Another one can't handle the pressure. World's #1 ranked female tennis player retires..... at age 25!

Screw all of you!

She has been a professional (essentially) since she was 15 years old traveling the world. This is not the glamorous lifestyle you think it is. Living out of a suitcase (even a very nice one) is not an easy thing to do.

There is more to it than "playing a game". There is conditioning, there is constant nutrition, there is the constant travel, there are idiots like a lot of you on message boards who have accomplished far less in your lives casting stones at her.

She wants to enjoy life and not be chasing titles around the world any more.

She has earned a tidy sum but out of that comes travel expenses along with paying for coaches, trainers, and the taxes are probably big. That said, she could live comfortably off the interest.

Maybe there is a difference in earning a million and being given a million. No one "gave" her anything. She earned it.

Totally cool. She worked her way to the top and wants something else. Best wishes to her for a happy life.

Not a lot of other jobs have millions watching you and often commenting on what you are doing while having little understanding of what you do. Few people even know who anyone on this board is. If any of us quit or job or even died tomorrow, about 2 dozen might care and maybe a few more would even notice. No one is starting a thread on a stupid message board about it.

I say good for them. I don’t know her career earnings but if she’s made a few million bucks then she can just have fun for the rest of her life.

What net worth would it take for you to retire?

What’s wrong with you, Boomer? If I could have amassed enough resources to retire at 25 I’d have done it in a heart beat.

Clearly this has tapped into your insecurities about what you’ve failed to accomplish.

Are you that much of an unimaginative bore that you need someone to tell you what to do to give your life purpose? Learn a new language, or how to play a instrument. Travel. Hell, train for a marathon.

Contrary to OP's thread title, there's no indication she can't "handle the pressure." She says she want's to pursue other dreams and spend time with her family. Seems like a sign of maturity and good mental health to me. Being a top-tier tennis player on the pro tour sounds glam, but for a lot of people it's a grind.

Also, she's retiring from playing professional tennis, not retiring altogether. She probably has other interests and life goals, including starting a family. My hunch is that maybe one of her parents or grandparents is dealing with a serious health issue and she wants to spend time with them too.

What looks like a dream job from the outside isn't always that great; and not everyone finds life in the public eye and on the road to be fulfilling, even when it's lucrative. Over the years, there have been several notable cases of musicians who played with top rock bands finding out that they didn't care for the life once the bands started to garner success. Graham Simpson left Roxy Music of his own volition after cutting the band's first album, which was a huge hit in the UK and Europe. The original guitarist with the Stooges decided he'd rather go back to college after Iggy and the band first made it big; he went into tech and became big in the microchip industry. One of the original members of the Clash left to pursue other things; I think he became a chiropractor. Doesn't mean any of 'em couldn't handle the pressure.

Me? Anonymous nobody? My target is $2.5 million by age 54 for myself and spouse. There is some conservatism in my projections so age 50 is not out of the question. Fingers crossed. If I could do life over again I'd be a software engineer and make the bigger bucks.

I strongly disagree. If you want proof, go look up her sponsor earnings compared to Osaka.

She wanted to win Wimbeldon. She held on to win a home grand slam. I don't think she once cared about the prize money involved in either of those events

Maybe she's just sick of f***ing playing tennis? It's not that hard. She's wealthy, had enough, and has the resources to move on. Good for her.

And, again, she DOESN'T GIVE A SH*T. Some people do, the ones who live/eat/breath their sport, some people don't. I am guessing she is not going to care one bit whether or not the 'casual viewer' knows about her.

And a family hatchback would beat Usain Bolt over 200m because a car is considerably faster...

The enjoyment comes from two people battling against each other. It puts bums on seats and cameras in the stadium - sponsors and money follow

Bjorn Borg retired at a similar age in the seventies though, didn't he?

It's better to burn out than to fade away

Voting is nice. OP got wrecked.

This is kind of a fascinating thread, though I'm heartened to see most posters don't share the OP's odd take.

I enjoy the contrast between this thread and the frequent threads bashing runners for *not* retiring sooner. The theme in those threads is that there's something selfish about running around in circles for personal satisfaction once you're an adult, instead of building a career and contributing to society. Barty, in contrast, has decided to stop playing games for a living, and has already had a successful enough career to never worry about financial stability. Damned if you do and damned if you don't, I guess.

I also enjoy the critiques of young athletes being "unable to handle it" from people who presumably have never managed to be good enough at anything to have tens of millions of people following their every move. Maybe there's a connection there. Instead of asking "why do they find it so hard?", you should ask "why do I find it so easy? and is that why I've never been ranked number one in the world?"