Our Ash Barty has made World No. 6 and she’s hungry for more

World No.6, Ash Barty, who says she’s still ‘hungry to get better as a person and as a player’ is a dead set Aussie champ, writes Paul Malone

Ashleigh Barty plays a backhand in her match against Petra Kvitova. Picture: Finney/Getty Images

THE best aspect of Ash Barty’s rise this week to become Australia’s first top-10 tennis player in six years was not the air of joy and freedom with which she played when she beat the world’s third-ranked player, Petra Kvitova.

It was not the array of skills, a throwback to the parry-and-thrust style of tennis with which her mentor Evonne Goolagong Cawley won Wimbledon twice. Tennis fans had seen that before in many matches since she barged into the top 20 in late 2017.

It was one line at a press conference, one night in Miami, from a young woman who had stepped off the tennis tour at 18 because of her loneliness and misery on the circuit.

“It’s a pretty beautiful thing being able to play tennis for a living,” Barty mused after her win over Kvitova, her second top-three scalp of the year, and it is only March.

“I’m still hungry to get better as a person and as a player.’’

The 22-year-old self-confessed homebody from Ipswich who misses her two dogs while she spends months overseas has worked out how to do justice to the opportunities her tennis gives her.

“It’s great seeing Ash so happy on court,’’ says her Australian Fed Cup team captain Alicia Molik, who will bring a Barty-led line-up to Brisbane for an Easter semi-final with Belarus, the second last step towards winning their country’s first championship since 1974.

“Lately, it’s been a matter of time before she played her way into the top 10. Anyone inside the top 12 or so at the moment is a legitimate chance to push for a Grand Slam title.

“We do have to keep remembering she’s been back only a little over three years since her break and she’s found a great balance in her tennis and her life.”

Ashleigh Barty, of Australia, hugs Petra Kvitova, of the Czech Republic, after winning 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-2 during the Miami Open tennis tournament, Wednesday, March 27, 2019, in Miami Gardens, Fla. Picture: AP/Luis M. Alvarez

The sheer scale of Barty’s swimming-against-the-tide achievement is perhaps not fully grasped by the average Australian sports fan.

Barty was 18 and ranked No.186 in singles when she stepped off the tour in August, 2014, for what became a 17-month sabbatical before she worked out what she wanted to do with her life.

That’s an eternity in tennis to be, as she said, fishing, savouring family time and teaching tennis to children while her peers were hitting balls, lifting weights and striving to win matches.

John McEnroe, one of the most supremely talented players of all time, took a six-month break from tour tennis when he was 26 and did not make another Grand Slam tournament final.

“I reckon Ash is one of the best stories in women’s sport in Australia, to be doing what she’s doing and be still improving as a player,’’ says dual Davis Cup tennis winner Todd Woodbridge.

Woodbridge, like former world No.8 Molik, believes Barty has positioned herself to become Australia’s first Grand Slam singles winner since fellow Queenslander Sam Stosur’s 2011 US Open title success.

Todd Woodbridge.

“Her progress over the last two years has been all class and she is the best all-round player in women’s tennis – and only improving,’’ he says.

“She is focused on being No.1 and playing quality tennis on a daily basis.

“I think she is also the most enjoyable woman to watch play tennis. She is a modern player who has brought a touch of old fashioned tennis and the game needed that – it’s not a slugfest every point.

“The maturity she has shown and the support she had from family, which I think is most important, has allowed her to achieve this. It took pressure off her.’’

Barty with all guns blazing during her game against Kvitova. Picture: Julian Finney/Getty Images

Woodbridge says it’s healthy for women’s tennis and women’s sport that youngsters can look to Barty’s decision to downshift in her career when she felt lost and see it’s possible to reap rewards when she felt better prepared for tour life.

“They will think, ‘If I feel that way, take a break’. She’s been a trailblazer for that,” he says. Miami is ultimately a similar style of longer tournament that the Grand Slams are, with the same players, so it’s an indicator that, yes, she does have the game to win one. She’s getting the runs on the board.”

The cricket reference is a reminder of her 2015-16 detour to play for the Brisbane Heat women’s team, a subject she declined to talk about when questioned after the Kvitova win. “Let’s not talk about cricket. Sorry, no,’’ she said.

It’s no reflection on how she feels about the Heat team, many of whom, such as Delissa Kimmince, Jess Jonassen, Jemma Barsby and Georgia Prestwich, she has responded to avidly on social media in her three years back in tennis.

December 2015 file photo of Brisbane Heat cricket players and Nutri-Grain Ironwomen Tara Coleman, Jemma Barsby, Hariet Brown, Holly Ferling, Brodie Moir, Ash Barty (taking the catch) and Courtney Hancock playing beach cricket Picture: Adam Head

Last month, Barty attended a 21st birthday party in Brisbane and caught up with several of her former Heat teammates.

“She’d only recently got back from a tournament and she had a few drinks with us, which was nice. Now she’s on the road again,’’ Kimmince says.

“We do love following her journey. We were talking just now about her nice pay rise this year with making the top 10,’’ she adds about a woman who will burst past $US6 million in career earnings with this week’s Miami cheque.

Kimmince says when Barty came to her team’s training, she did not have to try to fit in.

“Her personality does that and she’s a hard worker at training every day. She was a just an easy person to get along with,” she says.

“It’s important you’re level headed and Ash does have that trait. She’s never gone away from who she is and where she has come from despite the money now and the fame.”

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