John McEnroe feels the women’s game and Iga Swiatek would both benefit from having Ashleigh Barty active. Last March, Barty announced a shock retirement at the age of 25. At the time of her retirement, Barty was the top-ranked player in the world and fresh off two Grand Slam wins.
Since Barty’s retirement, Swiatek has established herself as the best and most dominant player in the game and she doesn’t really have a great rival. Many regret Barty’s early retirement since she and Swiatek would have probably formed the next great WTA rivalry.
Also, some fear that without competition, Swiatek may struggle to motivate herself to improve her game.
McEnroe on why Barty’s retirement could hurt Swiatek
In a conversation with Eurosport’s Reem Abulleil, McEnroe explained why it would be better for Swiatek to have Barty active.
“I think when Ash Barty retired that obviously sent shockwaves because here is a young woman at 25 that had come off winning Wimbledon, then winning the Australian Open and you think ‘Ok she’s going to the US Open in the next year and it’s just a matter of time’
Obviously, I hope she’s happy, you never want to see someone walk away from it that young because then you’re like ‘what’s wrong with the women’s game that the No. 1 player walked away from the game aged 25’? We had that issue too because my buddy and my rival Bjorn Borg walked away and never played a major after 25.
It would hurt me, and my career, I believe. Just not having that rival, I believe it hurts the sport, and there’s reasons that we can’t get into, there are a lot of reasons, there’s never one reason, and there’s no one for Ash Barty either, but hopefully everyone will look at things to make sure that these women on the tour are being taken care of to the best of their ability so they feel as comfortable as possible doing their thing,” McEnroe said.
