2024 Off-Topic Chat Thread - time for a title update šŸ˜

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My Tilly

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Pretty shocking news.
Such a great player and arguably Australia's finest tennis player we have produced for a long time.

Hopefully nothing more to this and she is just burnt out.

Damn, real shame. At 25 years of age, she had another decade of grand slams and potentially pocketing well over 100 million dollars so it's a real head scratcher.
Always disappointing to see generational talent leave the sport well before their time :(
 

standupand

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Sep 27, 2019
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Pretty shocking news.
Such a great player and arguably Australia's finest tennis player we have produced for a long time.

Hopefully nothing more to this and she is just burnt out.

Damn, real shame. At 25 years of age, she had another decade of grand slams and potentially pocketing well over 100 million dollars so it's a real head scratcher.
Always disappointing to see generational talent leave the sport well before their time :(
Yeah, I'm shocked too. I actually thought she would set herself up for a really sustained period of success. On top of her game, on top of the rankings and a really healthy attitude to the sport. It makes you wonder about the kind of pressure elite sport places on people.
 

My Tilly

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Yeah, I'm shocked too. I actually thought she would set herself up for a really sustained period of success. On top of her game, on top of the rankings and a really healthy attitude to the sport. It makes you wonder about the kind of pressure elite sport places on people.

Perhaps this is when you also need the best team around you?
Not saying her team right now is to blame but the very best are able to mix it up and make it not only your everyday job but also a hobby and one you can grind through and commit to for all of your sporting years.

It sounds like she was getting tired of it all.

Maybe she will change her mind in the coming months?
 
Ignoring the obvious internet trolling with the odd individual saying she'll regret this, when I've had a chance to check twitter updates, I'm yet to read anything negative about Ash

It's clear how much she is loved and respected by basically everyone - whether it's her fellow competitors on the WTA circuit, the male tennis players sharing their words, commentators & journalists, non-tennis folk, those from other sporting fields, or whatever and then the everyday person

She is one person I just don't ever recall hearing a bad word about, and the universal love for her is apparent
 
Perhaps this is when you also need the best team around you?
Not saying her team right now is to blame but the very best are able to mix it up and make it not only your everyday job but also a hobby and one you can grind through and commit to for all of your sporting years.

It sounds like she was getting tired of it all.

Maybe she will change her mind in the coming months?

Or could it be as simple as moving to the next stage of her life?

She's won Wimbledon and the Aus Open which was her childhood dream, she's recently engaged and maybe she decided that now was a good time to go out while she's on top and look at what's next

Or it's about looking for the next challenge & we'll soon she her as the #1 golfer in the world
 

standupand

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Perhaps this is when you also need the best team around you?
Not saying her team right now is to blame but the very best are able to mix it up and make it not only your everyday job but also a hobby and one you can grind through and commit to for all of your sporting years.

It sounds like she was getting tired of it all.

Maybe she will change her mind in the coming months?
She had a pretty good team around her I thought. I don't know. I feel like the top players often have a kind of obsessive streak to their personality. She doesn't and it's what makes her so relatable.
 

My Tilly

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Or could it be as simple as moving to the next stage of her life?

She's won Wimbledon and the Aus Open which was her childhood dream, she's recently engaged and maybe she decided that now was a good time to go out while she's on top and look at what's next

Or it's about looking for the next challenge & we'll soon she her as the #1 golfer in the world

I guess.
As standupand implied, the top players, those who become the greatest of them all, they have a very strange obsessive nature.

I don't think she was truly tested on the tennis stage like many other greats have before her. Serena Williams was at the end of her reign on women's tennis when Barty was dominant as the number one player in the world.

News is speculating she may indeed try golf. That would be something worth watching if she gave it a go. Ratings would really spike so can definitely see her trying that sport.
No way she goes and play AFLW when she can be making millions in golf instead.
 
I guess.
As standupand implied, the top players, those who become the greatest of them all, they have a very strange obsessive nature.

I don't think she was truly tested on the tennis stage like many other greats have before her. Serena Williams was at the end of her reign on women's tennis when Barty was dominant as the number one player in the world.

News is speculating she may indeed try golf. That would be something worth watching if she gave it a go. Ratings would really spike so can definitely see her trying that sport.
No way she goes and play AFLW when she can be making millions in golf instead.

I know some want her to go back to cricket, with some speculation there will be AFLW teams trying to encourage her to head in that direction

In terms of golf - seems she already goes ok & has previously won a gold tournament, the following is from Australian Golf Digest Feb 2021

While the coronavirus pandemic may have ended Bartyā€™s dreams of defending the French Open title she famously claimed in 2019, it only enhanced her drive to compete. The unfortunate victims of this winning mentality? The poor folk competing in Brookwater Golf & Country Clubā€™s annual championships. Barty spent her extended ā€œoff seasonā€ bashing golf balls with golf-pro partner Garry Kissick, and was rewarded for her efforts by slicing her handicap from 10 to 4, and winning the womenā€™s club championship at the Greg Norman/Bob Harrison-designed course 40 minutes from Brisbaneā€™s CBD. It was yet more silverware for this multi-talented athlete, who remains as humble as the day she was born.


Take time away from the tennis court during a pandemic and do the above instead - if she switched her mind to golf & made that her focus, it could be interesting to see the results

 

Phipppppa

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Jan 8, 2022
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A few months ago I got into watching the tennis thanks to Shell and a few other users on here, watching ā€œAsh Barryā€ was such great fun.

Real good fun, a legend of the game and made a pretty funny gag when I misspelled her last name on here one night.

Thanks Ash ā€œBarryā€ Barty.
 
I caught part of an interview with Pat Rafter with him talking about her retirement and discussions he'd been having with her - what I found really interesting was that he had expected she would actually retire after Wimbledon last year and was surprised when she continued on to play the Aussie summer

That would lend weight to the idea this isn't something new or recent in thinking, but instead something that had been in the planning
 
Or could it be as simple as moving to the next stage of her life?

She's won Wimbledon and the Aus Open which was her childhood dream, she's recently engaged and maybe she decided that now was a good time to go out while she's on top and look at what's next

Or it's about looking for the next challenge & we'll soon she her as the #1 golfer in the world

Maybe she'll be playing for Richmond in the AFLW in the not too distant future...
 
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