"It's the first time I've actually said it out loud, and ... it's hard to say but I'm so happy and I'm so ready," she said.

"I don't have the physical drive, the emotional want and everything it takes to challenge yourself at the very top of the level any more. I am spent."

The 25-year-old said retirement was something she had been considering for a while, as she did not have the physical drive, or emotional desire, to continue.

The three-time Grand Slam champion said she was ready to make the call on her career after winning Wimbledon back in July, but soon realised there was one thing missing. Now she's won the Australian Open, she says it's the perfect time to celebrate what her tennis career has been.

It's not the first time Barty has stepped away from tennis. She previously pursued a cricket career in the WBBL in 2014, after signing with the Brisbane Heat. She returned to tennis in early 2016 and went on to win the French Open three years later.

She hasn't said what comes next. But for those wondering if she has her sights set on returning to the crease, that seems unlikely.

She wants to "enjoy the next phase of my life as Ash Barty the person not Ash Barty the athlete".

Meanwhile, NSW residents who are still cleaning up from unprecedented floods that began more than three weeks ago are being warned more potentially damaging weather is on the way.

The La Nina pattern that brought record rain and flooding over summer is not over yet, the Bureau of Meteorology says, with the wild weather expected to continue for months.

One in six university students have been sexually harassed since starting their studies and one in 12 had been sexually harassed in the past 12 months, a national survey has found.

The survey of 43,819 Australian university students revealed harrowing accounts of sexual harassment and assault, which have given insight into the prevalence of the problem on campus.

The 2021 National Student Safety Survey was funded by Universities Australia and conducted by the Social Research Centre.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to show up to negotiation talks, telling European public television networks that it would not be possible to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine without the Russian leader's attendance.

"I believe that until such time as we have a meeting with the President of the Russian Federation ... you cannot truly understand what they are prepared to do in order to stop the war and what they are prepared to do if we are not ready for this or that compromise," Zelenskiy said in the interview.

A review of 32 banks located in east and Southeast Asia found that none had made any clear commitments or adequate plans to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement.

Nearly 200 countries signed a pact at the UN's climate conference in Glasgow last year calling on banks and financial institutions across the world to help achieve global goals and to seek innovative ways to pay for climate adaptation.

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