World number one Ashleigh Barty is retiring. What was her career like?

Australian tennis player Ashleigh Barty ends her successful tennis career. The world number one has announced her end on the courts, concluding her journey at the age of 25. What has her career been like?

She started her professional career in 2010, since then she has gained a lot of success. However, in 2014, she took a break from her career and took up cricket professionally. In 2015, she signed a contract with the Brisbane Heat and returned to tennis in February 2016.

The comeback was not easy, but the player handled it the best she could. Her return to the courts was often spoiled by Czech players. In 2017, the Australian lost the final of a tournament in Birmingham to Petra Kvitova, who was also returning to the tennis courts after a robbery in her Prostejov apartment the previous December.

She did well at Roland Garros 2019. She reached the final, where she faced Czech Marketa Vondrousova, whom she beat 2-0 in sets to win her first Grand Slam title. A month later, she became the world number one, the second Australian in history after Evonne Golagong.

At the end of the season, she qualified as the highest seed for the Champions Tournament in Singapore, which is for the top 8 players in the WTA rankings. She participated in the red group and advanced from the first place.

She played 3 matches in the group with a record of 2 wins and 1 loss and advanced to the semi-finals. In the first match she defeated Czech Petra Kvitova, but in the next match she was not able to beat Dutch Kiki Bertens. However, it was her only loss in the tournament, which meant she won the trophy.

In the 2021 season, she fulfilled her dream by putting in a great performance at the All England Club. She thrived on the Wimbledon grass and faced former world number one Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in the final, beating her 2-1 in sets to win her second and most valuable Grand Slam title of her career.

When she returned to tennis in 2016, journalists asked her what her dream was. She replied to win Wimbledon and now it has come true. She is a great tennis player who works hard and knows what she wants, she is confident. She has a style of play that is quite uncomfortable for all her opponents.

In January 2022, she competed in the first Grand Slam of the season, the Australian Open. She played as the No. 1 player in the tournament and did not face any top 10 players. In the final, she defeated the 27th seeded American Danielle Rose Collins.

The second set had to be decided by a tiebreak, in which the home toy dominated, winning 2: 0 in sets and winning her third Grand Slam title. After 44 years, the Australian Open was once again won by a local tennis player.

In March 2022, she announced that she was retiring from her professional career at the age of 25. This decision surprised many fans and tennis players, as she was expected to have a long career. If she had won the US Open, she would have won a fourth career Grand Slam, which her compatriot Margaret Court did in 1963 when she won Wimbledon.

Other female athletes are in the same boat as Barty. German biathlon stars Magdalena Neuner and Laura Dahlmeier capped their careers at 25. They finished on top at a time when they had won everything they could. They were in form and expected to gain a lot more success, but they decided to finish on top.

But there are athletes who can’t imagine life after their careers. One such athlete is former Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjorndalen. Then there are the tennis players Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

The famous Wiliams sisters have been on the circuit for 25 years. Serena is 40, her sister Venus 41. Serena’s career has not been complicated by the birth of her daughter Alexis Olympia. Jaromir Jagr, the most successful European in NHL scoring, is still playing in Czech hockey at the age of 50.

Source:: WTA, Wikipedia