Ashleigh Barty

About Ashleigh Barty

Ashleigh Barty (born 24 April 1996) is an Australian professional tennis player and former cricketer. She is ranked No. 1 in the world in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and is the second Australian WTA singles No. 1 after fellow Indigenous Australian player Evonne Goolagong Cawley.[a] She has also been a top 10 player in doubles, having achieved a career-high ranking of No. 5 in the world. Barty has won thirteen singles titles and eleven doubles titles on the WTA Tour, including two Grand Slam singles titles, the 2019 French Open and 2021 Wimbledon Championships, and one Grand Slam doubles title at the 2018 US Open with partner CoCo Vandeweghe. She is also the reigning champion in singles at the WTA Finals.

Born in Ipswich, Queensland, Barty began playing tennis at the age of four in nearby Brisbane. She had a promising junior career, reaching a career-high ranking of No. 2 in the world after winning the girls' singles title at Wimbledon in 2011. As a teenager, Barty had early success in doubles on the WTA Tour in 2013, finishing runner-up at three Grand Slam doubles events with veteran Casey Dellacqua, including at the Australian Open while still only 16 years old. Late in the 2014 season, Barty decided to take an indefinite break from tennis. She ended up playing cricket during this hiatus, signing with the Brisbane Heat for the inaugural Women's Big Bash League season despite having no formal training in the sport.

Barty returned to tennis in early 2016. She had a breakout year in singles in 2017, winning her first WTA title at the Malaysian Open and rising to No. 17 in the world despite having never been ranked inside the top 100 before her time off. She also had another prolific year in doubles with Dellacqua, culminating in her first appearance at the WTA Finals in doubles. Barty then won her first Premier Mandatory and Grand Slam tournament titles in doubles in 2018 before accomplishing the same feat in singles in 2019. She has been ranked No. 1 in singles for all but four weeks since June 2019, winning seven more titles, including five in 2021, a second major title, and two WTA 1000 titles. Barty has also led Australia to a runner-up finish at the 2019 Fed Cup and won a bronze medal in mixed doubles at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Barty is an all-court player who employs a wide variety of shots into her style of play. Despite her short stature for a professional tennis player, she is an excellent server, regularly ranking among the WTA Tour's leaders in aces and percentage of service points won. Barty serves as the National Indigenous Tennis Ambassador for Tennis Australia.