At the age of 20 Ashleigh Barty has already experienced a roller coaster journey in the world of sport.
Clinching the Wimbledon junior title at the age of 15 in 2011, Barty became Australia’s next big tennis hope. Suddenly she was in the eye of the national media as they monitored every result she produced on the tour. Steadily rising up the ranks, she stunned the world in September 2014 by announcing an ‘indefinite’ break from tennis. The announcement came a month after she directly qualified for her first major main draw at the US Open, but it was her desire for a ‘normal life’ that drove her to a break from tennis.
Barty’s ‘break’ from tennis lasted 17-months. During that period she failed to curb her passion for competitive sport as she switched her focus to cricket. During her stint with women’s team Brisbane Heat, Barty participated in the Big Bash league (an Australian domestic league for women’s cricket teams) and secured a professional contract in 2015. Barty could have easily embarked on a long career in cricket, but the sport only reignited her biggest passion – playing tennis.
“I knew then that this is sort of what I was meant to do,” Barty recently said about switching back to tennis. “Now it obviously looks like an amazing decision, but even if I hadn’t have been so successful as I have been at the start, in my eyes it was still the right decision.”
The talent of the young player was on full display at last week’s Malaysian Open. Coming through two rounds of qualifying, Barty stunned the crowd in Kuala Lumpur as she dropped just one set on route to lifting her first WTA singles title. It wasn’t just in the singles where she excelled. Teaming up with Casey Dellacqua, the duo triumphed in the doubles competition to seal the double for Barty.
“Probably the best tennis week of my life, for sure,”she told Fairfax media.
“We’ve had some amazing results, but the pleasing thing is we were able to keep that consistency throughout the whole week, for the first time … It would have been a good week if we’d come away with five or six matches, let alone 10 or 11, so it’s a big week and obviously it’s a monumental one with a title and cracking the top hundred, but the result’s a bonus.”
The most impressive aspect of Barty’s Malaysian title was the fact she was playing in only her fourth WTA main draw since returning to tennis in February 2016.
It could be argued that the 20-year-old might not have cracked the top-100 if it wasn’t for cricket. It is said that absence makes the heart grow fonder and Barty’s journey to a ranking high of 92nd illustrates this. She has always been a talented player, but talent is vacant if there is no passion to drive it. This is why Barty’s break from tennis could ironically prove to be the best decision she has taken in her entire career.
