OT: World #1 Tennis Player Ash Barty Retires at 25
In a shocking move, women's tennis #1 player Ashleigh Barty announced her retirement yesterday from the sport at only age 25. Barty is still in her prime and is the current Wimbledon and Australian Open champion. The move is completely out of the blue - it would be similar to 2005 Tom Brady or 2002 Tiger Woods deciding they were content with their careers and retiring. Barty's career winnings are almost $24 million. Could this be a trend for top athletes in the future, or is this a one-off case? Interested to hear other people's thoughts.
Closest analog I can think of is Martina Hingis retiring at 27. It is a mental grind though and some people may feel like they have gotten all they can at that age.
Justine Henin also retired (the first time) pretty young.
I suspect Barty will return at some point, like Hingis and Henin did.
I wouldn't be surprised at a return, either. She's still young. Some time off may be great for her physically and mentally.
Agree with you @jmblue. She retired once already several years ago. In a year or two, she may get the urge to compete again. Tom Brady did, after a long, month away from the game he loves.
If I'd already made $24 million dollars by age 25, I'd never have worked another day in my life.
All this^ and a bag o chips.
And they say that Americans are driven by a tyrranical love for toil! That's the old Protestant ethic! (I'm with you.)
Could this be a trend for top athletes in the future, or is this a one-off case? Interested to hear other people's thoughts.
That's an interesting question, and one that will require a lot of pondering, good old fashioned research and a handy dose of speculation to arrive at good conclusion. I know this is just a single case study, but at this point its safe to say that this is looking like a trend. I wouldn't be surprised if 100% of #1 ranked female tennis players that are 25 years old, and whose names rhyme with Bashly Farty will probably decide to retire in the future, just like Ashleigh Barty did. I imagine this will have major implications for the sport of women's tennis. Once the cat is out of the bag, its not easy to put it back in.
Barry Sanders
Tears...
Calvin Johnson called to console you….
Using Joey Harrington's SportsIllustrated NFL Football phone. #amidoingthisrite?
One of these players is not like the other two.
I imagine you'd really have to love your sport to go through the grind the pros do and be at the top of your game. She's probably been playing tennis since she was 3, with all the pressure from parents and highly-paid coaches heaped upon her. Why not leave once you are financially set for life at that point if you don't really just live to compete?
She actually took time off from tennis as a teen for something like 3 years to play crickett, which I find more amazing. Just an incredible athlete and competitor. I was pretty surprised when I found out last night, but with her, I think it makes a bit of sense. Happy for her. Will miss her on tour though. We've been able to interact with her a couple times at WTA events. She's great with people. Really genuine. Really likeable player and person.
Edit: ah, poor memory, hiatus was less than two years
Agassi hated tennis
I'm going to speculate on the mental health of this person I've never heard of until reading this post but I can imagine playing an isolated sport such as tennis could lead to some struggles.
24M in the bank from winnings plus endorsements could make the decision to walk easier.
Simone Biles comes to mind, some people just need a break.
Tennis is a high burnout sport. It's not unheard of for players to leave in peak physical condition because the mental grind is too much to maintain. Nadal and Federer are outliers.
I was going to say something similar to this. Tennis is also a somewhat isolating sport particularly at younger levels when kids are training, and in women's tennis they reach their professional peak so young that even school is often a side-hustle for top players. Most other pro athletes we are familiar with are playing team games and when they are 25 they may just be making it to the big time as opposed to having already been there a while.
I was just on a flight yesterday and watched "King Richard" with Will Smith playing Venus and Serena's dad. The most interesting part was the extent to which he went to keep them from burning out playing juniors before they turned pro. They kept it up when they were on top of the pro world, taking sabbaticals and keeping mentally healthy instead of playing every tournament possible.
24 or 25 is not a young age for a tennis pro to burnout. I didn't find this shocking at all.
The Colts remain one Andrew Luck from being a perennial Super Bowl contender. I do think this newer generation of athletes, in general, realizes that there is more to life than dedicating your entire life’s energy to a sport. It takes unmitigated focus to succeed in today’s athletics. The compensation is so exorbitant that you don’t need to do it for very long to have financial freedom at a young age.
