Ashleigh Barty: Retiring tennis champion says ‘wait and see’ on her planson March 24, 2022 at 4:02 am

World number one Ashleigh Barty has sliced back questions about her next move after retiring from tennis and told people to “wait and see”.

The 25-year-old shocked the sporting world on Wednesday by announcing she will quit the professional circuit.

In her first press briefing since then, she said she had “given everything” to tennis and was ready to retire.

Barty did not rule out trying another sport but said she was more keen to “give back” to the community.

“I have always wanted to have the time to contribute more in other ways and now I have that opportunity,” she told reporters on Thursday.

“That is what lights me up inside.”

She said she was particularly excited to help provide fellow Indigenous Australians with “more opportunity to get into the sport” from a young age.

Asked about reports she could take up golf or Australian Rules football, she said: “I have always been an athlete in terms of trying different things so we’ll see how we go.”

Barty won three Grand Slam singles events, including this year’s Australian Open in January.

In doing so she became the first home player to win the Australian Open men’s or women’s singles title in 44 years.

On Thursday, Barty said she had first started thinking about retirement after winning Wimbledon last year.

She revealed she last picked up a tennis racquet about 10 days ago, but that an injury after her Australian Open win had taken longer to heal than she had hoped.

Barty said she had been “spoilt” by many messages of support from other players since Wednesday.

She also confirmed she had set a wedding date to marry her fiancé Gary Kissik, but did not give further details.

Her couch Craig Tyzzer also spoke at the press conference, saying the player’s decision was “not a shock for me”.

“Ash does her own thing. I think it is the right time,” he said. “She won the Aussie Open for everyone and I don’t think there’s anything left in the tank for her.”

He said it was at the Olympics in Tokyo – which followed Barty’s Wimbledon win – that “it hit home there wasn’t much left for her”.

“The motivation wasn’t really there. I felt she’d climbed to where she wanted to get to and was going to be a hard slog to keep her involved,” he said.

Barty’s first singles Grand Slam arrived at the French Open in 2019 and she became world number one in the same year, a position she has held for 114 consecutive weeks since.

Only Steffi Graf, Serena Williams (both 186 weeks) and Martina Navratilova (156) have enjoyed longer streaks as world number one in the women’s game.

Williams is the only other active female player to have won major titles on clay, grass and hard courts, and at the time of her retirement, Barty has collected $23.8m (£17.9m) in prize money.

Barty’s Australian Open win had cemented her reputation as a national hero. In an emotional moment, she was presented with her trophy by another Aboriginal Australian tennis champion, Evonne Goolagong Cawley.

A recent report by The Age newspaper highlighted how after Barty, the number of Australian children playing tennis had climbed by nearly 30% in the past year. Many of them are from Indigenous communities and many are girls.

“I’m really proud that I can be a small part of getting more kids into sport and chasing their dreams,” Barty told BBC Sport in January.

Barty took a break from tennis in 2014, citing its intense demands, and played in the inaugural season of cricket’s Women’s Big Bash League.