Cathy Freeman on her special connection with Ash Barty

Champions know champions, and Cathy Freeman senses Ash Barty is in the zone. She speaks exclusively about Barty’s quest for an historic Aus Open title.

Cathy Freeman says Ash Barty now has the special aura of confidence needed to win a historic Australian Open title.

The Sydney Olympic gold medallist is one of the few people who understands the pressure and expectation Barty will be feeling when she walks onto Rod Laver Arena on Saturday night.

FOLLOW ALL THE AUS OPEN ACTION LIVE

Champions know champions, they see things that mere mortals don’t and Freeman senses Barty is in the zone, ready to break a 44-year drought for Australian women at the Australian Open.

In a rare interview, the sporting legend has revealed her joy in watching Barty’s rise to top of women’s tennis and the special connection she feels with her fellow Queenslander.

Watch Tennis Live with beIN SPORTS on Kayo. Live Coverage of ATP + WTA Tour Tournaments including Every Finals Match. New to Kayo? Start Your Free Trial >

Legendary sprinter Cathy Freeman says she feels a special connections with Ash Barty.

“I think she feels a familiarity with me as I do with her,” Freeman said.

“It’s about just trying to be grounded and not forgetting where you were from during these times of dizzy heights and ambition, without losing yourself in it all.”

While Freeman doesn’t look back at her own heroics too often, she has been inspired by Barty to let her mind wander to Sydney 2000 and the extraordinary build-up she experienced before the biggest moment of her life.

“We are never far away from that memory when we watch someone like Ash,” she said.

“And I understand how harsh, or how loud, the media and the hunger of the public, the hunger Aussies have for success.

“But she (Barty) just seems to have this grace at the minute, it is really lovely.”

For Australia’s golden girl there was one simple sign about Barty’s mindset during her on-court interview following Thursday night’s semi-final demolition of Madison Keys which erased any concerns about how she was coping.

Barty’s efforts in Melbourne have allowed her mind to wander back to one of the greatest moments in Australian sporting history.

“There is a magnetism about her at the moment, this relaxed confidence and it is really, really obvious,” she said.

“She just has this ease and confidence. In the interview she did with (Jim) Courier she was laughing, she was relaxed and she was clear in her mind.

“The pressure doesn’t seem to be getting to her. She was laughing and that aspect when you are in that situation is the key.

“It is so within her at the moment, this air of self conviction. It’s very lovely to watch and you can’t take your eyes off her.

“She is like this dominator and listening to the commentators we are all kind of a bit ‘Whooooahhh’ as she has just taken it to another level.

“It’s even in the way she walks, she has just got this composure.”

Freeman says her late grandmother would be blown away seeing an Indigenous woman dominating women’s tennis and giving hope to future generations.

Barty has produced a performance as dominant as there ever has been at an Australian Open, but there is one more hurdle. Picture: Getty Images

“I have to say a woman like her who is proud of her Indigenous heritage, on her land of Australia, being a First Nations person is pretty powerful.

“It gives me hope. My grandmother wouldn’t have believed her eyes or her ears had she been alive today.

“Some of the wonderful headway that has been made in Australian society in terms of embracing the indigenous story, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait story, and having First Nations champions.

“We have got to celebrate our young people and encourage them to be proud of their roots, of their ancestry, because it only feeds their identity.

“It makes them feel a sense of performance in terms of being fierce and bold. The identity piece is huge.”

Freeman pointed to Barty’s decision to walk away from tennis to pursue cricket in 2014 as a crucial factor in the champion we are now seeing today.

“I read about where she took some time out to play cricket, I thought that was really smart,” she said.

“When you have that kind of confidence to make those sorts of decisions, that could have gone against her but there is something in her that knows what works for her and what doesn’t work for her.

“That wisdom that individuals get, that confidence is everything.

“I think what she is going through now is probably nowhere near as testing as compared to that time, the time leading up to when she made that decision.

“She’s just in this zone where everything is just aligned, it’s exciting, it’s really lovely, it’s poetic.”

Cathy Freeman cheers on Ash Barty in the 2020 Aus Open semi-final. Picture: Michael Klein

Freeman took her mum, Cecilia, to watch Barty in the 2020 semi-final which she lost to eventual champion Sofia Kenin.

The pair have each other’s phone numbers but it’s not Freeman’s style to inject herself into Barty’s world this week.

Instead she will be watching at home in Brighton with her husband James and 10-year-old daughter Ruby who hasn’t got the tennis bug yet.

She hopes her daughter will be like other Indigenous kids out there who are inspired by Barty’s actions on and off the court.

“She just warms my heart,” Freeman said.

“In that interview after the semi-final she spoke about Dylan Alcott, spoke about people with disabilities.

“It was so moving. She has got a good heart, Ash, a champion’s heart.”

Originally published as Cathy Freeman on her special connection with Ash Barty