Ashleigh Barty

Barty started her season in her hometown, at the Brisbane International, as a favourite to win the tournament, but picked up a disappointing second round loss against qualifier Jennifer Brady. However, she bounced back the following week and captured her first title on home soil at the Adelaide International, following victories over Markéta Vondroušová (in a rematch of the 2019 French Open final), Danielle Collins and Dayana Yastremska in the final. After this, Barty entered the Australian Open as one of the favourites to win the title, and as the first Australian woman to ever play the tournament while being the WTA world No. 1. She lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Sofia Kenin, despite having two set points in each of the sets played. Nevertheless, Barty became the first Australian woman to reach the semifinals since Wendy Turnbull in 1984 and picked up her first top ten win at a major (quarterfinals over Petra Kvitová).

In the World Group, Barty was instrumental in leading Australia to the 2019 Fed Cup final. She won all six of her rubbers in the first two rounds to help Australia advance against the United States and Belarus, with both ties won by a tight score of 3–2. She partnered with Priscilla Hon in her doubles rubber against the United States, and Samantha Stosur in the doubles against Belarus. Australia faced France in the final, which was played at home at Perth Arena. Barty continued her Fed Cup success in her first singles rubber with a double bagel victory over Caroline Garcia. However, her 15-rubber win streak in Fed Cup came to an end in her next match with a three-set loss to Kristina Mladenovic. Ajla Tomljanović won her second singles rubber to set up a decisive doubles rubber between Barty and Stosur for Australia and Garcia and Mladenovic for France. Garcia and Mladenovic won the match in straight sets to clinch the Fed Cup for France. The final day had 13,842 spectators in attendance.

Barty did not return to the tournament until 2019 where she teamed up with Matthew Ebden. Australia finished runner-up in their round-robin group again. The pair won their first two ties against France and Spain, but lost both of their singles matches in the decisive tie against the German team of Angelique Kerber and Alexander Zverev who won all of their ties and the group.

Thanasi Kokkinakis, one of her compatriot contemporaries as well as one of her mixed doubles partners, has described her game as, "Ash plays different to most girls. She likes to come into the net, she uses her slice very well and she’s crafty. Whereas a lot of girls like to hit the ball hard and flat, she plays a little bit differently, she plays with a bit more control... and she makes things awkward for her opponent."

Back on her favourite surface, Barty won the Nottingham Open on grass for her second career WTA title. She defeated home favourite and British No. 1 Johanna Konta in the final. She then recorded her first match wins at Wimbledon and reached the third round, matching her best result at a Grand Slam tournament. At the start of the summer hard court season, Barty did well at the Premier 5 hard court tournaments, making it to the semifinals at the Canadian Open and the third round at the Cincinnati Open. She lost to world No. 1 Simona Halep at both events. At the US Open, Barty was the 18th seed and reached the fourth round at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, where she was defeated by No. 8 Karolína Plíšková.

With CoCo Vandeweghe injured, Barty began to regularly partner with Victoria Azarenka. The pair reached the semifinals at the Miami Open and won their first title together at the Italian Open, a Premier 5 event. They defeated the top seeded team of Krejčíková and Siniaková in both tournaments. During the summer, they reached another Premier 5 semifinal at the Canadian Open, this time losing to Krejčíková and Siniaková who were again the top seeds. Barty came close to defending her title at the US Open. In the quarterfinals, she and Azarenka defeated top seeds Babos and Mladenovic, Barty's opponents in the 2018 final. They made the final, but lost in straight sets to Elise Mertens and Sabalenka. Although they only played eight tournaments during the season, they nearly qualified for the WTA Finals, falling one spot short in ninth place.

Barty played in two Fed Cup ties for Australia in 2018. In their February tie against Ukraine, she won both of her singles matches as well as the deciding doubles rubber with Dellacqua to carry her team into the World Group playoffs. This turned out to be the last match Barty would play with Dellacqua, as well as the last match of Dellacqua's career before she officially retired in April. In the following round, Barty won both of her singles matches against the Netherlands to help Australia win the tie 4–1 and advance back into the top-tier World Group in 2019 for the first time in four years.

