“I am so grateful for all that this sport has given me and leave me feeling so proud and fulfilled. Thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way, I will always be grateful for the lifelong memories we made together.”
The post included a video clip, filmed with retired Australian tennis player Casey Delacqua, in which Barty further explains her decision.
“There was a shift in my perspective in the second phase of my career, that my happiness was not dependent on results, and success for me is knowing I gave absolutely everything I could,” she said.
“I know how much work it takes to bring out the best in you. I’ve said that to my team so many times, I don’t have that in me anymore. I don’t have the physical drive, the emotional urge to want, and all it takes to challenge yourself at the highest level anymore, I know Only that I spent. I only know physically, I have nothing to give. That, to me, is success.”
She added that she had been considering retirement “for a long time”, and the decision was reinforced after she won Wimbledon last year and the Australian Open this year. Those wins, she said, were “my perfect way to celebrate the incredible journey that was my tennis career.”
She said the decision was difficult but felt right. “Ash Barty, the person, has a lot of dreams that she wants to chase after that doesn’t necessarily involve traveling the world, being away from my family, being away from my home, which is where I’ve always wanted to be.”
“Ash Barty with her signature backhand, complimented by her being the ultimate contender, has always set an example through professionalism and unwavering sportsmanship in every game,” WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon said in the statement.
“With her accomplishments in the major tournaments and the WTA Finals, and reaching the top of the No. 1 ranking in the world, she has clearly established herself as one of the great champions of the WTA.”
Barty has won three major singles titles – the French Open 2019, Wimbledon 2021, and the Australian Open 2022. In total, she won 15 singles titles and 12 double titles on the WTA Tour, and was the first Australian to win an Australian Open singles title in a year 1978.
She is only the second-ranked world number one in the women’s game to retire at the top, after Justine Henin, who retired in 2008.
Barty, who began her professional tennis career in 2010, took a break from the sport from 2014 to 2016, saying “it’s been too fast,” according to the WTA release. She was only 18 at the time, and she wanted to “experience life as a normal teenage girl,” she said.
She returned to tennis full time in 2017 – and has continued to dominate the sport, winning 25 of her last 26 matches.
