She comments, “I know now that all sport is mountain climbing.”
“We set our sights on a summit and plod towards that top, step by step” But what happens when we succeed and win the ultimate prize, such as the Grand Final, the World Cup, or Wimbledon? Do we pause, sit, take in the scenery, and breathe? Do we take the time to reflect on our accomplishments before moving on to something else?
In a passage from her upcoming autobiography, My Dream Time, Ash Barty discusses her shocking decision to retire from tennis while competing at the highest level of the game.
In the new book, Barty describes how, after winning Wimbledon in 2021, the ferocious drive that had made her a winner started to wane.
The three-time grand slam champion described an outburst at her manager Nikki Mathias’ home on the Gold Coast after she won Wimbledon in an excerpt that was published by The Courier-Mail on Friday night.
No. In sports, we just go back to base camp each year and start the process of trying to reach the summit again.
Barty elaborates in the book on how she overcome depressive episodes, self-doubt, and expectations from the Australian public to rise to the position of top female player in the world.
According to the book, she would sometimes “fall to pieces when it all became too much.”
She claims that after deciding to prematurely end her career, she became into a “robot,” and it was this mentality adjustment that helped her win the Australian Open earlier this year.
She reveals that after making her retirement announcement in March
which her team had miraculously managed to keep quiet, she received messages from well-known individuals like golfer Adam Scott, actor Hugh Jackman, the then-leader of the opposition Anthony Albanese, and the then-prime minister Scott Morrison.
She only answered one phone, that of Evonne Goolagong Cawley, a heroine and fellow Indigenous trailblazer.
Barty said that she cried a lot when writing her memoirs as she relived previously unrecorded tales about her three Grand Slam victories, including winning Wimbledon while carrying a 10 cm tear in her abdomen.
Writing about her small, close-knit family, the extreme loneliness she experienced while a youngster on tour, and her decision to give up tennis to play cricket also brought up painful memories.
Barty told News Corp, “I tried to keep it genuine and honest and not hide anything.”
Barty denied rumours that she planned to pursue a career in professional golf and stated she was satisfied with her life now that she was married to her partner Gary Kissick and lived in Springfield, Ipswich.
“The past six or seven months have been all I could have ever hoped for,” she writes. I’m content with how my life is right now.
Barty became the 14th highest-paid female player in history after winning US$23.8 million (AU$37.75 million) in prizes and receiving millions more in sponsorships.
According to Forbes, she earned US$3 million from endorsements the previous year and US$6.9 million in 2021, making her the eighth best paid female athlete.
The approximate amount of her career earnings is roughly US$53 million (AU$70 million).