Ash Barty

Women's world no 1 says she will always be connected to tennis but regrets nothing and is looking forward to time with family.

“That’s something that we’ll work on down the track.” “You have to wait and see,” she said. I can’t wait to get out there with young boys and young girls and contribute in different ways. “I’m not giving you everything right now. I’m a sport nut, like a lot of Australians are. “I love sport.

Osaka is just one of the reasons why the decision of French Open, Wimbledon and Australian Open champion and world number one Barty to walk away from tennis ...

She was ranked seventh in the world. Henin, like Barty, was 25 years old and also the world number one when she stopped. She was the Wimbledon junior champion at age 15 in 2011, then left the tour for nearly two years in 2014 because of burnout, overwhelmed by the pressure and travel. I made my dream a reality and it will stay with me forever,” she said. Clijsters was a dominant player by age 20 in 2003. “And because I love to play tennis so much, I went back too quickly after the injuries. All of the other teen Major winners – Graf, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Arantxa Vicario, Tracey Austin, Seles and Hingis – have been in their 17th or 18th years. Hingis broke Monica Seles’s record from seven years earlier at the 1990 French Open, which she won at 16 years 189 days. Now after the second departure her words, which seem to echo those of players who had left before, ring with certainty and finality. The following month, Osaka’s agent announced that she would not participate in the upcoming Wimbledon Championships. It was Osaka who announced at last year’s French Open that she would not conduct her mandatory media assignments. It was Ashleigh Barty and not Naomi Osaka.

Before winning her three grand slams, Barty had a stint as a professional cricketer – and she was a compete natural.

I’ve had a phenomenal career for the short time that I did play.” She has had little cause to regret that return. For someone to be able to step back in and play at the level she has after years out is pretty amazing.” She knew she was a bit jaded, a bit burnt out by the tennis and she needed freshening up.” She was the final wicket to fall – bowled by Sciver aiming for another maximum – as the Heat got to within 20 runs of their target. “She had told me she had played a little bit of backyard cricket growing up and the odd game for her school, so I wasn’t expecting too much. She had also become the youngest Australian to be selected for the country’s Fed Cup team since Jelena Dokic and she had won her first grand slam matches at Flushing Meadow and Roland Garros. Switching codes was a big call and not one that benefited her financially. A big reason for that was her insatiable appetite for hard work. Within a few weeks she was scoring a hundred for us.” “She’s very team-orientated and when she came in it was really like she was crying out for this team environment,” says Scott Prestwidge, assistant coach at the Heat. “She loved it. She did not know it at the time but Barty was embarking on a journey that would change her life. In 2013, Barty had reached doubles finals at the Australian Open, US Open and Wimbledon. The latter was a venue the Aussie teenager knew well, having won the tournament’s junior title as a 15-year-old in 2011. “She was watching a golf tournament on TV,” says Dave Richards, Barty’s former coach at Queensland Cricket. “She turned around and said: ‘I reckon I could have a go at that.’ She went out the following day and shot a round of 81.

Barty also hinted at a role with junior tennis in her home country, saying that “seeing the smiles” of the faces of younger players taking up the sport had ...

“I think she thoroughly deserves it. “I loved testing myself against her. “I know that if it is Iga, there is no better person. I loved playing her. She’s an incredible person, a great tennis player. “You guys love to whisper, don’t you?

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST: Back in January, Australian tennis fans got to celebrate a homegrown champion. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING).

WERTHEIM: It speaks to the strength of women's tennis and of women's sports that they create a star who feels comfortable and is sufficiently, you know, wealthy and satisfied that at age 25, she has the confidence and the sense of self to say, you know what? She ran her career on her own terms. She played on her own terms.

Barty shocked the sporting world by abruptly announcing her immediate retirement at the age of 25, despite being the number one ranked women's player.

Tennis is obviously the focus and cricket was a bit of fun, but golf for me is a hobby. Her talent for golf is obvious, and it is clear that the Aussie is more than capable of playing multiple sports on a professional career. However, it seems that any decision on that front will be made down the road, judging by what Barty said in her retirement announcement video.