Mats Wilander has had his say after Ashleigh Barty made a shock announcement that she will retire from professional tennis at the age of just 25.
The seven-time Grand Slam winner says that – contrary to other top professionals – a love of the game had led to Barty becoming a professional, and a change in priorities following the hardships of the Covid-19 pandemic may have influenced her decision to retire from the game at the age of 25.
“I think for me, Ash Barty represents sports more than she represents tennis,” began Wilander. “She represents sports.
“I think she was introduced to sports at a very young age and she was having fun doing sports, playing sports.
“And I think she played for the enjoyment of the sport rather than it becoming a job. And I think the difference is that a lot of players on tour, they are basically put in the tennis camp by their parents. Then they are doing pretty well and then they are moved to a tennis academy. And the goal is always to be a professional player.
“When I look at Ash Barty, I don’t think there were many goals, in the beginning of her sports career, except it’s really good for your mind and your health and your body to do sports. So I think she played tennis for the love of the game. And when it’s for the love of the game, there is a chance that you lose interest at some point, just like other hobbies in life.”
And Wilander adds that the ferocious appetite for success of Roger Federer, Serena and Venus Williams, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic represents the exception, not the rule, and makes them ‘kind of freaks’.
“We just have to realise that players like Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, these players are kind of freaks,” added Wilander.
“They just never, ever get enough. And their priority is always tennis and becoming better. And I think for Ash Barty, her priorities have changed.”
Contributing to this change in priorities posits Wilander may have been the Covid-19 pandemic.
“And I’m going to tell you the other part of my answer, which I think is more important: to be a professional tennis player during the last two and a half years of Covid, of having to sit in quarantine, of having to make the decision like she did last year, which is leave Australia for six, seven months in a row, that could kill your enthusiasm for anything in this life,” added Wilander.
“The world is not the same place today as it was in 2019 when she won her first Grand Slam. After that, she reached number one. She won Wimbledon. I mean the world is upside down and maybe she realised that: ‘Okay, I have more important things to do than swing a racket around and win tennis matches.’”
