Barty’s mixture of crushing ground punches and sharp backhands that are as close to a perfect punch as can be made her unstoppable at times.
This has never been more evident than at the Australian Open in January – the venue where Barty won the last of three Grand Slam titles – where she went undefeated on her way to becoming the tournament’s first home champion since 1978. of the year.
With time on her side, the only question left immediately after her Australian Open victory was this: How many Grand Slams could she win?
Despite her success, Barty said she “had been thinking about retirement for a long time.” In fact, she admitted that her decision to retire was bolstered by her wins at the Australian Open and Wimbledon last year.
“Wimbledon last year changed a lot for me as a person and for me as an athlete,” Barty said in her retirement video. “When you work so hard all your life for one goal. To be able to win Wimbledon, which was my dream, the only real dream I wanted in tennis, it really changed my mind.”
Barty becomes the second woman in history to retire with a world number one spot, after Justine Henin in 2008, but this isn’t the first time she’s retired from the sport.
In 2014, four years into her tennis career, she took a 21-month hiatus at the age of 18, saying at the time that “it was too fast”.
The Australian has shown that her prodigious talents go beyond the court as she played professional cricket for the Brisbane Heat in the Women’s Big Bash League.
She also enjoys golf and is apparently pretty good at it too. In 2020, Barty won the Women’s Championship at Brookwater Golf Club near Brisbane and 15-time big winner Tiger Woods once reportedly called her a “great hit”.
“What’s next for you? Grand Slam golf champion?!” former World No. 1 tennis racket Simona Halep asked on Twitter..
The coronavirus pandemic during the 2021 tennis season created never-before-seen challenges as travel restrictions in Australia meant Barty could not return home for most of the year.
At the time, Barty won Wimbledon, but she realized that even in achieving her life goal, something was missing.
“After Wimbledon, I had this feeling and I talked a lot about it with my team,” she said. “There was only a small part of me that was not fully satisfied, not fully realized. In the second phase of my career, there was a shift in my point of view, and my happiness did not depend on the results.
There is no doubt that her presence in tennis will be greatly missed.
At a time when the careers of some of the greats of all time, such as the Williams sisters, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, are coming to an end, Barty has been at the forefront of the current group of stars eager to carry the sport forward.
But her departure opens the door for any number of players in the women’s game to bet on being the best in the world.
Iga Swiatek, the recent Indian Wells champion, is arguably the best fit for this and will be world No. 1 after Barty’s departure. The 20-year-old is already a major champion, winning the 2020 French Open and becoming the first Polish player in history to win a Grand Slam title.
Barty leaves tennis dominating on all surfaces, winning Wimbledon, the French Open and the Australian Open, as well as 15 career titles. She will no doubt be remembered as one of the most gifted players in the sport.
“I know how much work it takes to get the most out of myself,” Barty said. “I have said this to my team several times, I just don’t have it anymore.
“I no longer have the physical drive, emotional desire, and everything it takes to challenge myself at the very top of the level, and I just know that I am exhausted. I just know that physically I have nothing more to give. For me, that’s a success.”