Ashleigh Barty

Ashleigh "Ash" Barty is a retired Australian professional tennis player who won three Grand Slam singles titles during her career: the 2019 French Open, the 2021 Wimbledon Championships, and the 2022 Australian Open. She was ranked world No. 1 for a total of approximately 121 weeks, first achieving the ranking in June 2019 following her French Open victory. Her retirement in March 2022, announced just weeks after winning the Australian Open at age 24, came as a surprise to the tennis world, as she was the reigning world No. 1 at the time.

Barty's game was built around an unconventional slice backhand, aggressive net presence, and the ability to vary pace and spin in ways that troubled opponents on every surface. She won titles on clay, grass, and hard courts, a versatility few players in the modern era have matched. Beyond the court, she's been open about the mental and emotional pressures of professional sport, and her decision to retire at her peak prompted wide discussion about athlete well-being, motivation, and what success in professional tennis should look like.

Early Life

Ashleigh Barty was born on 24 April 1996 in Ipswich, Queensland, Australia, to parents Margaret and Robert Barty. She is of Ngarigo descent on her father's side, a connection she has spoken about publicly and with pride. She began playing tennis at age four at the West Brisbane Tennis Centre under coach Jim Joyce, who remained a significant figure in her development. Her talent was obvious early. At 12, she moved to the Queensland Academy of Sport, where her technical game took shape under more structured coaching.

Barty reached the final of the 2011 Wimbledon girls' singles, a result that confirmed her potential at the junior level. She turned professional in 2011 and began competing on the WTA Tour while still a teenager. But the demands of full-time professional tennis took a toll. In 2014, after struggling with the pressures of constant travel and competition, she stepped away from the sport entirely. She took nearly two years away from professional tennis, during which time she played cricket for the Brisbane Heat in the Women's Big Bash League. That break, unusual for a player of her potential, later became one of the more discussed aspects of her career story, with Barty crediting it as essential to her long-term well-being and motivation.

She returned to the WTA Tour in 2016 and wasted little time rebuilding. Her first WTA singles title came in 2017 at the Malaysian Open. Her ranking climbed steadily after that, and by late 2018 she had cracked the top 20. Those years away from the sport, rather than setting her back, appeared to have given her a stability that served her well through the pressures of the tour.

Career

Early Professional Career

Barty's return to professional tennis in 2016 marked the start of the most productive phase of her career. She didn't rush. Her first full season back produced modest but steady results, and her 2017 Malaysian Open title, her first on the WTA Tour, signaled that she was a different player than the teenager who'd walked away two years earlier. Coaching continuity mattered here: Craig Tyzzer, who began working with her during her comeback, became her long-term coach and remained with her through her retirement.

Her 2018 season brought her first Grand Slam quarterfinal, at the US Open. She reached the same stage at the Australian Open that year, showing she could handle the biggest stages. Rankings followed results, and by the start of 2019 she was firmly in the top 10. Still, nobody quite predicted what was coming.

Grand Slam Success

Everything changed at Roland Garros in 2019. Barty won the French Open without dropping a set in the final, defeating Amanda Anisimova in the semifinals and defeating Marketa Vondrousova in the final 6-1, 6-3. The win made her the first Australian woman to win the French Open since Margaret Smith Court in 1973. The victory elevated her to world No. 1 for the first time, a position she would hold for 121 weeks over the course of her career, a figure inflated somewhat by the COVID-19 ranking freeze that suspended competition in 2020 but remarkable regardless.

Her second Grand Slam title came at Wimbledon in 2021. Barty won the grass-court title without losing a set throughout the tournament, defeating Karolina Pliskova in the final 6-3, 6-7, 6-3. It was a personal milestone: Barty had spoken publicly about her admiration for Evonne Goolagong Cawley, another Indigenous Australian who won Wimbledon, and she wore a dress during the tournament that was designed as a tribute to Goolagong Cawley's 1971 Wimbledon outfit. The significance of an Indigenous Australian woman winning Wimbledon was not lost on commentators or on Barty herself.