The new generation is also making immensely more money than previously. It is a lot easier to step away from a sport if you have already made enough money to live like a king for the rest of your life. It is within the memory of many that even star pro athletes used to work jobs during the off-season. Talk about another world!
She stepped away for all of 2015 and ended up playing professional cricket. It seems like she's somebody with an incredible amount of talent and a lot of interests. I suspect she'll find something noteworthy to occupy her time.
Yeah I was gonna say maybe shocking because of where she is now, but she already walked away from the sport before so it's not like it came out of nowhere.
100% correct and she has consistently talked about other interests.
If a crystal ball had said a sub-30 year old player in the top 50 is going to retire abruptly, she would have been at the top of the list.
I have watched the documentary on Mardy Fish, it is on Netflix currently. He left his family and moved to a premier tennis camp where he happened to meet Andy Roddick at a young age. He then moved in with Andy Roddick’s family and his dad treated him like a drill instructor. He battled his whole life to live up to the expectations and at the biggest point of his career had a mental breakdown.
You could see how playing tennis 12 hrs a day and giving up a social life and school would be a total drain that some people would want out of.
Thanks for the heads up on Mardy Fish. Interesting interview here with David Samson who had similar panic attacks as a top athlete.
Honestly surprised that this doesn't happen more often. But I guess it takes so much intensity and focus to get to the top that only those most hell-bent on winning everything will make it, and those folks usually don't just peace out.
But if she's at a point where it's not worth that amount of personal investment and sacrifice anymore, good for her.
Barty has enough money and just wants a normal family life. Osaka is making a comeback but she was a mental wreck. Serena Williams, the greatest ever, is no longer mentally or physically untouchable. The sacrifice to make it to the top of tennis is as difficult as it is in any sport.
Football is a team sport. Golf is individual but you aren't going against another person 1 v 1 like tennis or boxing.
Did any of the tennis fans here watch King Richard? Seemed like it was a "very kind biopic" but a great acting job by Will Smith.
Tennis is a different ballgame even compared to other sport cultures. She has probably been training since age 6. Probably sent away by her parents to some tennis school, watching all your friends ig stories going to parties, living it up, getting married, having kids etc. Then she's drinking her protein shake getting cupping therapy on her way to her evening workout. It's a lonely sport played by just yourself whereas team sports you're celebrating with your teammates etc.
I’ve been giving retirement a lot of thought lately as I could probably do it in a year or two (I’m 45 now). For me it’s a struggle between being productive, useful, and needed vs having to deal with the stress and BS inherent in working for the worlds second biggest company. I imagine Barty has that stress multiplied by 1000.
Considering the focus and intense, constant training that you see a lot of the truly remarkable players go through even before they turn professional, even before their first major, I can absolutely believe that some, by their mid twenties, are completely burned out. Tennis seems like one of the hardest roads of them all in some respects when it comes to time and energy.
Lorena Ochoa did the same thing in golf.
She seems young but if recall right in the article in SI, she said something like she has been a pro for 12-13 years so it was a long career for her.
Some basketball, football and baseball players probably view themselves the same way - playing "serious" ball since 9-10 years old.
I've got a cousin in Australia so if anyone needs my personal take on what Australians are feeling, let me know.
Joking aside, it was great to use our shared fondness for Ash to bond over time and distance.
Reasons it will become more common:
- You can earn a boatload of money early to live comfortably. The money just keeps getting bigger.
- The scrutiny keeps getting more intense with media and social media.
- Mental health and life balance are becoming not only accepted but celebrated and monetized.
- Lots of business and media opportunities available in retirement for successful athletes.
I still think the vast majority of hyper-competitive athletes will play until they are dragged off the field.
Shane Warne, Australian cricket star, just passed away at 52. This is roughly the equivalent of Kobe' passing, but with some added national pride as well. She played cricket for 2 years so understands that life as well. It's not too surprising if winning the Aussie Open, her impending marriage, and Warne's death made her rethink her priorities.
Life's short. Make your money , get out and enjoy it. I've worked with far too many people that work their whole lives and die 3 months after retirement.
More power to her. There are lots of things to do in this world. This article suggests that she ain't gonna unretire.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/sports/tennis/ashleigh-barty-retires.html
March 23rd, 2022 at 10:46 PM ^
Watching the occasional tennis match is a chore. I can't imagine what playing it every day must be like.
Good for her