Barty's short stature and diverse array of shots have led her to be compared to former world No. 1 and five-time Grand Slam singles champion Martina Hingis by David Taylor, one of Hingis' former coaches. She has solid groundstrokes on both the forehand and backhand sides. In particular, she uses her powerful forehand to create sharp angles on cross-court shots. Her kick serve and backhand slice are also two of her better shots. Barty's doubles game translates well to singles, as she frequently comes to the net and excels at volleying. She uses her variety of shots to trouble her opponents. Despite her height, Barty is an excellent server. She finished the 2018 season at fourth on the WTA Tour in aces with a total of 297, nearly five per match. She was also second in percentage of service points won that year among players with at least ten matches, behind only Serena Williams.

In 2017, Barty reunited with Dellacqua as her regular doubles partner. Starting the year outside the top 250 in both singles and doubles and never having been ranked in the top 100 in singles, she finished the year inside the top 20 in both rankings.

Barty and Dellacqua reached the quarterfinals or better at three out of four Grand Slam tournaments during the 2017 season. In particular, they made it to the finals at the French Open to become the first Australian women's doubles team to reach all four Grand Slam finals. They lost the final to the top seeded team of Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Šafářová who had also won the previous two majors. Barty and Dellacqua contested six finals on the year in total, winning half of them. They won the Birmingham Classic, where Barty also made it to the final in singles. This was their second career title at the event after winning it in 2013, and also their first Premier title together.

Barty is the National Indigenous Tennis Ambassador for Tennis Australia. The goal of this position is to promote more indigenous participation in the sport of tennis. Barty has embraced her heritage and her role as an ambassador, saying, "I'm a very proud Indigenous woman and I think that for me taking on this role is something very close to my heart. I'm very excited." She was recognised as the Female Sportsperson of the Year at the National Dreamtime Awards, a ceremony that honours Indigenous Australians, in both 2017 and 2018, the first two editions of the awards. Barty was honoured as the Young Australian of the Year in 2020.

Barty has been in a relationship with Australian professional golfer Garry Kissick since 2017.

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 also led Australia to a runner-up finish at the 2019 Fed Cup.

Barty became interested in potentially playing cricket after meeting with the Australian women's national team in early 2015 to discuss her experience as a professional athlete. She was intrigued by the opportunity to play a team sport as a change from the individual sport of tennis. At the time, she had no competitive cricket experience, having only played casually with her family. Barty later approached Queensland Cricket about how she could get involved with the sport. Andy Richards, the coach of the Queensland Fire and soon-to-be coach of the Brisbane Heat, was immediately impressed with Barty's skill set, saying, "Her skill from the first time she picked up a bat was outstanding from a coach's perspective... She never missed a ball in her first session... That's what attracted me as a coach to her as a player, her ability to pick up things really quickly."

Barty began the 2014 season by qualifying for the Brisbane International. She won her opening round match against No. 33 Daniela Hantuchová before withdrawing from the tournament due to a left adductor injury. This transpired to be her only singles main draw win of the year at any level. She played in three Grand Slam main draws, including at the US Open where she had to qualify, but lost all of her first round matches.

Despite her struggles in singles in 2014, Barty had another good year in doubles with Dellacqua as her regular partner. The pair won their second title together at the Internationaux de Strasbourg during the clay season. While they did not repeat their success at the Grand Slam tournaments from the previous year, they still managed to reach the quarterfinals at both the French Open and Wimbledon. They also were unable to defend their title at the Birmingham Classic, but made it to the final for the second consecutive year.

After the 2014 US Open, Barty announced she was "[taking] a break from professional tennis." She later said that she took time off from tennis because "it was too much too quickly for me as I've been travelling from quite a young age... I wanted to experience life as a normal teenaged girl and have some normal experiences." Barty was ranked outside of the top 200 in singles and was No. 40 in doubles at the time.

