Opinion
The tennis community and Australian sport have been rocked by the dramatic decision of women’s tennis world No.1 Ashleigh Barty to retire from the sport for the second time.
The 25-year-old announced her sudden retirement yesterday, drawing the curtain on a short but successful career that saw her win 15 career titles, including three majors, become our first homegrown Australian Open champion since 1978 and reach the top of the rankings.
The bombshell announcement came after wheelchair legend Dylan Alcott bowed out after this year’s Australian Open, while 2011 US Open champion Samantha Stosur has retired from singles and will also retire from doubles at the end of this year, thus giving up tennis altogether.
Predictably, tributes have flowed for our celebrated tennis champion ranging from Prime Minister Scott Morrison to Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, and her beloved Richmond Football Club, among many others.
Barty is the first reigning world number one to retire from the sport since Justine Henin did so in 2008. The Belgian called it quits that year after winning seven major titles (four of them at the French Open) plus the Olympic gold edal in Athens in 2004.
The Ipswich native is also the first player to retire after having her final professional match be a win in a major final since Flavia Pennetta bowed out shortly after winning the US Open, where she defeated compatriot Roberta Vinci in the championship match in 2015.
Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli retired just 40 days after winning Wimbledon in 2013, while on the men’s side of things Pete Sampras officially bowed out in August 2003, 12 months after claiming the last of his 14 major titles at the previous year’s US Open.
History will forever tell us that the last professional match Ashleigh Barty contested was the Australian Open final back in January, in which she defeated Danielle Collins in straight sets, with her final point being a forehand winner that sailed past the American on championship point.
The victory smashed a 44-year hoodoo at the tournament, with Chris O’Neil having been the previous homegrown champion back in 1978.
The Queenslander had also won Wimbledon last year, defeating Karolina Pliskova in the final, and the French Open in 2019 where she defeated Marketa Vondrousova to become the nation’s first female major champion since Samantha Stosur at the 2011 US Open.
Barty was always destined for a successful career when she won the junior Wimbledon title in 2011, but after debuting on the WTA tour the following year the then-teenager struggled to cope with the demands of the professional circuit and opted to take a break from the sport in 2014.
Then aged 18, many feared for her immediate future and welfare, but she would use the time away from tennis wisely, dabbling in Twenty20 cricket with the Brisbane Heat while also running tennis clinics with young kids in Queensland.
Then women’s world No. 1 Serena Williams said at the time that Barty was too good of a player to be lost to the sport, and some words of encouragement from the American and doubles partner Casey Dellacqua ultimately convinced her to give tennis another go.
And so the comeback began under newly-appointed coach Craig Tyzzer.
Under his guidance, Barty would reach the third round of the Australian Open, where a loss to qualifier Mona Barthel saw her miss out on a shot at Venus Williams in the last 16, and won her first WTA career title in Kuala Lumpur.
Finishing the year inside the world’s top 20, she continued to make progress in the ensuing years, ultimately winning her first WTA 1000 title in Miami and first major title at the French Open before taking out the prestigious WTA finals in Shenzhen in 2019.
At the start of the year she defeated former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open for the first time, where she then lost to eventual runner-up Petra Kvitova.
Following her success at Roland Garros, Barty reached the fourth round at both Wimbledon and the US Open, being beaten by Alison Riske and Wang Qiang at those respective tournaments when victory at either would’ve seen her face Serena Williams in the quarter-finals.
She finished the year ranked world No. 1, and there she would remain all the way to the end.
Then came COVID-19, which would turn everyone’s world upside down in the most unimaginable of circumstances. It saw Barty end her season in February and forgo the defence of her French Open title, the tournament having been rescheduled to September and October.
Prior to that she reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the first time, where her title hopes came to a frustrating end at the hands of eventual champion Sofia Kenin.
During her time off the tennis court she was seen cheering on her beloved Richmond Tigers in the stands, and she was on hand to present the premiership cup to Damien Hardwick and Trent Cotchin following their win in the Grand Final, which was played at the Gabba.
After resuming on tour the following year, Barty successfully defended her title in Miami and then achieved the ultimate dream in tennis by claiming the Wimbledon title with a three-set win against Karolina Pliskova in the championship match.
She joined the likes of Ann Jones, Martina Hingis and Amelie Mauresmo in winning both the juniors and seniors title, having claimed the former as a 15-year-old in 2011.
Barty then claimed the prestigious title in Cincinnati, defeating the likes of Victoria Azarenka (for the loss of just two games), reigning French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova and former world number one Angelique Kerber along the way.
The 25-year-old then called time on her 2021 season after the US Open, where she lost a three-set thriller against Shelby Rogers, thus forgoing the defence of her WTA finals title to instead return home early and put all her focus and energy towards the Australian summer.
The Queenslander started this season by winning the title in Adelaide, where she defeated Elena Rybakina in the final, and her impressive form saw her enter the Australian Open as one of the title favourites.
Undeterred by the pressure of a nation on her shoulders, Barty steamrolled her way through the tournament as some of her biggest threats to the title – namely Naomi Osaka, Maria Sakkari, Victoria Azarenka, Paula Badosa and Barbora Krejcikova – crashed out one after the other.
In the final she defeated Danielle Collins in straight sets, becoming the first women’s world No. 1 since Serena Williams in 2015 to win the Australian Open and first woman also since Williams in 2017 to do so without dropping a set.
She also became the first homegrown Australian Open champion since Chris O’Neil in 1978 and the first after the tournament moved to Melbourne Park in 1988, and she joined Williams as one of only two active players at the time to have won majors on three different surfaces.
In prior matches, Barty had beaten Amanda Anisimova – Osaka’s third round conqueror – in the third round as well as former semi-finalist Madison Keys, who’d beaten the Ipswich native quite handily at the French Open in 2017.
Little did anyone know at the time that the Queenslander’s championship triumph would go down as the final professional match of her career, but if what we have seen in the past is anything to go by, then it may not be all over – not just yet.
After retiring at the same age as Barty is right now, Justine Henin launched her comeback in 2010, seemingly inspired by her compatriot Kim Clijsters’s phenomenal achievement in winning the previous year’s US Open as a wildcard entry shortly after restarting her career.
Henin would reach the Australian Open final in 2010, where she lost to Serena Williams in three sets, before retiring for good 12 months later after losing to Svetlana Kuznetsova, one of her main career rivals, at Melbourne Park in the third round.
As for Clijsters, she would successfully defend her US Open title in 2010, defeating Ana Ivanovic, Samantha Stosur and Venus Williams on route to the final where she thrashed Vera Zvonareva for the loss of just three games.
Success followed at the 2011 Australian Open, where she came from a set down to defeat Li Na in the final before briefly reclaiming the world No. 1 ranking for one week.
She ultimately retired for a second time the following year after losing to Laura Robson at the US Open.
And while Serena Williams (now aged 40) and Victoria Azarenka (32) have both made comebacks in recent years, in their cases it was following motherhood rather than a formal retirement.
So, who knows, maybe Ashleigh Barty might have the heart to give tennis a third go in the near future. But for now let the dust continue to settle on what has been a short but successful career in modern tennis history and Australian sporting history.
Thanks for the memories, Ash.
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