Ash Barty opens up on her body insecurities

• Ash Barty has acknowledged that she struggled with body image issues
• Barty disliked the effect training would have on her body
• She would change in secret in most cases

Retired tennis player Ash Barty has acknowledged that she struggled with body image issues as a young player.

She spoke out in a bid to offer consolation to others who experience insecurities about their appearance. The Australian-born tennis star recalled having “huge concerns” about her image in her teens.

Barty disliked the effect training would have on her body. Being on tour alone even made it worse. Additionally, she would make negative comparisons to other players in her circle.

She often referred to them as stunning goddesses who made her hide and change in secret since the locker room is public. The reigning Australian Open champion captures all of this and more in her upcoming memoir, My Dream Time.

Speaking to News Corp about the memoir, Barty said that this is part of the sporting world that many young players got through. It remains valuable to her because it showed her the imperfections she must conquer and now encourages many others going through it.

Ash Barty. Photo by Women’s Health

“I went through that like a lot of people do and a big part of my passion now is to encourage girls and boys to be comfortable in themselves,” she states.

“It helped me realise that imperfections are part of all of us and they are ok. By sharing some of my insecurities, hopefully, it can help them realise a lot of people go through it.”

During the interview, she touches on an important subject which is her ‘abrupt’ retirement after the Australian Open.

She describes how, after winning Wimbledon in 2021, she lost the motivation to carry on. The former World No. 1 admitted that when she abruptly quit a workout session on an exercise bike a year ago, she felt there was a big problem with her drive.

She had never done that before and was aware that it was out of character. That was her first red flag which compounded her decision to retire.

Prior to the release of her memoir in November, Barty spoke with the Courier Mail and other News Corp Australia mastheads to share her experience.

When she announced her retirement from tennis in March 2022 at the age of 25, a slew of questions arose.  She told her fans that her retirement was to give way to pursue other interests in life.

The tennis champion added that she didn’t have the right time to retire, but after the Australian Open, she decided to quit for the second and final time.

Ashleigh Barty. Photo/HawtCelebs

Like many other athletes, a streak of losses was hugely affected, and she walked away in 2014.

According to her sisters, Barty had always been a person who would withdraw inside herself. However, no one was more surprised than her father Robert Barty when the once-promising tennis prodigy announced her retirement.

Still, there are a lot of factors that led her to retire, and she addresses them in My Dream Time. The memo also touches on her marriage to Garry and what she does with her tennis winnings.

For the first time, she also talks of players she dislikes.