Karolina Pliskova says she can’t relate to
Ashleigh Barty’s retirement from tennis as she “likes the game so much” – and thinks the Australian could return to the sport.
Barty shocked the tennis world last month when she announced her decision to retire at the age of 25, saying she no longer had the “physical drive and emotional want” to compete at the top level. Pliskova who lost to Barty in last year's Wimbledon final spoke about it with the WTA saying:
"I understand everybody's different. For me, it's not understandable at all because I just like the game so much. But I understand somebody maybe suffers, somebody doesn't like to travel. She basically won everything that she wanted to win, I suppose maybe she had no motivation. If you hate this tennis life and it's not what you always wanted to do, I think it's good to stop."
She further said:
“But I was surprised and shocked. I thought she was a really good No.1 for our sport and she was there for a while. Of course, now Iga [Swiatek, new world No.1] is a really good player, but I just thought Ashleigh was a good person and she had good charisma. I'm going to miss her. But you never know. I think maybe she's going to come back. And then she's just going to be 27.”
Asked about her own conditions after the injury she said:
“I feel good. I have to say the wrist is quite holding up. I didn't really expect it because I didn't really practice fully. I would normally practise for a month but I just had a couple of days of really good practice before coming to Indian Wells. The serve was the biggest issue. But yeah, I think things are going quite well."