Ash Barty retirement: The world No.1’s grace and humility contrasted with the ego and arrogance of many of her peers

It can go to another level in the locker room. Some players will demand extra space so their rivals will have to shift around to accommodate them. Others use intimidating body language to try and get into the minds of their opponents.

Ash Barty? She doesn’t care about this crap.

She’s been No. 1 in the world for three years straight, has won three grand slams and carried herself with nothing but grace and positivity throughout. There are people in the game with 1% of her achievements who have more strut and swagger. To have been so unaffected by the money and the ego of the tennis circuit all these years has been refreshing and, frankly, beautiful to see.

I’ve written before how much respect I have for the way Ash carries herself on and off the court.

That has gone to another level today.

Let’s pause for a minute to consider what she is walking away from.

The WTA website lists her career earnings at $23,829,071.

This year alone, she has won $2,289,320. And it’s only March.

Ash is 25 and in her absolute physical and mental prime (she’s 11-0 this year, in case there was any doubt). By the most conservative of measures, she might have expected to double those career earnings. And this is just prizemoney we’re talking here. Endorsements, sponsorships, media deals could double that again.

Could she have won the US Open to complete the set of majors? Absolutely.

Would she have won more grand slams? No doubt.

How long could she have stayed No. 1? Years!

She left it all on the table today.

Content. Fulfilled. Ready for the next chapter.

I don’t imagine she will be asking herself those questions, by the way. That will be left to us. The pursuit of accolades and money has never been her thing. No matter what rank she attained, no matter how many tournaments she won, she never, ever changed as a person.

She achieved what she wanted to. She leaves on her terms.

How can you not be inspired by that?

I listened to her chat with Casey Dellacqua today and she mentioned that her biggest goal was winning Wimbledon. Many – most? – players upon reaching their objective would immediately recalibrate and set their sights higher. “Let’s win it two times, maybe three, why not four?” But Ash knows more is not always better. It’s the rarest of perspectives in elite sport. She has obviously reached a beautiful point in her life.

Being at the Australian Open this year is something I’ll always treasure. The pressure on her throughout the build-up, the tournament itself and the final were immense. A home grand slam presents many challenges and, as we’ve seen through the years, it can become a crushing burden.

Ash? I’ve never seen a player handle all that better.

I’m sure she felt the pressure all around her – how could you not? – but it never once showed on the court or around Melbourne Park.

Were she like many of her peers, the next you would have seen of her would’ve been via a selfie posted to Instagram, trophy in hand, on a private jet flying off somewhere. Ash’s next act, though, was to take the trophy to the centre of Australia to share it with the Indigenous kids of the Northern Territory; kids who ordinarily couldn’t have dreamt of getting that close to

Amazing.

She has been the perfect representative for tennis, for the nation, for the gratitude and humility we should all possess in our every day lives. And she has inspired millions. Not just women and girls, mind you. It’s been reported that her Australian Open heroics have inspired many new kids, boys and girls, to pick up a racquet and give tennis a go. After a tough couple of years for society, she has given us all a reason to smile.

One of the aspects I’ve always admired about Ash is that she reached the summit without being blessed with incredible physical traits. Usually when you think of a No. 1 – and I’m talking the Williams sisters, Steffi, Sharapova, Henin and the like – you think of players with big games, power, presence. Ash wasn’t like that. She built herself to be strong, she worked on her mental game, and, through years of training and toil, she made herself into the female version of Roger Federer in terms of her court movement and all-round game.

All of that was hard earned. None of it was given.

She also showed the world you don’t have to be up in people’s faces to be dominant. It is possible to carry yourself with grace and still reach the top. Can you name me a single time Ash complained about something? Or told a chair umpire off? Or smashed a racquet and carried on like a big shot? Of course you can’t. It never happened.

I hope more players take a leaf out of her book. Tennis will be a better place if they do.

I know plenty of players who don’t love tennis but have kept holding on to try and squeeze a few more million out of the game. In some cases, it’s almost as if the more they earned, the more they complained. Ash, though, has clearly reached a stage in her life where she feels she has enough and is grateful for it. She could push for more, but doesn’t feel the need. I can’t think of another player in my lifetime who has walked away at their absolute peak like Ash did yesterday. It takes incredible self-awareness and strength to do that.

Tennis has been blessed through the years with a lot of wonderful No. 1’s, but none have been as down to earth or approachable as Ash. She will go down as one of the greatest players this country has ever produced, and up there with the most loved.

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Australians will miss her. So, too, will tennis lovers the world over. Her opponents? They’ll be breathing a huge sigh of relief. It’s not unrealistic to think Ash might have dominated them for years to come.

Today, they wake up to a very different tennis world. We all do.

Thanks for the memories, Ash.