Yesterday, Barty, an Australian player who is now the world number one in women's tennis and has just won the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, suddenly announced his retirement on social media. Since Barty, who was born in 1996, is only 25 years old, retiring at such a golden age for athletes who are at the peak of their bodies cannot help but shock many people.
As for the reasons for retirement, Barty mentioned in an interview with her friend Dracquall that Wimbledon was her dream since childhood, and after winning the Wimbledon championship last year, her dream came true and she had plans to retire. After getting the Australian Open this year, she felt that she did not have any regrets to let herself stay nostalgic.
Barty has won three Grand Slam titles in her career, the 2019 French Open, the 2021 Wimbledon and the 2022 Australian Open, and she has 121 weeks to go in the world's number one position, including the year-end first place in three consecutive seasons in 19-21.
However, in the eyes of the public, Barty's career seems to have many shortcomings, such as not yet achieving a Grand Slam, not winning an Olympic gold medal, and a number of women's legends to create a record waiting for her to break. That's why people feel sorry for her.
Even the examples of Henin and Christels will prove that Barty is likely to return after this impulsive decision. By then she may regret missing out on some opportunities to expand her achievements. Just like many fans lament that Serena Williams was not attentive enough to his career when he was young, and he was nostalgic for the world of flowers and flowers outside the field, otherwise he would not have been able to seek the last step in the first person in the history of creating 24 Grand Slams.
But this regret is all based on the same value, that is, tennis players should regard tennis as their noble cause, and career is the most important thing for a person. It is higher than your interests, hobbies, enjoyment, and even higher than family, friendship, and love.
The Big Three are the highest standards in this value system, burning all their youth, pouring themselves into this lifelong pursuit of the cause, constantly challenging their limits. This is, of course, the embodiment of the noble spirit of sportsmanship with which we are most familiar.
But sometimes you feel that they are stuck in this value system and cannot get out. Just like this so-called GOAT battle, these three "old men" have to persist until all the potential of the body is exhausted, and then they reluctantly leave.
However, most people see more of what they gain and less of what they lose. When you watch them endure the pain of their bodies and persist on the court, when they lose the simple and ordinary happiness of normal people because of self-discipline, when they are far away from their families and have been wandering alone for many years, imagine if they are really suffering from such torture, we have ten thousand reasons to choose to stop.
In fact, every such disaster of heaven and man will remind us that life is too short, we can't taste all the beauty of this world, we really should ask our hearts, what is what we want most, not just conform to this era, society, other people's values to live this life.
Life is only a few short decades, some people fully explore its depth, and some people can expand its width. Barty can be seen as the latter.
Even I think a lot of young players are like this now, they don't seem to have enough self-discipline and hard work, and they are considered to be wasting their talents. But it is likely that they did not love tennis so much in the first place, tennis is just a job for him, why would he give everything for a job and sacrifice other happiness in life?
I don't know if this represents a change in the human social order given by the times, just like the younger post-00s around us seem to have changed their values for work and life silently.
Maybe we still insist that the values presented in the last era are the best, but the future is indeed up to these young people to decide for themselves. Even throughout history, all the meanings we hold on to now may be lost.
Life has no meaning in the first place, and all meaning is given to itself and self-realization logically self-consistent. So everyone's choice now is what he wants most at this moment. Of course, people's values will also change, and maybe Barty will regret it in the future, but now she really doesn't need tennis, which is the best decision for her now.
So let's look forward to Barty opening a new life with full of envy and blessings!