While Ashleigh Barty announced the end of her career as a professional player at the start of the week, the reactions are multiplying, including that of the consultant for Eurosport Mats Willander. According to him, this decision once again demonstrates how completely apart the greatest champions of this sport are.
“We just have to realize that players like Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are sort of monsters. They never, ever have enough. Their priority is always to play tennis and improve. And I think for Ash Barty, his priorities have changed. And I’ll tell you the other part of my answer, which I think is more important: being a professional tennis player for the last two and a half years of Covid, having to stay in quarantine, having to make the decision like she did last year, which is to leave Australia for six, seven months in a row can kill your enthusiasm for anything in this life. The world is not the same today as it was in 2019, when she won her first Grand Slam. After that, she reached the number one place in the world, she won Wimbledon. I mean the world is upside down and maybe she realized it: ‘Okay, I have more important things to do than swing a racket and win tennis matches.’ »
Posted on Saturday, March 26, 2022 at 4:16 PM
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