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Originally Posted by cephasjames
Ashleigh Barty retires: Simona Halep, Andy Murray, others react to world No. 1 leaving tennis at age 25
This may or may not be lumped in with those athletes who have recently taken a step back or what-have-you over mental health concerns, but there seems to be an interesting trend of younger athletes (maybe there are stories of older athletes who are doing this as well but I haven't seen them come across the wire) taking a step back or away from the higher levels of sports. It has me wondering why? Is it athletes wising up to the challenges of being a high-level athlete? Is it a younger generation that isn't used to the strain and adversary of being a high-level athlete? Is it a little bit of both? Or some other reason?
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As someone else noted, she's retired before, and has had a slew of injury issues in the past year or so. She famously spent 6+ months traveling with her entourage to play last year, not returning home at all, due to AUS travel restrictions. So yeah: injury, burnout, fatigue, all of the above.
Tennis is one of those sports that's become nearly year-round now, so it won't be surprising to see more athletes retiring at younger ages for the same reason(s) as Barty.
(On a side note, we've been really spoiled in men's tennis with the Djokovic/Nadal/Federer trifecta. Who knows how the game will evolve, but I'd not be shocked at all if we don't see any of the current generations step up and even begin to approach that kind of dominance. I think we're re-entering an era where someone with 3-5 majors will be considered an "all-timer" again, for various reasons.)