Ash's Story
Fast Facts
Sport: Tennis
Event: Womens Tennis Singles and Doubles, Mixed Doubles
Olympic History: Tokyo 2020
Highlights: 3x Singles Grand slam 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.
Barty has amassed an international following through her laid-back approach to the sport and persevering attitude, even in the most intense of matches. Spectators often don 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 coach in her junior career.
Barty 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.
At 18-years-old, Barty stepped away from tennis to explore life outside of sport. She was signed by the Brisbane Heat as a starting player for the first Women's Big Bash League season, as well as Queensland Fire for the Women's National Cricket League.
After her hiatus, she won both the singles and doubles events at the Malaysian Open, only her second tournament after returning to the sport. Her double victory saw her enter the top 100, and she would continue to climb up the rankings throughout the year.
2019 was a massive year for Ash. She was crowned champion at Roland Garros, after a massive two week campaign. 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, Barty has held the position for a monstrous 81 weeks, ending both the 2019 and 2020 seasons in that position. She also ended the 2019 as champion of the WTA Finals.
Her playing style is characterised by powerful groundstrokes, a consistent backhand and effective slice culminating to produce an unpredictable performance that opponents struggle to profile in competition. Her universal game means that she is able to constantly make it to the late stages of tournaments in both singles and doubles events.
She has produced strong performances across the two disciplines, which is uncommon for professional tennis players who prefer to specialise in one event. She has reached the finals of every single grand slam in the women's doubles category, winning the event at the US Open in 2018 alongside American Coco Vandeweghe.
No stranger to national representation, Ash has been 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.
As an Aboriginal woman, Barty is 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 Tokyo 2020, representing Australia in the women's singles and doubles tennis. 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 quarterfinals, 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 an Olympic level.
Ash won her first Australian Open title in 2022, doing so without dropping a set as she clinched her third singles slam title, this time on home soil. Her appearance at Melbourne Park that year was her last, as she would go on to retire from professional tennis two months later.