Her third and final Grand Slam title came at the 2022 Australian Open, on home soil, in front of an Australian crowd. She defeated Danielle Collins in the final 6-3, 7-6, saving a match point in the second set before closing out the match. It was the first time an Australian woman had won the Australian Open since Chris O'Neil in 1978. She was 25 years old. The win drew enormous attention at home and abroad, and few observers imagined it would be her last professional match.

Doubles Career

Alongside her singles success, Barty also competed in doubles throughout her career and achieved significant results at that level. Her most consistent doubles partnership was with fellow Australian Casey Dellacqua, with whom she reached the final of the 2013 and 2014 US Open doubles and the 2013 Wimbledon doubles final. Later in her career, she partnered with Storm Hunter, and together they won the 2022 Australian Open women's doubles title, making Barty one of the rare players to hold both the singles and doubles titles at the same Grand Slam simultaneously. Her doubles record showed the same tactical intelligence that defined her singles game: an instinct for the net and an ability to read play before it developed.

Retirement

Barty announced her retirement from professional tennis on 23 March 2022, roughly six weeks after winning the Australian Open. She was 25 years old and ranked world No. 1 at the time. The announcement was made public through a video interview with retired Australian cricketer and close friend Jelena Dokic, posted to Barty's social media accounts. She was direct about her reasons. "I don't have the physical drive, the emotional want and everything it takes to challenge yourself at the very top of the level any more," she said in the interview.

The decision prompted intense debate about what the retirement meant for her legacy and whether an athlete who retired at the top had left too soon. Barty didn't engage with that debate publicly. She had won the Australian Open. She had won Wimbledon. She had won the French Open. Those were the goals she'd set. She was done. In the years since, she has consistently denied any interest in a comeback, most recently in 2025 when she told reporters that a return to professional tennis was not something she was considering.

Personal Life

Barty married Garry Kissick, a Queensland-based golf professional, in July 2022, following a relationship that began during her playing career. The couple have two children together. She has spoken warmly about family life and the freedom that retirement has given her to be present for her children in a way that was not possible on tour. Her post-retirement life has been deliberately quiet. She lives near Brisbane and is rarely seen at public events. She has taken on commercial work, including an ambassadorial role with an Australian sunscreen brand, but has largely stepped away from the spotlight.

She has remained connected to tennis in a coaching and mentoring capacity. In 2024 and 2025, she worked with junior Australian players, passing on the slice backhand that defined her game to the next generation of players coming through the national development program. Golf has also become a significant part of her life since retirement, both through her husband's profession and through her own play.

Throughout her career and since, Barty has spoken openly about the mental health pressures facing professional athletes. Her 2014 break from tennis and her 2022 retirement have both been cited, including by her, as decisions made with mental well-being in mind. She has supported initiatives encouraging open conversations about those pressures, though she tends to do so through measured public statements rather than large-scale advocacy campaigns.

Recognition

Barty earned numerous awards and honours during and after her career. She won the WTA Player of the Year award in 2019 and 2021, reflecting her consistency at the top of the rankings across those seasons. In January 2020, she was named Australian of the Year in the sport category, an honour that recognised both her tennis achievements and her standing as a role model in Australian public life. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2022 for services to tennis and to the community.

She was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2023, joining a list of inductees that includes Evonne Goolagong Cawley, the player she cited as her greatest inspiration. Over the course of her career, she earned approximately A$24 million in prize money, one of the highest totals in the history of Australian tennis.

Career Statistics

Barty retired with 15 WTA singles titles and 12 WTA doubles titles. Her three Grand Slam singles titles were won on three different surfaces: clay (French Open 2019), grass (Wimbledon 2021), and hard court (Australian Open 2022). She held the world No. 1 ranking for approximately 121 weeks across her career, first reaching the top spot on 24 June 2019. Her career win-loss record in singles stood at 313-108 at the time of retirement. She earned approximately A$24 million in career prize money.

References

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