Barty had the game to be the best: Nirupama

Ashleigh Barty has left many wondering how far she could have gone and what sort of dominance she could have established in women's tennis. A winner of three Grand Slams on three different surfaces, a unique and rare achievement in itself, Barty won 15 singles and 14 doubles titles since turning pro in 2010 -- the most by any player in that period. Her reign as the World No.

1 for 121 weeks is the seventh longest in women's tennis history and her record of 114 consecutive weeks at the top is the fourth longest -- behind Steffi Graf & Serena Williams (186) and Martina Navratilova (156). All this, at the age of 25! Former India player and Olympian Nirupama Sanjeev believes Barty "had the game to be the best" but whether she could have heralded a new era of dominance was subject to the vagaries of sport. "(I was) very surprised at her announcement.

Though, I guess you think about it in hindsight and since she was missing in action since the Australian Open, something must've been brewing," Nirupama said of her first thoughts on Barty's decision to hang up her boots. "She clearly had the game to be the best. She could hit every shot in the book, she had the mental focus, and I can't think of a weakness in her game.

But I have a theory about the most talented people in the world," the first Indian woman to win a Grand Slam match continued. "Things come so easy for them, that they don't understand what it takes for regular people to achieve certain things. Ash Barty could quit tennis at 17 and come back a few years later and be No.

1 for a year or two. "She is definitely not a 'normal' tennis player, she belongs in the talented category. It's hard to keep these kinds of players engaged and single focussed." The 45-year-old US