Ash Barty retirement tipped to cost tennis Australia millions in TV rights

Tennis is set to lose millions in potential earnings after Ash Barty’s sudden exit from the sport. Here’s why her retirement is bad news for Tennis Australia.

Ash Barty’s sudden retirement could cost Tennis Australia tens of millions of dollars annually in its next broadcast deal, a leading sports television rights specialist says.

The world No.1 and three-time grand slam singles champion’s shock announcement on Wednesday sent shockwaves through the tennis world but may have major financial repercussions.

Barty’s drought-busting Australian Open triumph in January culminated in her playing in the most-watched women’s final since the current TV ratings system started keeping records in 1999.

Her title victory over American Danielle Collins peaked at an extraordinary TV audience of 4.2 million and the ratings remained high for Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis’ all-Australian doubles final.

Kyrgios and Kokkinakis, dubbed the ‘Special Ks’, drew a record doubles audience of 3.1 million, with Global Media and Sports managing director Colin Smith calling it “the perfect storm”.

Tennis Australia’s (TA) current broadcast deal with Nine, which expires in 2024, is $300m across five years but there were suggestions in the Australian Open aftermath that a $100m-a-year deal could be possible.

That was based not only on Barty’s presence but also Channel 7’s potential challenge to grab the rights back.

Even if that projection was too lofty, TA would almost certainly have expected a significant upgrade on the current agreement, but Smith told News Corp that might no longer be possible.

The sports rights expert said the most likely scenario was closer to status quo with Barty retiring and all-time greats Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic likely to follow suit in the near future.

“Somebody is not going to be paying mega dollars, or what they would have if Ash was continuing,” Smith said.

“At the end of the day, sports have to pay their way and we have two sports in Australia that are must watch and must have – AFL and NRL.

“Tennis is a really nice lead-in (to promote new seasons), because it’s got a true halo effect to it, but we’re not talking about premiums of another $40-million-a-year at all.

“If I’m going to be involved in a broadcast war for tennis and therefore pay a super-premium; I’m much less likely to when I’ve just lost my competitive advantage for guaranteeing a TV audience in Ash Barty.”

Tennis’ trump card is how badly summer rival cricket’s Big Bash is struggling.

A News Corp report in February revealed the Twenty20 competition had lost, on average, 450,000 viewers per game since 2016 and declined for six consecutive years.

But the issue for TA is there isn’t an obvious grand slam singles title contender on the horizon among Australia’s remaining crop, especially with marketing dream Kyrgios effectively a part-time player.

“The problem is global. It’s not like there’s a ‘Who’s the new Ash Barty?’ who is going to be such a superb talent, so attractive and a non-controversial person,” Smith said.

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“There’s nobody coming up in the women’s system who is going to do that.

“Then on the men’s side, once you take out Djokovic, Nadal and Federer, the superstars are gone. (Daniil) Medvedev is certainly there but he’s not of the same sort of ilk.”

DAY 14YO BARTY SIGNED SPONSOR WITH ONE SHOT

Scott Gullan

Darren Cahill first saw Ash Barty when she visited the Las Vegas base of superstars Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf.

Cahill had worked with Agassi for years and Barty, who was 13 at the time, had come over for a week to get some lessons about life on the tennis tour. The Queenslander had already made a name for herself in the junior ranks and the leading coach was blown away with what he saw.

Fast forward several months and Cahill had turned into a full Barty spruiker, grabbing the head scout for sportswear giant adidas and taking him to watch the teenager play at the Australian Open.

Ash Barty was a star from the start. Picture: Instagram

“His name was Claus Martim, a German guy who had been scouting for adidas for years and years and I said you have to come out and watch this young 14-year-old Aussie girl, she is really good,” Cahill said. “He looked at me and said ‘All you Aussies think every Australian junior is going to be world No.1’.

“I said ‘I don’t know if she is going to be world No.1 but she is pretty good and you need to come out there’.