—Barty speaking on her Hopman Cup win over Schiavone at age 16.

Barty took a break from professional tennis from September 2014 until February 2016, and ended up playing semi-professional cricket during the second half of that hiatus. Although she gave no reasons at the time, she later said, "I needed some time to refresh mentally more than anything. It became a bit of a slog for me and I wasn’t enjoying my tennis as much as I would have liked to." Her family and coaches all supported her decision. Barty had no intention of retiring and continued to play casually during her hiatus, saying, "It was never in mind that I’d retired as such... I’d been coaching and holding a racket pretty much every day so I wasn’t completely out of practice." During her time off, she also pursued her hobbies such as fishing; and built a new house close to her family. She ultimately decided to return to the sport, commenting, "After a break and trying other things, I missed tennis and decided that I wanted to come back."

Besides her first WTA main draw appearances, Barty also had a breakout year on the ITF Women's Circuit. She compiled a singles record of 34–4 in nine tournaments to accompany a doubles record of 25–5 while frequently partnering with compatriot Sally Peers. She won four ITF titles in both singles and doubles. In particular, her first two singles titles came in back-to-back weeks in February in Sydney and Mildura. She also won both the singles and doubles events at the Nottingham Challenge, a mid-level $50K grass court event in the lead-up to Wimbledon. Barty ended the season with a doubles title at the $75K event on carpet in Japan, where she partnered with Dellacqua for the second time for her biggest title of the year. Her quarterfinal appearance in singles at the same tournament helped her rise to No. 177 in the WTA singles rankings, having first cracked the top 200 of the WTA singles rankings a few weeks earlier at the age of 16. She also finished the year ranked No. 129 in doubles.

In 2013, Barty began playing primarily at the WTA Tour level. She only played in eight singles main draws in total after losing in qualifying at five tournaments. Although she stayed outside the top 100 in singles throughout the year, she established herself as one of the world's elite double players despite not turning 17 until the middle of the season.

Barty was awarded another wild card into the 2013 Australian Open singles main draw, but lost her opening match. Towards the end of February, she won her first two WTA Tour-level matches at the Malaysian Open against Chanel Simmonds and Zarina Diyas before her run ended in the quarterfinals. Barty's only other two tour-level singles wins of 2013 came at Grand Slam tournaments. She was awarded main draw wildcards into the French Open and US Open, where she won her first round matches at both events.

In doubles, Barty partnered with Dellacqua in eight WTA Tour-level events during the 2013 season, including all four Grand Slam tournaments. The pair finished runner-up in three out of four such events, only failing to reach the final at the French Open where they lost in the first round. At the age of 16, Barty's Australian Open finals appearance made her the youngest Grand Slam finalist since Tatiana Golovin won the mixed doubles title at the 2004 French Open at the same age. As a team, Barty and Dellacqua became the first Australian duo to reach an Australian Open women's doubles final since Evonne Goolagong and Helen Gourlay in 1977. This success also helped Barty advance nearly 100 spots in the world rankings to No. 46. At Wimbledon and the US Open, Barty and Dellacqua defeated three of the top ten seeds at both events, including the No. 2 seeds in each case. The closest they came to winning a major title was at the Australian Open and the US Open, where they were up a break with a set in hand in both finals.

Barty began training with the Fire in July, and also started playing for the Western Suburbs District Cricket Club, a local team that competes in Brisbane's Women's Premier Cricket Twenty20 league. She had an impressive second game for the team, scoring 63 from 60 to go along with taking 2–13 from four overs. Barty played in 13 matches for Western Suburbs, scoring one century and averaging 42.4 runs while taking eight wickets. Western Suburbs ultimately won the league's grand final, with Barty ending up the team's top scorer in the match after hitting 37 from 39 balls.

