Ash Barty

Fast Facts

Sport: Tennis
Event: Women's Singles and Doubles, Mixed Doubles
Olympic History: Tokyo 2020
Highlights: 3x Grand Slam singles champion, Olympic bronze, 2019 World Tour Finals champion
Coach: Craig Tyzzer
Year Born: 1996
State Born: QLD

About Ash

Ipswich-born Ash Barty is one of Australia’s greatest ever tennis players, having achieved a world number one ranking, three Grand Slam singles titles and a year-end championship title by the age of 25.

Ash amassed an international following through her laid-back approach to the sport and persevering attitude, even in the most intense of matches. Spectators often threw out the nickname 'Barty Party' when supporting her in tournaments, especially during the Australian leg of the WTA Tour.

A descendant of the Ngarigo people of Southern NSW and north-eastern Victoria, Ash began playing tennis at four-years-old at the West Brisbane Tennis Centre, where she was mentored by Jim Joyce who would become her junior career coach.

Ash turned to the professional WTA Tour in 2010, when she was 14-years-old. She showed early signs of greatness, producing a career-high junior ranking of number 2 in the world. After one year on the professional circuit, Ash had been crowned champion of the Girls' Singles at Wimbledon in 2011. She was also a three-time Grand Slam runner up in the doubles event alongside Casey Dellacqua.

As an 18-year-old in 2014 Ash stepped away from tennis to explore life outside of sport, not knowing if she'd coming back to tennis again. She was signed by the Brisbane Heat as one of their first ever players in the inaugural Women's Big Bash League season, as well as Queensland Fire for the Women's National Cricket League.

A return to tennis came in 2016, a year in which she won both the singles and doubles events at the Malaysian Open - only her second tournament after returning to the sport. Those results saw her enter the top 100 and she continued to climb up the rankings in the months and years ahead.

2019 was a massive year for Ash. She was crowned Grand Slam champion at Roland Garros in Paris. She rose to world number two after becoming the first Australian to win the French Open since Margaret Court in 1973. She achieved the world number one ranking after winning a title at her next tournament, becoming only the second Australian woman to do so in the history of the WTA singles.

Although the world number one ranking fluctuates often in the WTA world, Ash held the position for a monstrous 81 weeks, ending both the 2019 and 2020 seasons on top. She also ended 2019 as champion of the WTA Finals.

Her playing style was characterised by powerful groundstrokes, a consistent backhand and an effective slice. Her universal game meant she was able to constantly make it to the late stages of tournaments in both singles and doubles events, uncommon for professional tennis players who prefer to specialise in one event.

She reached the finals of all four women's doubles Grand Slam tournaments at least once and won the event at the US Open in 2018 alongside American Coco Vandeweghe.

Ash was a member of the Australian Fed Cup team since her debut at sixteen-years-old. She also represented Australia twice in the Hopman Cup in 2013 and 2019, just before the event was retired.

She's also a National Indigenous Tennis Ambassador for Tennis Australia, working with the youth in Indigenous communities around the country and encouraging them to engage in sports.

Ash achieved her lifelong dream in tennis of lifting the Wimbledon trophy after being crowned champion in 2021. Top seeded, Ash defeated fellow Aussie Ajla Tomljanovic and three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber en route to the final, where she bested Czechia’s Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6(4)-7, 6-3.

Two weeks later, Ash made her Olympic debut at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games in July 2021, representing Australia in the women's singles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. Ash’s performance in the women’s singles fell short of her expectations, going down to Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo in straight sets in the first round.

Taking to the court once again with partner Storm Sanders in the women’s doubles, the Aussie pairing eased through to the quarter-finals where they fell to eventual champions Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova of Czechia in a third set tiebreak.

In her third event at Tokyo 2020 Ash joined John Peers in the mixed doubles, where the pair won Australia’s first medal in the event at the Olympic level.

Ash won her first Australian Open Grand Slam title in 2022, doing so without dropping a set as she clinched her third singles Grand Slam title. Her appearance at Melbourne Park that year was her last, as she retired from professional tennis two months later.