“We went out to the back courts where she was playing her first round match, we got to within 20 metres and we could see Ash warming up in the five-minute warm-up. As we were walking to the court, Ash hit a kicker second serve – don’t forget she is 14 – and then she ran to the net, took the ball in the air as a volley and hit a backhand backspin volley that bounced sideways on the other side of the court.

“Claus stopped in his tracks, turned around and walked away. I looked at him and said ‘Where are you going?’.

“He goes ‘I’ve seen enough, sign her’. That was it, that one shot, He saw her play one shot and adidas signed her.”

Cahill, who coached Lleyton Hewitt and Agassi before guiding two-time grand slam winner Simona Halep in recent years, said Barty had always blazed her own trail.

“She certainly went down a road less worn didn’t she, she took her own path and did things her own way,” he said.

“Her game style was kind of that way as well because no-one plays the way she plays on the WTA Tour.

Barty has enjoyed an incredible 12 months – winning Wimbledon (pictured) as well as the Australian Open. Picture: Getty

“I think she has represented Australia incredibly well and is such an icon of the sport, world No.1 for two-and-a-half years, what a way to go out.

“She has always been trying to find that balance between sport and happiness and family life and if she can’t find it, she goes looking for it so credit to her.”

“She is a special talent, she has got incredible hands and I still think she is one of the best volleyers today in the game, men’s or women’s,” Cahill said. “Look at the men you’ve got (Roger) ­Federer and a couple of others but she is definitely top 10 in the game of tennis as far as her net game is concerned.

“She is a freaky talent.”

Why now? The truth behind Barty’s retirement

Ash Barty has always done things her own way.

Her first retirement from tennis came from nowhere and surprised many although it was in completely different circumstances to today’s bombshell.

Back in 2014, Barty was a young gun on the rise with the world at her feet before deciding it was too much for her so she retreated back to her family home in Queensland and played cricket for a couple of years.

Eventually the lure of playing the game she loved was too strong and she came back – again in her own time – and began a remarkable journey which took her to the top of the women’s game.

At midday on Wednesday in Brisbane, Barty did things again in her own way.

Ash Barty wipes away a tear as she announces her retirement from tennis. Picture: Instagram

For the second time she was done with tennis, this time for real. There would be no coming back this time.

And to tell the world she called her best friend and former doubles partner Casey Dellacqua to be there when she announced the ‘R’ word.

“There is no right way, there is no wrong way, it is just my way,” Barty declared in the emotional five-minute video hosted by Dellacqua.

As the news spreads across the globe there will be so many questions.

While she attempted to answer some in the Instagram post, it’s going to take months for the news to sink in.

What everyone is asking is – Why now?

Barty is at the peak of her powers at the age of 25. She has been world No.1 for the past three years which puts her in elite company – only all-time greats Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Serena Williams and Chris Evert have done it previously.

She showed at the Australian Open that she is a level above the chasing pack, winning her home grand slam in emphatic fashion.

With three grand slam titles and more than $25m in career prize money to her name – plus another $25m in potential earnings away from the tennis court – the world was her oyster.

But the glitz, glamour and money have never been what made Barty tick.

In the retirement video she reveals winning Wimbledon, and emulating her hero Evonne Goolagong Cawley, changed something inside her.

She almost quit then but had some unfinished business at Melbourne Park. Once that was ticked off, Barty retreated back to Queensland and quickly realised there was nothing more to tick off her tennis wish list.

The signs were there over the past month that something was up.

Barty made a special trip to Uluru following her Australian Open triumph. Picture: Scott Barbour/Tennis Australia

Barty took a special trip to Uluru and spent time with Indigenous kids, showing them that they can dare to dream about doing something special.

When she then pulled out of tournaments in Miami and Indian Wells, the whispers started.

Is she mentally fatigued after the Australian Open? Does she have a secret injury? And then over the past week there was even, is she pregnant?

It turned out to be none of the three, instead it was Ash Barty doing things her own way again.