After Barty's performance in her second game with Western Suburbs, she also signed with the Heat for the inaugural Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) Twenty20 season. Barty made her debut in December and hit 39 off 27 balls with one six in a match against the Melbourne Stars, the second highest score on her team. She remained a regular member of the team, but only had a double figure score once more during the season. The Heat finished with a 7–7 record, good for sixth out of eight teams in the competition. The WBBL season ended in January, while the local Brisbane league ended in February.

Barty and Dellacqua finished the year as the third-highest ranked doubles team, earning them a spot in the WTA Finals. They had narrowly missed qualifying for the event in 2013 when they were the fifth-ranked team and only the top four were accepted instead of eight. In their debut, the duo were upset in the first round by the lowest-seeded team of Kiki Bertens and Johanna Larsson. Individually, Barty also established a new career-high doubles world ranking of No. 11 towards end of the season.

In the lead-up to the French Open, Barty played only two clay court events. Her best result was a quarterfinal at the Madrid Open, where she lost to No. 3 Halep. She closed out the clay court season by winning her first Grand Slam singles title at the French Open. As the eighth seed, she defeated world No. 38 Markéta Vondroušová in the final, dropping just four games. She only lost two sets during the tournament, one to Sofia Kenin in the fourth round and the other to Amanda Anisimova in the semifinals. In particular, she needed to come from a set and a break down against Anisimova, after holding a 5–0 lead in the first set, to advance. With the title, Barty became the first Australian to win the French Open in singles since Margaret Court in 1973 and the first Australian to win a Grand Slam singles title since Sam Stosur at the 2011 US Open. She also rose to No. 2 in the world. Barty then followed up this title with another at her next event, the Birmingham Classic, to become the No. 1 ranked player in the world. She is the second Australian to be No. 1 in the WTA singles rankings after Evonne Goolagong Cawley. Barty's win streak came to an end at 15 matches when she was defeated at Wimbledon by Alison Riske in the fourth round, her best result at Wimbledon to date.

Barty also made her Fed Cup debut for Australia in 2013 at the age of 16, playing in two away ties. In their February defeat to the top-seeded Czech Republic, she lost the dead rubber doubles match with Dellacqua. Two months later against Switzerland, Barty won her only match against No. 56 Stefanie Vögele to clinch the tie for Australia and keep them in the top-level World Group the following year.

Barty has represented Australia in the Hopman Cup twice. She made her first appearance at the event in 2013 where she competed alongside Bernard Tomic after Dellacqua withdrew before the tournament due to a foot injury. The Australians finished their round-robin group in second place behind Serbia. They defeated Germany and Italy in their first and last ties, but lost to Serbia in a close tie that was decided by a match tiebreak in the mixed doubles. During the tie against Italy, Barty won a lopsided singles match against former French Open champion and world No. 35 Francesca Schiavone in just 55 minutes, the biggest singles win of her career at the time.

Barty made her singles and doubles main draw debuts on the WTA Tour in early 2012. Her doubles debut came at the Brisbane International, the first event of the year. After losing in singles qualifying, she partnered with Dellacqua to make the semifinals in doubles while still just 15 years old. Their tournament was highlighted by an upset of the top seeded team of Natalie Grandin and Vladimíra Uhlířová, both of whom were in the top 25 of the WTA doubles rankings. The following week, Barty made her singles debut as a wildcard at the Hobart International, losing her opening round match to Bethanie Mattek-Sands. She then made her Grand Slam main draw debut the very next week at the Australian Open, where she lost her first round match to Anna Tatishvili. Later in the year, Barty also received wildcards into the main draws of the French Open and Wimbledon, but lost her opening round matches to Petra Kvitová and Roberta Vinci respectively, both of whom were seeded.

Born in Ipswich in 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.

