Barty, Ashleigh

Ashleigh Barty, (born April 24, 1996, Ipswich, Queensland, Australia), Australian tennis player who won 15 career singles titles, including three at Grand Slam tournaments, and held the number one spot in the women’s tennis world rankings for 114 consecutive weeks.

Barty was born in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia, to a father who was a member of the Ngaragu Aboriginal group and a mother who was the daughter of English immigrants. She began playing tennis at the age of five and quickly developed in the sport. By her early teens she had joined the International Tennis Federation junior circuit. She won the Wimbledon junior title in 2011. Two years later, after moving up to the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Tour, she made the doubles finals at three Grand Slam events. She earned runners-up honours with partner Casey Dellacqua at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. In singles competition that year Barty reached the second round at both the French Open and the U.S. Open. Her crafty play and diverse range of shots led some observers to compare her to an earlier tennis prodigy, Swiss player Martina Hingis.

In 2014, however, Barty surprised the tennis world when she announced after the U.S. Open that she was taking an indefinite break from the sport. She cited the “general stresses of playing around the world” and the pressure of being in the public spotlight as her reasons for the break. During her time away from tennis, Barty was invited to train with the Australian national women’s cricket team. Despite never having played cricket competitively, she showed promise in the sport and decided to pursue it. In October 2015 she signed with a professional team, the Brisbane Heat of the newly established Women’s Big Bash League. She spent the 2015–16 season with the team, but she subsequently returned to the WTA Tour.

Barty soon regained her form on the tennis court. In 2017 she won the Malaysian Open to claim her first WTA singles title. She finished that season ranked 17th in the world. In 2018 Barty reached the fourth round of singles competition at the U.S. Open. Later at that tournament she won the doubles title with partner CoCo Vandeweghe.

In May 2019 Barty entered the French Open as the tournament’s eighth seed. She advanced to the finals after having prevailed in a dramatic three-set match against Amanda Anisimova of the United States in the semifinals. In the championship match Barty swept Markéta Vondroušová of the Czech Republic in straight sets to become the first Australian woman since Margaret Court in 1973 to triumph at the French Open. Barty followed up this victory with another win two weeks later at the Birmingham Classic in England, after which she was elevated to the top of the WTA world rankings. In December 2019 Barty was selected as the WTA Player of the Year.

Barty chose not to defend her French Open title in 2020. She cited the health risks involved in playing during the COVID-19 pandemic and the interruptions that the pandemic had caused in her training. However, she played well enough in other tournaments that year to retain her number one world ranking at season’s end. In July 2021 Barty reached the Wimbledon finals, where she defeated Karolína Plíšková of the Czech Republic in three sets. With this victory Barty became the first Australian woman since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980 to claim the Wimbledon singles title.

Barty also represented Australia at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan (delayed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic). She was eliminated in the first round of the Olympic singles tennis tournament. However, she and partner John Peers won the bronze medal in mixed doubles.

In January 2022 Barty entered the Australian Open as the top-seeded women’s singles player. She thoroughly dominated the tournament, where she won every set she played and defeated American Danielle Collins in the finals. Barty was the first Australian to win an Australian Open singles title in 44 years. In March 2022 Barty announced her retirement from tennis, making her the first women’s player to retire while on top of the singles ranking since Justine Henin of Belgium did so in 2008.

In June 2022 Barty was made an Officer of the Order of Australia, Australia’s highest recognition for outstanding achievement and service, for her service to tennis at the elite level and to youth development programs. Since retiring from tennis Barty has pursued publishing among other activities. That same year she published her memoir My Dream Time: A Memoir of Tennis & Teamwork and began collaborating with author Jasmin McGaughey and illustrator Jade Goodwin on the Little Ash series of illustrated children’s books.