BARTY Ashleigh

General
BREAKS FROM TENNIS
After the 2014 US Open she took time away from tennis. She had a stint playing cricket competitively, including for Australian team Brisbane Heat, before returning to tennis in 2016. "I don't even know if I'd be sitting here talking to you if I was playing tennis [and I] didn't step away. I needed time to step away, to live a normal life, because this tennis life certainly isn't normal. I think I needed time to grow as a person, to mature. I think I was an average cricketer, and I'm becoming a better tennis player. It was certainly an enjoyable time in my life. It was a time that I think I found myself a little bit more as a person, and I met an amazing group of girls and a new circle of friends, I suppose. But I think tennis was always my calling. At the end of the day, it [tennis] was just a game that I wanted to have fun in, enjoy, and for me it turned into a little bit of a slog, and I wasn't enjoying it quite as much as I would have liked. So I thought it was the right time for me to step away. Not that it would, but just in case it drove me away from tennis completely." In 2020 she opted not to play at the US Open or defend her French Open title from 2019, staying in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. She spent time playing golf and won a club championship in Brookwater, QLD, Australia, in September 2020. "I'm not one to go and practise [golf], I enjoy just going out there and playing. It's a bit of a different pace to tennis. The handicap did go down from about 10 to three." (theanalyst.com, 29 Apr 2021; itftennis.com, 19 Dec 2019; nytimes.com, 30 Mar 2019, 01 Jul 2019, 19 Jan 2016; theguardian.com, 23 Jun 2019; washingtonpost.com, 30 May 2021)

HERITAGE
Her father Robert is a descendant of the indigenous Ngarigo people. She was named Tennis Australia National Indigenous Tennis Ambassador in 2018. "I'm very proud of my indigenous heritage and to be named as a National Indigenous Tennis Ambassador. Giving back to my community is very important to me and I hope to inspire many more indigenous kids to get active and enjoy their tennis." (rolandgarros.com, 05 Aug 2019; Twitter profile, 15 Apr 2018)