Australian Open: Ash Barty reveals secret to success after historic triumph

A triumphant Ash Barty has celebrated her Australian Open win, which ended a 44-year drought, by revealing the driving force behind her success.

Ash Barty poses with the Australian Open trophy on Sunday. Picture: Michael Klein

Despite a thundering win in the Australian Open women’s singles tournament and after securing a 44-year drought breaking victory in the category on home soil, Ash Barty doesn’t yet see herself in the company of her heroes and superstar athletes — Cathy Freeman and Evonne Goolagong Cawley.

“I‘m certainly not at their level. Kathy and Yvonne are exceptional people, especially exceptional athletes, and they have paved the path for so many of us,” the 25-year-old said.

“I’m still in that category of trying to follow in their footsteps and do the best that I can. But to be a really small part of an amazing legacy that they’ve created is really cool,” she said.

“I‘m just trying to create my own pathway and guidelines off of what they’ve already done for us as a culture and for our heritage. They are absolute superstars.”

I’m so proud to be an Aussie 💙 pic.twitter.com/ELbsqR4Vv8

— Ash Barty (@ashbarty) January 29, 2022

After winning the first set six games to three, the world No. 1 was down one game to five against her opponent Danielle Collins in the second set.

But an astonishing comeback to win the tournament with seven games to six sent electricity through her home crowd.

“The crowd was incredible. I knew that they would get involved.Tennis is a funny scoring system. Sometimes you can feel like you‘re so far away when really a point or two can change the match,” she said.

“The sound walking out was not really anything I’d heard before. It was genuinely an incredible crowd. And it just added to the excitement and added to the fun.

“It relaxed me, it made me play my best tennis because I knew that against Danielle she’s a champion player who brings her very best time in time-out and being able to lift when I needed to — the crowd certainly helped with that.”

Barty joins Cathy Freeman and Evonne Goolagong Cawley as Australian indigenous sporting royalty after winning the 2022 Australian Open. Picture: Supplied

Barty said her decision to walk away from the sport in 2014 was the best decision she has made in her career.

“Still to this day taking time away from the sport was the best decision I ever made,” she said.

“Coming back was an even better one. I think being able to create the second phase of my career in a really positive way (and) surround myself with great people.

“The people that are still with me now have been with me the whole time … and we’ve been able to really work through from starting from no ranking to now having three slam titles together. It’s really special.”

Barty said she had a few beers to celebrate with her team on Saturday night after the match, before appearing outside Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building at the Carlton Gardens on Sunday morning.

She said she was “excited and humbled” by the support she gets in Australia but said the pressure did not weigh her down.

“I just wanted to go out there and do the best that I can do. That‘s all I can ever ask for myself,” she said.

“I always promised that I‘d do the best that I could and regardless of what result that ended up with, I just quite tried to go about it my way and embrace it, absorb it, and really enjoy it.”