It was the most incredible match of my life: Ashleigh Barty on winning the French Open

As Wimbledon looms, unassuming world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty relives winning her first grand slam.

Barty says winning at Roland Garros was not how she had imagined it to be ... because she had never imagined winning there. Picture: Clive Brunskill/Getty

Ashleigh Barty warms up for her matches with an Aussie rules football. The 23-year-old from Australia can play cricket and golf and unwinds by going fishing. No wonder she was able to adapt to the strong wind on clay, a surface that had not previously suited her, to win the French Open 23 days ago.

At times, Roland Garros felt like it was hosting a new sport, so aggressive was the swirling breeze, and Barty is, quite simply, good at sport.

She is not keen, though, on being portrayed as someone who takes her tennis lightly. There was a romantic notion as she won her first grand-slam title that this was a woman who had given up the sport to play cricket at a high level only to return as a relaxed polymath. Just as we have been in awe of the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, for their ability to launch clothing ranges and duck out of tour events while still winning the major prizes, so we thought of Barty as a new type of versatile champion.

It is true that she played for Brisbane Heat in the Women’s Big Bash League in 2015-16, after dropping to No 186 in the rankings and feeling in need of a break from tennis.

It is true that she plays off a ten handicap. It is true that she is one of the most devoted fans of Richmond, of the Australian Football League, but she frowns at the suggestion that she is an all-rounder, with tennis only one facet of her sporting life.

“I enjoy playing a range of different sports but tennis is my job, my career, my passion and what I focus on the most, but I certainly love playing a load of different sports,” she says.

Still, as she overcame the demanding conditions in Paris, it was obvious that Barty possesses the ability to adapt to almost any sporting challenge.

“It was a unique experience and it happened really quickly. We played the quarter, the semi and the final in successive days and it just sort of happened,” she says of her French Open triumph, where she defeated Marketa Vondrousova in the final. “It was remarkable and it was really amazing how my team were able to simplify it. It’s an incredible occasion but we were able to bring it back to something really normal, which is why I was able to play such incredible tennis.

“The wind added a new element and even in the final, it was a different match from end to end. It was something you had to focus on, it’s not easy playing in the elements. Even though I’d always enjoyed playing in a little bit of extra wind, it was extremely challenging.

“I’ve played in windy places before; my coach when I was younger taught me to play in the wind, to be smart and to enjoy it. You have to use it as your friend, you can’t play against it because if you start fighting it, you’ll never win.”

Polite, ‘bleeds Vegemite’

Barty is utterly straightforward and plain-speaking.

As she walked among the damp courts at the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham, the Australian media collectively beamed that at last they could focus on a tennis star who is no-nonsense, polite and, as they put it, “bleeds Vegemite”.

She is the complete opposite of Nick Kyrgios, her compatriot, who is rather keen to demean his training regime and regularly loses his cool on court.

“I love sport, I get fully invested and I’m always interested in how other athletes work and the skills they need to be the best in their sport,” she says. “As a kid, I used to like to emulate all different kinds of sporting people across all codes but now I’m able to separate the work and the play a little bit better. When I’m switching off, being able to be fully invested in sport and Australian sport in particular is pretty amazing.”

Her big love are Richmond, the Tigers, who must have phoned her, I suggest, to invite her on to the pitch so they can laud their most famous supporter — but Barty frowns at the idea that the club would be so smitten.

“They know I’m a touch preoccupied,” she says, unsmiling. “Any time I get the opportunity to go down to the club when I’m in Australia, I always do.

“[Aussie rules] almost becomes a religion in our country, there are hundreds of thousands that are extremely passionate about it. Their weeks are set up and revolve around football. Any time my team are playing, I make sure I’m free in those couple of hours to make sure I can watch it, enjoy and live through it. It’s a little bit like the Premier League where the whole country is invested.

“Australians very much do have a sporting culture, it’s a massive part of our lives. Not all of us play sport but it was a path that I chose and a path that I love.”

Barty appears to be in a twilight zone, somewhere between sporty girl next door and famous grand-slam champion, and she has not yet quite adapted to the fact that as a title-holder, her life story will be fascinating, her views of interest. She is, for example, captivated by her Ngarigo roots.

“That’s my heritage, that’s my tribe,” she says. “I’m extremely proud of my indigenous heritage and it’s something I hold close to my heart and it’s a pretty amazing part of my life. It comes from my dad’s side and when we were younger, we explored our family tree and began to learn a little bit more about our tribe and that’s where the connection is.”

However, she is unwilling to discuss how such tribes’ numbers have dwindled and whether that motivates her to keep the Ngarigo name alive. “I don’t need to talk about that,” she says.

Winning at Roland Garros was not how she had imagined it to be because she had never imagined winning there.

“It’s never a reality until you’re in that situation, particularly the French Open, it’s something I’d never dreamt of,” she insists. What did it feel like when she had secured the title?

“I don’t really know what I was thinking, it was a little bit blank in a way, I didn’t know what my emotions were, what my feelings were,” she says. “It was something I’d never felt before.

“It’s indescribable, I didn’t know those emotions and feelings existed until it happened. It was a mix of everything. It’s impossible to describe, it was the most incredible match of my life.”

The Times