After a second round loss at the 2011 French Open, Barty won her only junior Grand Slam title at Wimbledon at the age of 15. She became just the second Australian to win the girls' singles event after Debbie Freeman in 1980, and the first Australian girl to win any junior Grand Slam singles title since Jelena Dokic at the 1998 US Open. Compatriot Luke Saville also won the boys' title to help Australia sweep both singles events. The only set she dropped in the tournament was to Madison Keys in the third round, and her victory in the final was against third seed Irina Khromacheva. In the last Grand Slam tournament of the year, Barty produced another strong singles result, losing to top seed Caroline Garcia in the semifinals of the US Open. Barty also won two more Grade 1 titles in doubles that season, one at Roehampton the week before Wimbledon and the other at the Canadian Open the week before the US Open. She concluded the season by winning the Junior Fed Cup for Australia with teammate Belinda Woolcock. Barty only played in one junior tournament the following year, where she finished runner-up in both singles and doubles at the Torneo International in Italy.

Barty started her professional career in April 2010 just after turning 14 at an International Tennis Federation (ITF) $25K event in her hometown of Ipswich. She lost her first match to Karolina Wlodarczak. Barty played in one more main draw that year in Mount Gambier, where she reached the semifinals in just her second professional tournament. Her first pro match win came against Ayu Fani Damayanti. In 2011, she entered three more $25K events in Australia, with her best results being two quarterfinals. Following her girls' singles title at Wimbledon, Tennis Australia awarded Barty a wildcard into qualifying at the US Open. In her first WTA Tour-level appearance, she was unable to qualify for the main draw, losing her opening round match to Julia Glushko. Barty closed out the year by competing in a playoff for one of the Australian wildcard berths into the main draw of the 2012 Australian Open. Despite being the youngest player in the competition, she won all five of her matches without dropping a set to earn the wildcard. She swept her round-robin group featuring world No. 133 Casey Dellacqua before defeating No. 239 Arina Rodionova and No. 167 Olivia Rogowska in the knockout stage.

Barty reached a career-high ITF world junior ranking of No. 2, having excelled at both singles and doubles. She started playing low-level events on the ITF Junior Circuit in 2009 at the age of 13 and won her first title at the Grade 4 Australian International before turning 14. Barty continued to only play in tournaments below the higher tiers until the end of 2010, but compiled a record of 24–2 in her five events that season while also capturing a Grade 2 title in Thailand. She played her first junior Grand Slam event in 2011 at the Australian Open, where she lost her opening match to third seed Lauren Davis. However, she bounced back from this defeat in the coming months by winning both the singles and doubles events at two high-level Grade 1 events, the Sarawak Chief Minister's Cup in Malaysia in March and the Belgian International Junior Championships in May.

For the second consecutive year, Barty began the season with a runner-up finish at the Sydney International, this time losing to Petra Kvitová. During the event, she defeated three top 15 players, including Simona Halep for her first career victory over a current world No. 1 player. At her next tournament, Barty made her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the Australian Open, defeating Maria Sharapova before again losing to Kvitová. She became the first Australian to make the quarterfinals at the event since Jelena Dokic in 2009. After a fourth round appearance at the Indian Wells Open, Barty won the Miami Open for her first Premier Mandatory title. She defeated three top 10 players in the event, including No. 2 Kvitová in the quarterfinals and No. 7 Karolína Plíšková in the final. With this result, she also made her top 10 debut.

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 Evonne Goolagong Cawley. She is also a top 20 player in doubles, having achieved a career-high ranking of No. 5 in the world. Barty has won eight singles titles and ten doubles titles on the WTA Tour, including one Grand Slam singles title at the 2019 French Open 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.

Ashleigh Barty was born on 24 April 1996 to Josie and Robert Barty. Her father works in the government and is a Ngarigo Indigenous Australian. Her mother works as a radiographer and is the daughter of English immigrants. Barty grew up in Springfield, a suburb of Ipswich in Queensland and attended Woodcrest State College throughout her upbringing. She has two older sisters named Sara and Ali. Besides tennis, Barty also played netball as a child, but decided to focus on tennis because she "thought [netball] was a girls' game" and because her sisters were better than her at that sport. She did not play cricket while growing up.