Kyrgios

[Mav]

What about Ash Barty? Retired at 26. Surely she left a lot of titles on the table. Isn’t she wasting her talents? If you’re lucky enough to be gifted sporting power, surely you can choose what you’ll do with it. Not everyone is an Ivan Lendl or one of the big 3 who wants to get every last drop out of his career. Kyrgios won $2m despite losing at Wimbledon. He doesn’t have to share that much with his “team” as his team is small. Just that 1 match should set him up financially if he has his head screwed on right (i.e. he isn’t another Tomic or Philippoussis). With endorsements and appearance money at whatever events he wishes to enter, he’ll build on that regardless of results in the near term.

Being a current sporting star opens a lot of doors. You can hang with NBA stars or get drink cards and VIP status at top nightclubs. Once you retire, being a former star doesn’t carry anywhere near the cachet. I can understand someone like Kyrgios wanting to take advantage of his celebrity while it exists. It’s easy to say, “He should just give a 100% effort for 5, 10, or 20 years and he can enjoy life when he retires”. But it will be a very different life when he does retire.

So, if sporting professionals want to retire early or use their prowess to live like a rock star, let them do it.