Ash Barty teams with Pat Rafter for beach training ahead of tennis return

World No 1 Ash Barty has been reunited with coach Craig Tyzzer in Brisbane and is preparing for a return to the court this summer.

Pat Rafter trains on the beach with Ash Barty at Broken Head near Byron Bay

Last weekend in Brisbane, Ash Barty straddled the divide between her two sporting loves, tennis and footy.

On Friday in the Brisbane riverside suburb of Tennyson, the world No 1 was working on her craft in the shadows of Pat Rafter Arena after a reunion with her coach Craig Tyzzer.

The conversation was collaborative, more mate to mate than coach to pupil, though clearly there are times when the latter roles are required.

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Tyzzer would pass on an instruction. Barty would respond with a pointer of her own. The next goal is the summer of tennis, with growing optimism about the Australian Open going ahead.

A little over 30 hours later the Australian star was with her friend Stephanie Gilmore, a seven-time surfing world champion, at the Gabba for the AFL grand final.

The 24-year-old’s high heels were “killing” her but the pain was worth it for the privilege of watching her Tigers in a grand final.

Last year she and Tyzzer listened to Richmond thrash the Giants while on a train to Beijing.

Back in 2017 her mum Josie reversed the camera angle on her phone in Brisbane so that the passionate Tiger could watch, via Wi-Fi in Wuhan, the dismantling of Adelaide.

Coronavirus has thrown so much into chaos and forced Barty to forego her French Open defence. But it also presented her with the chance to watch the Tigers in Queensland on a near weekly basis and, to her great honour and surprise, present them with the premiership cup.

Barty received a hug and kiss from both Tigers skipper Trent Cotchin and coach Damien Hardwick after Richmond’s defeat of Geelong before quickly slipping away from the podium last Saturday. This was their moment.

For Barty sport, friends and family remain her top priorities. She is refreshed and rapt to be back on court, as Tyzzer noted.

“I think for me, initially, and probably Ash felt the same way, that it was nice to have a break,” said Tyzzer.

In January Barty claimed her first title on home soil in Adelaide and reached the Australian Open semi-finals. She will again be the top seed in January and believes the this year’s challenges will prove a blessing in disguise.

“For me, it is a continuation of what we have been working on for the last two years,” she told The Weekend Australian.

“ (COVID-19 has been) a massive punch in the face to think about your perspective and to think about the things that really matter to you on a personal level.

“The most challenging part (of tennis) is that we are never home for more than two or three weeks at a time, so to actually be able to have two or three months off at home (in a) forced break that hopefully becomes a blessing.”

French Open decision

It is now 17 months since Barty joined her mentor and idol Evonne Goolagong as a Roland Garros champion. And it pained her to miss the title defence.

The world No 1 had opted out of the US Open in early July due to coronavirus concerns but had been practising on clay in preparation for a return to Paris.

A decision was made to switch strings to natural gut in order to allow her greater power and feel and the word from Brisbane was that Barty was striking the ball beautifully.

Then came the first of several hitches. Tyzzer became stranded in Victoria when Melbourne returned to lockdown, which compromised her preparation.

Madrid was then cancelled, meaning Barty would have only one lead-in event to find form. Nor did the health outlook look promising in Paris. There was also the matter of actually getting back to Australia.

As Barty said, renowned Australian coach Darren Cahill is still “not sleeping in his own bed” almost a month after Iga Swiatek was crowned the new queen of clay.

“I wrestled with myself for a long time before I made the decision. It felt like my heart really wanted to play, but my head was telling me differently,” she said.

“I was trying to weigh up all of the risk and the reward and the pros and cons. I was a bit confused for a few days.

“But I was able to lean on the people I loved the most to kind of help me make the decision and that is what we have always been about. We are all in this together.”

The defending champion watched only one match through the tournament, a quarterfinal between Cahill’s charge Simona Halep and Swiatek, and was impressed by the eventual champion.

“I’ve never hit with her or played with her, but I have watched enough of her matches to know that she has absolutely got it and she showed that,” she said.

Training with Rafter

With the decision made to halt her 2020 season, Barty took time off.

She worked on her impressive golf game with her boyfriend Gary Kissick and claimed the Brookwater Golf Club Championship.

She also participated in a few beach training sessions run by Pat Rafter, a former world No 1 and dual-US Open champion, near Byron Bay.

The sessions feature breathing exercises and drills that include lifting rocks. Surfers and local residents including former AFL players Justin Koschitzke and Brad Sewell are regulars.

The program is not easy. Barty said the first session was tough. And while a Queenslander, she prefers a firmer footing than the sand and sea. But she loved it.

“It was really nice, just for a change in scenery. I am not one who is massive for the beach, so it took some convincing to get me down there. And it was challenging,” she said.

“Obviously I have got a lot of time for Pat. He is a brilliant guy and I love the way he goes about it. He is so passionate about it.

“I mingled with a couple of the surfers as well and saw what they did, and obviously that is something they are quite accustomed to, controlling their breathing.

“(The workouts) are all connected to … controlling your breathing and taking yourself to your best possible limit, exploring those limits, while also adding in some physical elements when you are at that limit.

“So if you don’t do it right at the start, or you panic, then you shoot yourself in the foot a little bit. It is really cool.

“Obviously you can push yourself as hard as you want, but there were a couple of times where I felt a little bit dizzy towards the end of some of the reps, which was strange.”

Back in the swing

Court 12 at the Brisbane Tennis Centre was the location. The focus of the session was, primarily, on Barty’s double-handed backhand.

But the best part about hitting tennis balls was the one-on-one interaction between Barty and Tyzzer, which both had missed.

Tyzzer arrived in Brisbane via a fortnight spent at the Howards Springs quarantine centre just outside Darwin. He has loved spending time with his family, less so the Melbourne winter.

“Then it got to the point where, ‘OK, I’ve had enough of this, I am ready to go’. But then we went back into lockdown in Melbourne again, so I felt it really dragged a lot,” he said.

There was the occasional grimace from both at a miscue. But just as regular were the instances where Barty unleashed thunderous forehands or diced backhand slices that skidded with venom.

“When you spend so much time with someone on the road, it just becomes normal,” Barty said.

“The relationship and the connection you have with each other becomes really, really special and I think that was the biggest thing, was that not being able to see Tyzz, obviously we were still chatting, but the moment he got back up here it was like he had never left.”