Irish tennis has lost one of it's recent stars to retirement. A decision that wasn't entirely his own. Irish tennis has taken huge strides forward in recent years and now has a foundation to produce stars of the future to follow in Barry's footsteps.
Unfortunately, like Conor Niland mentioned in his interview on The Late Late Show, professional tennis is an expensive occupation and at the moment Irish players aren't receiving any assistance in pursuit of their dreams and this contributed in part to Barry's decision.
This doesn't bode well for our sport and hopefully between The Sports Council and Lottery funding our future stars will be given a bit more support than our current crop of professional players.
The following is an article which appeared today in the Irish Times sports section and is a fitting tribute to one of our top players.
Congratulations Barry and best of luck in your future career.
Tennis: Irish Davis Cup player Barry King has today announced his retirement from professional tennis at the age of 26. Having exhausted his financial resources and with a series of niggling injuries holding him back from progressing further up the rankings, King felt there was little option but to pull to plug on his professional career at this stage.
He admitted: “Having spent nearly three years on the professional circuit and achieved many of goals, I am now eager to resume my business career. I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the professional tour, particularly the time I spent as part of the Irish Davis Cup squad.“I now look forward to channelling the energy I brought to these matches into new pursuits. I will always be passionate about Irish tennis and wish to continue to contribute to this development in any way possible.
King achieved a career high ranking of 600 in November 2009 and has been a member of the Irish Davis Cup team since 2010. The former Gonzaga schoolboy was Ireland’s Davis Cup hero in July this year when he defeated Anis Ghorbel to win the Davis Cup Euro/Africa Zone Group II play-off against Tunisia on a 3-2 score line.
King accounted for Ghorbel in straight sets 7-6 6-2 6-1 to claim the fourth singles match and overall victory at Riverview. Irish Davis Cup Captain Garry Cahill said: “Barry’s retirement is a huge blow for Irish tennis. He has had a really impressive career to date and he is a proven match winner in international competition.
We acknowledge his enormous talent and while his retirement is a setback, we understand very well his decision. He has been an inspiration for all the junior members of the BNP Paribas National Tennis Academy and we all wish him the very best of luck in his future ventures.”
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