Legend Bio: Ashleigh Barty

Ashleigh Barty's era of dominance saw her finish as the year-end No.1 three consecutive years from 2019 to 2021, a run that began after she became the first Australian woman in 43 years to reach the top ranking in June 2019.

Barty's historic Grand Slam victories – she was the first Australian woman to win a singles major since Evonne Goolagong Cawley at 1980 Wimbledon –  showcased an enviably complete, all-court game. She won her first major on the clay of Roland Garros in 2019, triumphed on the grass of Wimbledon in 2021, and fittingly capped her career by winning the Australian Open on hard courts in 2022  – the first home champion since Chris O'Neil in 1978. She also triumphed at the WTA Finals title in Shenzhen in 2019, where she received the biggest pay check in women's tennis history at that time.

With her unique blend of power, spin and touch, Barty's elite-level consistency was further proven by three WTA 1000 titles, winning Miami twice (2019, 2021) and Cincinnati in 2021. Before her Australian Open triumph, she had thrilled the home fans with titles at Adelaide in 2020 and 2022 and the Yarra Valley Classic in Melbourne in 2021. In 2019, she spearheaded Australia to its first Billie Jean King Cup final since 1993, against France in Perth.

The athletic Barty was a formidable doubles player, too, winning 12 titles and achieving a career-high ranking of No.5. She captured the 2018 US Open doubles title with CoCo Vandeweghe and was a finalist at all four Grand Slams alongside Casey Dellacqua earlier in her career. In 2018, she was one of only two players to finish the year ranked inside the Top 20 in both singles and doubles.

Barty's career famously featured a unique hiatus. She made her WTA main draw debut as a wild card at Hobart in 2012 but, after the 2014 US Open, she stepped away from the game for 21 months – signing up to play professional cricket for the Brisbane Heat in Australia's Big Bash League.

Missing the game, she returned during the grass swing in 2016 and, under coach Craig Tyzzer, started building towards the realization of her potential. In 2017, she won her maiden WTA title at Kuala Lumpur, followed by another two titles in 2018, including the WTA Elite Trophy at Zhuhai – a result that set the scene for a dazzling 2019 that saw her win her lift the trophies at Miami, Roland Garros and the WTA Finals. 

During this second, five-year phase of her career, Barty posted a 188-56 record at Tour-level events for a 77 per cent match win percentage. Only Serena Williams (79-22, 78.2 per cent) owned a higher percentage in the same period. But, in March 2022, shortly after her Australian Open victory, Barty announced her immediate retirement – joining Justine Henin as the only WTA players to retire while holding the No.1 ranking. She had won 25 of her previous 26 matches, and three of four tournaments contested.

At the age of 25, Barty left the game with a 305-102 record in singles and a 200-64 record in doubles, and as the only player to win 15 or more singles titles and 10 or more doubles titles since 2010. She had spent a total of 121 weeks as No.1, a figure bettered by just seven women.

A proud indigenous Australian of the Ngaragu people, Barty was named National Indigenous Tennis Ambassador by Tennis Australia and is a vocal admirer of her mentor and friend, Goolagong Cawley. Voted Young Australian of the Year in 2020, she married professional golfer Gary Kissick in 2022, and is a mother to a son, Hayden and daughter, Jordan.