By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday September 27, 2021
World No.1 Ashleigh Barty will not be joining the women’s singles draw at next week’s BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells. The two-time major champion has announced her withdrawal, per the tournament.
"The BNP Paribas Open is one of my favourite events on the calendar," Barty said in a statement published on the WTA's website. "It was a tough decision to withdraw but I know a few weeks of rest and seeing family back in Australia is the right thing for me at this point of the season."
The decision reflects a change in course for Barty, who told reporters that she was planning to play after her loss at the US Open in early September.
When asked if she would attend Indian Wells, she confidently said “Yeah, yeah, I'll be there.”
It isn’t clear if Barty will end her season early or attend this year’s WTA Finals at Guadalajara. She was on the road from March to late September, and when the WTA announced plans to play this year’s WTA Finals in Mexico, at altitude, Barty’s coach Craig Tyzzer criticized the decision.
"Pressure-less balls absolutely fly. It's a ball that, if you use it in normal conditions, it doesn't bounce. It's not the greatest advertisement for the best girls in the world to be playing something they've never done before,” Tyzzer told the Australian Associated Press. “[To play in] conditions they’ve never played, in a country they don’t play and at altitude, I just feel it’s ridiculous. “As a spectacle, it’s just frightening.”
Naomi Osaka Also Pulls Out
The four-time major champion left the US Open saying she didn't know when she would play again.
"I think I'm going to take a break from playing for a while," she said at the end of a teary press conference.
She's out of Indian Wells, but there is hope that we might see her again this season. According to the HBO show "The Shop" Osaka is feeling anxious to return to play again.
“I know I’m going to play again,” she said. “I kind of have that itch again. It wouldn’t really matter to me if I won or lost, I’d just have the joy of being back on the court.”