Former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova admitted she was in disbelief and shock when one of her friends texted her saying Ashleigh Barty was retiring from tennis.Ā
In late March, Barty announced she was retiring from tennis at the age of 25.Ā
Barty, who started the 2022 season with 11 consecutive wins and victories at the Adelaide International and Australian Open, admitted simply didn’t have it anymore.Ā
Last summer, Barty achieved her childhood dream of winning Wimbledon.
in the Wimbledon final, Barty defeated Pliskova in three sets.Ā
After announcing retirement, Barty admitted her motivation started to decline after she won Wimbledon.Ā
Pliskova on Barty retiringĀ
“I was shocked because I’m not really on Twitter because I don’t want to get too much information for myself,” Pliskova told WTA Insider. “But somebody messaged me and said, ‘Oh, did you see the news?’ It was 11:00 in the evening in Miami. I was like, ‘No, no, did somebody cry again or something?’ They said, ‘No, no, Ashleigh, she stopped.’ I’m like, ‘No way, that’s not possible. Tell me the reason.’
“I understand everybody’s different. For me, it’s not understandable at all because I just like the game so much. But I understand somebody maybe suffers, somebody doesn’t like to travel. She basically won everything that she wanted to win, I suppose maybe she had no motivation. If you hate this tennis life and it’s not what you always wanted to do, I think it’s good to stop.Ā
“But I was surprised and shocked. I thought she was a really good number one for our sport and she was there for a while. Of course now, Iga is a really good player, but I just thought Ashleigh was a good person and she had good charisma. I’m going to miss her.Ā
“But you never know. I think maybe she’s going to come back. And then she’s just going to be 27.”