Nick Kyrgios' brilliant response to Ash Barty retirement call

An admittedly "surprised" Nick Kyrgios has weighed in on Ash Barty's shock retirement, after putting the bombshell decision into brilliant perspective.

The tennis world is still coming to terms with the 25-year-old's decision to walk away from the sport as World No.1, having won the last grand slam at the Australian Open.

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Barty and her coach Craig Tyzzer fronted the media on Thursday to further explain the bombshell move, after the Aussie star's initial video message on social media 24 hours earlier.

Kyrgios - speaking after his first-round win against Adrian Mannarino at the Miami Open - suggested that while he didn't fully understand the decision, he respected Barty's right to go out on her own terms.

“[It is] incredible to be honest,” Kyrgios said about Barty's retirement.

“As soon as I saw the news I was surprised, obviously. I obviously have my thoughts on it, but it’s her life, so she can decide whatever she wants to do with it.

“She’s achieved much more than the majority in the tennis world, so I don’t think anyone can really tell her what to do. She wants to go chase another dream or build up on another part of her life, that’s her choice.”

Fellow Aussie tennis star Thanasi Kokkinakis has known Barty and her family for years, and agrees that the 25-year-old's achievements in tennis would make most players proud at the end of their careers.

“She’s done all there is to do in this sport. She deserves it,” Kokkinakis said.

“I know her agent very well, her family. Her dad always sends me messages whenever I’m doing well or succeeding, so he’s always been a great guy to me and they’ve been a great family. I wish her all the best for the future.

“The game’s going to miss her for sure. The only thing if I was her, I would have loved to have seen her do it after she won the Aussie Open on the mic, that would have been sick!

"She deserves everything. She’s a hell of a player. Who knows, I wouldn’t rule out her coming back and maybe playing again, but we’ll see.”

Ash Barty gives nothing away about future plans

Barty has already played professional cricket and is an accomplished golfer and high-profile fan of AFL club Richmond.

But the Queenslander, who lives close to the Brisbane Lions' new AFLW headquarters in Springfield, offered a smile, wink and a "you'll have to wait and see" when asked several times about what might be coming next.

Barty's coach admitted the writing was on the wall after the tennis star realised a childhood dream by winning the 2021 Wimbledon title, with Tyzzer revealing that her retirement didn't come as a shock at all.

Tyzzer even revealed that Barty had cheekily asked if she could retire after her 2019 French Open victory and noted that her limp Olympic singles campaign after Wimbledon last year had been telling.

"After (winning) Wimbledon that was an obvious goal for us and once she achieved it and once we got to the Olympics, it sort of hit home for me that there wasn't much left in her," he said.

"The motivation wasn't there, except when she played doubles with Storm (Sanders) and mixed with John Peers, her singles really went by the wayside.

"She wasn't fussed.

"So I felt that she had climbed where she needed to get to and it was going to be a hard slog to keep her involved."

He said marching to a breakthrough Australian Open title without dropping a set was only more remarkable given that mindset.

"Unbelievable. It was really difficult to do a pre-season for the lead-up to the Aussie summer circuit and she just put her head down and went super hard," he said.

"The hardest thing was trying to motivate her to get a spark to go, 'hey, you know, you need to be out there' because her tennis and her mindset, she was so relaxed and so easy going with it all, it was almost like she didn't care whether she won or lost.

"But she obviously did (but) I think the Australian summer was for everyone else and not for her."

with AAP

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