Ashleigh Barty's retirement 'not understandable' to Karolina Pliskova but suggests Australian may return

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. Ad/> Barty won her second Grand Slam title at the Australian Open earlier this year and is the second player to retire while holding the world No.1 ranking after Justine Henin.

TennisClay power rankings: Who can topple Swiatek, Djokovic?YESTERDAY AT 09:06 However, Henin returned to the tour a few years after retiring and former world No.1 Pliskova thinks Barty, who beat her in last year's Wimbledon final, may also be back. “I understand everybody's different,” she told the WTA. “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.

“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.