What makes a champion suddenly quit at the peak of their powers?
Ask world No.1 women’s tennis star Ashleigh Barty.
At the age of just 25, the Aussie dropped a bombshell this week by announcing her retirement.
“Success for me is knowing that I’ve given absolutely everything, everything I can. I’m fulfilled, I’m happy and I know how much work it takes to bring the best out of yourself,” said the three-time Grand Slam winner.
“It’s just I don’t have that in me anymore. I don’t have the physical drive, the emotional want and everything it takes to challenge yourself at the very top level anymore.
“I think I just know that I’m absolutely spent. I know physically I had nothing more to give and that for me is success.”
Barty’s dream as a tennis player was to win Wimbledon and the Australian Open.
She ticked both boxes over the past year, mission accomplished, and felt there was nothing left for her to do in tennis.
What’s next? Anything really. She’s a national hero.
She’s also an ace cricketer and previously played for home team Brisbane Heat in the Women’s Big Bash League.
It’s sad news for tennis fans but fair play, mate, good on ya, or whatever they say Down Under.
Hearing Barty’s reasons for hanging up her racquet gives one renewed respect for fellow champions like Serena Williams (turned pro in 1995, 23 grand slams), Roger Federer (1998, 20 grand slams), Rafael Nadal (2001, 21 grand slams) and Novak Djokovic (2003, 20 grand slams).
It’s not only about the physical exertion, else Barty could have taken a year off to rest those weary joints and muscles.
It’s more than just the love of the game.
Being a champion is about the drive and determination to excel and challenge yourself against the best in the game.
It’s about the dream and desire to win and be the best on the world’s biggest stages.
It’s an incredible feat, sustaining that hunger for 20+ years.
Hats off to any champion of any sport who has achieved that level of success. That’s what legends are made of.
May they inspire many champions of tomorrow.
May they also rub off on our arme Proteas, who got bullied in their own backyard by Bangladesh this week.
Up until last week, the Tigers had never won an ODI match on South African soil, so they’ve done the unimaginable by clinching the series 2-1.
Coach Russell Domingo must be enjoying getting one over his old team, under Mark Boucher.
The Proteas had been on a high after whitewashing India in an ODI series at home, and then drawing a Test series away in New Zealand recently.
Boucher’s excuse was that the Proteas, who are ranked ninth in the ODI standings, buckled under the pressure making the top eight, which guarantees qualification for the 2023 World Cup.
The batsmen, in particular, crumbled in the face of the visitors’ spin bowling attack.
“We’ve been working on shots, shot selection and the guys know they have the armoury, it’s one thing to understand that they’ve got it but it’s another to go out and execute,” said Bouch.
“There seems to be a little bit of a block and a bit of fear or getting out rather than understanding the game is about runs...
“We have the skillset to do it. The belief set was not there in that it’s the right way to play against that type of bowling.
“Maybe the fear of failure was thinking we are going to get out to it, when it is actually the right way to play.”
Sorry to say, but that’s spoken like a true choker.
Fear of failure will never inspire a player to be a champion. Only the desire for greatness will.
A member of an under-achieving crop of Proteas himself, Boucher needs to somehow change his own mentality before he can prime his team to be winners.
taariq.halim@inl.co.za