Ash Barty: One Plus One Interview
The coronavirus pandemic has given Ash Barty time to reflect on her impressive young tennis career, from its auspicious beginning to its unforeseen hiatus, all the way to world domination.
Key points:
- Ash Barty says her period out of tennis playing cricket was important for her to “find herself”
- She says that her French Open victory remains a “blur”, and that winning Wimbledon is her number one goal
- Barty says she has endured good times and bad through the pandemic, but it has given her a greater perspective on life
Barty, the world number one, has been a popular Australian sporting champion and in an interview with Kurt Fearnley for One Plus One, charted the personal growth that took her to the top.
Barty says her love of tennis was forged at the age of five, when a Saturday morning lesson set her on her way. At 15-years-old, Barty won the junior Wimbledon title — a success, she says, that came “too fast and too soon”.
In the early years of her career, Barty was a promising teenager whose junior success had marked her for stardom in Australia and abroad. But the rapid rise left Barty feeling “lost”, prompting in 2014 her shock decision to step away from tennis — to play semi-professional cricket with the Brisbane Heat.
“In short, I think I needed just to find myself,” Barty said.
“I felt like I got twisted and maybe a little bit lost along the way in the first part of my career.
“I was very lucky to have a lot of success, but I’m still very much a homebody and I kind of lost my way a little bit with not being able to connect with my family.
“We didn’t lose that love or that care, but I felt like there was a bit of a split. I wanted to come back to that. I wanted to come back to my family and those who love me the most.”
