Ash Barty teases fans with return to tennis pitch

Tennis great Ash Barty has teased sports fans saying she would pick up the racket again to play professional tennis on one condition.

Retired tennis star Ash Barty and eight-time world surfing champ Stephanie Gilmore in Sydney. Picture: Instagram

Tennis great Ash Barty, famous for her slice backhand, dared to dream of Olympic glory at a Brisbane corporate appearance last week when she mused she would get back on court if her old ­doubles partner would join her in a quest for gold.

Barty, 26, a French, Wimbledon and Australian Open champion, told a TechnologyOne showcase last week that competing at the Olympics had been one of the highlights of her tennis ­career, and if her one-time doubles partner Casey Dellacqua picked up the phone and asked her to join her, she would be “in’’.

Barty had been speaking to surfing world champion Stephanie Gilmore at the event on Thursday where the surfing great reminisced that the Olympics had been a career highlight.

Casey Dellacqua. Picture: Adam Pretty/Getty Images

Barty’s dream would appear to have some practical difficulties. Dellacqua retired in 2018 and under current rules the pair would have to build enough ranking points on the world tour to qualify for the Australian Olympic team as the top-ranked pair.

Barty announced her retirement in March when she was world No.1 and coming off the back of her resounding Australian Open victory against American Danielle Collins.

Barty has previously been definitive about her decision at just 25 years old to retire from tennis, which astounded fans and many in the world of professional tennis, saying at the time that she knew the decision to be “right”.

“I don’t have the physical drive, the emotional want and everything it takes to challenge yourself at the very top level anymore,” Barty told Dellacqua in an Instagram video announcing her ­retirement.

“I just know I am absolutely spent. I know physically I have nothing more to give and that for me is success.

“I’ve given absolutely everything I can to this beautiful sport of tennis and I’m really happy with that.

“I know that people may not understand it and I’m OK with that.”

Before her victory at the Australian Open this year, Barty won a Wimbledon crown last year and the French Open in 2019. She also won Olympic bronze in the mixed doubles with John Peers in Tokyo.

Since leaving professional tennis, Barty has taken on a corporate role at Optus as its chief of inspiration and published a series of children’s books called Little Ash.

She previously took a break from tennis in 2014 and played professional cricket during her two-year hiatus.

Barty made a return to inter­national professional sport in July this year with a brief foray into golf, entering the Icons Series in New Jersey in the US.

She married long-term partner Garry Kissick in a private ceremony in July.

Her memoir, titled My Dream Time, will be released in Nov­ember.

A spokesperson for Barty confirmed she made the comments but there were no specific plans to return to tennis.

Barty and Gilmore were speaking at the TechnologyOne showcase on the “grit and determin­ation” that goes into sporting success and how to achieve goals.

TechnologyOne chief executive Edward Chung and chief operations officer Stuart Mac­Donald also made addresses.

TechnologyOne conferences will be held in Sydney on Monday, Canberra on Thursday and Melbourne on Friday.