Ash Barty details the moment she decided to QUIT tennis forever in her new book My Dream Time
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Ash Barty reveals why she REALLY decided to quit tennis in her new book – as the tennis champion explains that she struggled with depression, ‘fell to pieces’… and felt like she had become a tennis robot
- Ash Barty Reveals Reasons Behind Her Early Retirement in New Autobiography
- My Dream Time describes her lack of inspiration after she won Wimbledon in 2021
- I think I’m done…I’ve got nothing left, no spark,” she told a training partner
- Barty also discusses depression and expectations that sometimes derailed her
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Ash Barty is candid about her shocking decision to retire from tennis while at the top of the sport in an excerpt from her upcoming autobiography, My Dream Time.
In the new book, Barty reveals how the fierce desire that had made her a champion began to wane after she won Wimbledon in 2021.
In an excerpt published by The courier post on Friday night, the three-time grand slam champion recalled a moment of anger at her manager Nikki Mathias’s Gold Coast home after winning Wimbledon.
‘I don’t know what I’m playing for anymore. I think I’m done… I’ve got nothing left, no spark,” Barty said to Ben Mathias, Nikki’s husband and Barty’s training partner.
She admits that after winning the one title she’d always dreamed of since she started the sport, the thought of more training and touring felt “pointless.”
After winning Wimbledon in 2021, Ash Barty said the thought of more training and touring felt “pointless”. Pictured, winning the 2018 WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai in China
‘I don’t know what I’m playing for anymore. I think I’m done… I’ve got nothing, no spark,” Barty told Ben Mathias, her training partner. Pictured, the cover of her new autobiography, My Dream Time
“I see now that all sports are mountaineering,” she writes.
“We aim for a peak and trudge step by step to that summit… But what do we do when we reach the top – when we finally win our grand final or our World Cup or our Wimbledon? Stop, sit, enjoy the view and breathe? Do we take the time to appreciate what we’ve done and move on to something new?
‘No. In sports, every year we just return to base camp and start the journey to try and get to the top again.”
In the book, Barty goes into detail about how she overcame periods of depression, self-doubt and the Australian public’s expectation to become the number one female player in the world.
At times, she would “(fall) broken every now and then if it all got too much for you,” according to the book.
Barty said she was determined not to make a comeback and Scots rumors she is planning a career in professional golf.
She writes that after making the decision to end her career she became ‘robotic’… and it was this change in attitude that led to her historic Australian Open win against Danielle Collins earlier this year.
After announcing her retirement decision in March that her team had been remarkably silent, she reveals that she has received messages from high-profile names including golfer Adam Scott, actor Hugh Jackman, then opposition leader Anthony Albanese and then Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
But she only took one call – from fellow Indigenous pioneer and hero Evonne Goolagong Cawley.
Barty said she was determined not to make a comeback and also scots rumors that she is planning a career in professional golf.
“The last six or seven months of my life have been all I’ve ever wanted,” she writes. “I like the way my life is right now.”
My Dream Time: A Memoir Of Tennis & Teamwork by Ash Barty will be released November 2.