Retiring at just 25, Ash Barty says she is ready to chase new dreams

Barty encapsulated the best of tennis. The sport's most flattering adjective. In a one-dimensional era, where power has purchase and flair is only loose change, Barty - with more variety in her game than colours in an artist's palette was its sterling centre-piece. Her signature sliced backhand opened the court and shut out opponents, the forehand, a shot that hollered precision, rivalled only her serve that cut through the air with the decisive quality of a switchblade.

Barty, whose current reign at No. 1 stands at 114 consecutive weeks, on Wednesday announced that it was time to put away her Head Graphene sticks. She's just 25 years of age. In an emotional video on Instagram, Barty - the owner of a piercing stare and a firm handshake -said she was ready to chase new dreams.

The amiable Aussie is the first player to retire from the sport while at the top of the singles ranking since Belgium's Justine Henin in 2008, who was also weeks shy of her 26th birthday at the time. Henin, however, returned to the Tour two years later. Barty, 5 ft 5' in her tennis shoes, is a three-time major champion. She pointed at the high points of her career, coming as they did in the second phase of a stretch that wasn't without interruptions, as pivotal. Notably last year's Wimbledon crown, which at the time she described as a magical moment even if the experience didn't complete her in a fashion she expected it too.

"Wimbledon was the one true dream I had in tennis," Barty outlined in the video post. "There was a little part of me that wasn't quite satisfied, wasn't quite fulfilled. There was a perspective shift in me in this second phase of my career that my happiness wasn't dependent on results." This is not the first time that Barty