Quittin' time

 I know you don't understand. I'm not sure I do, either, and I spent 38 years of my life writing about athletes and all things athletic.

Retiring at 25, as the No. 1 player in your game?

That's what women's tennis star Ash Barty of Australia just did, and the usual aspersions are being cast by the usual suspects. The fact she just ascended to her No. 1 ranking means she's afraid of defending her position against all comers, some folks say. Why else would you abruptly retire from the sport at 25?

It's a good question, even if it springs from a troll-y place. Most of us can't imagine deciding, at 25, that we're going to quit what we've worked and trained and dreamed of doing just when we've achieved that dream. It simply doesn't compute.

However ...

However, an athlete at the top of his or her game surrenders much to get there, and even more to stay there. At some point, you have to think, the old philosophical question -- "Is this all there is?" -- must surely arise.

For some it's just a fleeting whisper, there one second and gone the next. For others it's a whisper that eventually grows into a shout, and there's no timetable for it.

It happens at 30 or 35 or even 40. And sometimes it happens at 25.

Barty professes to be "scared and excited" about stepping away from the game, and the suspicion is, because she's doing at such a young age and with such a wealth of un-eroded talent, that at some point she'll pick up the racquet again. This happens all the time in other sports, particularly physically punishing sports such as football.

Tennis carries with it its own physical and mental toll, and it is its own sort of grind. Little wonder that Andre Agassi always professed to hate the game, even as he played on and on and the game made him rich. You don't get that sense from Barty -- but you do get the sense that tennis simply doesn't satisfy her anymore.

And retiring from the game at 25 is shocking only because playing well into one's 30s is a relatively recent phenomenon in the women's game. Steffi Graf retired at 30 when she was still the No. 3 player in the world. Martina Hingis quit the game at 22, returning a decade later to play doubles only. Monica Seles played her last professional match at 30. And Evonne Goolagong, the great Australian star of the 1970s, retired at 31.

Ash Barty retiring at 25?

It's what you do when you discover there's more to life than two-fisted backhands and crosscourt groundies. And what's wrong with that?