World No 1 Ash Barty is raring to go ahead of her return to competition

After almost a year out of the game the world No 1 is set to return to competition next week.

3 min read

2:28PMJanuary 24, 2021.

Updated 5:20PMJanuary 24, 2021

Ash Barty training in Melbourne last week Picture: Alex Coppel.

As Ash Barty prepares for her comeback to competitive tennis in Melbourne next week, she is excited to have discovered a familiar rhythm in her preparation.

The world No 1 has again found the “thrill of the fight”.

“I think, in a way, different parts of the year moved at different paces. For those who didn’t play throughout the year, your career has almost had a pause,” she told The Australian.

“Personally, I felt like I have had so much growth this year, being able to spend time at home with my family and really appreciate the little things that matter most to me.

“But the competitor in me has really missed the competition, the tennis, the thrill of the fight. I think the last two or three weeks, I have almost felt my happiest trying to get ready again to do what I love.”

Barty described the “thrill of the fight” as her anticipation about what lies ahead as she starts a campaign that will begin with an appearance in an exhibition in Adelaide on Friday.

The 24-year-old will then play in a WTA Tour event in Melbourne in the first week of February before the Australian Open, where she will be the top seed.

She has plotted a path with her coach Craig Tyzzer aimed at reaching peak form and fitness by next week.

The pair were able to reunite in Brisbane in October after Tyzzer was caught in Victoria in lockdown throughout winter before serving a quarantine stint in the Northern Territory.

“(The thrill of the fight) is everything. It is the butterflies. It is the excitement. It is almost in a way the noise that comes with it,” she said.

“As much as, at times, I love to block out the noise, that is what makes it unique. That is what makes it special. Being able to test yourself against the very best is something that I love to do.

“I think being able to sit down with Tyzz and talk through how we are going to work our way through a match, how we are going to try and play tactically, that is the stuff I am really looking forward to over the next couple of weeks.”

It is now 12 months since Barty was midway through a campaign that saw her become the first local woman since Wendy Turnbull in 1984 to reach an Australian Open semi-final.

In normal circumstances, the Melbourne major would be starting its second week with round of 16 matches on Monday. But if anything, the delay has only heightened Barty’s anticipation.

“It was actually a really strange Christmas in that way,” she said.

“For the first time in a long time, I had a bit of license on Christmas Day to eat whatever I liked and do whatever I liked in the festive season.

“We are so used to playing a couple of days after and being in that routine, so I was a little bit lost after.

“But it was a nice time for us to reset, to have a pretty quiet week between Christmas and the New Year, and then use that as a freshener for this kind of last month, to push to get ready.

“It has been a long time between drinks without playing and we are kind of at the point where I thought the last four to five weeks would have dragged on a lot more, but it has come really quickly and I am really excited.”

January has not been without its drama.

When it was clear there would be change of status in border restrictions between Brisbane and Victoria, Barty and some of her fellow Queenslanders brought forward their plans to travel to Melbourne.

But that gave the right-hander, who lived in Melbourne for 18 months as a teenager, an opportunity to spend more time than she anticipated with old friends.

She was able to duck in to see Tyzzer and his family at their home. She caught up for dinner with former coach Jason Stoltenberg. And she finally met Sam Stosur’s daughter Evie.

“That has been a really unique part of the preparation, I suppose, and a silver lining to coming down to Melbourne a little bit earlier,” she said.

“I have been able to catch up with a lot of friends who I haven’t seen over the past year and obviously they have been through a really tough period, so it has been nice to have the time to catch up with them and not feel rushed.

“It has certainly been a unique couple of weeks, because we have come together with the other Aussies for the first time in an entire year for a lot of us.

“It has been nice to hit with some of the girls, to be able to hit with Sammy a couple of times. It is always nice to get back on the court with Sam.”