Tennis can be a brutal sport, and there are several cases of great stars who have admitted that they never really enjoyed playing, such as Marat Safin and Andre Agassi. However, it is still rare when a young athlete at their peak decides to leave. That’s the case of Ashleigh Barty, who after winning three Grand Slams titles, became World No. 1 and even being compared to Roger Federer, chose to leave tennis at only 25 years old.
Barty, born in 1996, was one of the best tennis players of her generation. As a juniors, she reached the world No. 2 and won the 2011 Wimbledon girls’ singles title, when she was 15 years old. However, that moment would define her early career.
“Come that handshake, I think everything hit me pretty quickly,” she told The New York Times in 2018. “It was probably one of the best moments and one of the worst moments of my career, in the sense that it was a big factor when the pressure and everything changed,” she said.
After winning as a junior, she took a two-year break from the sport due to the pressure that she felt. “I think if you’re ready to accept that, and embrace it, and learn to deal with it, it can help you. But for me, I wasn’t ready to do that,” she explained to the paper.
Eventually, Barty found her way back to the sport, and she dominated like any other player since Serena Williams. Due to her solid serve and capability of playing on all surfaces, she was compared to some of the biggest talents, such as Federer. And, she is also, in an exclusive club, which also includes the Swiss legend.