was the only thing she had ever wanted in her entire career. After the Wimbledon victory, she had played only in five tournaments.
Barty has earlier expressed that her decision of early retirement was right for her and that everyone should respect her decision. As per the former tennis player herself, this was what she had always wished for and she does not regret any of her decisions. She also spoke about how it felt just the right moment for her to step down and even requested her fans and viewers to understand her decision and respect her choices. She also stated that her life has been incredible post-retirement.
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