Ash Barty's stunning decision to quit tennis at 25 and at the top of her game left the tennis world stunned but her coach Craig Tyzzer revealed the Australian was ready to bow out years ago just as her career was taking off. Barty, who walked away from the sport in late-2014 and came back in 2016, made her Grand Slam breakthrough at the French Open in 2019, a watershed moment in the Queenslander's career. Tyzzer told reporters in Brisbane on Thursday that he had prepared a speech for Barty about winning at Roland Garros, about "how profound this was going to be and what it meant to her". "The first thing she said to me was, 'Can I retire now?'" "I sort of went, 'Hang on, I'm not ready for that'."