“Ash Barty represented Australia’s rich tennis history” Billie Jean King full of praise for the retiring Australian
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Ash Barty and Billie Jean King
With the decision to move away from tennis announced, Ash Barty stunned the whole world once again and this time it was not with one of her trademark shots. The 25-year decided to retire after fulfilling all of her tennis goals and believes that she has no more hunger left in her to continue playing.
Retiring as only the second woman to have been ranked World No. 1 after Justine Henin, Barty was on the top for more than 2 years having spent 112 weeks at the top consecutively. She retires with 119 weeks at the top, with her streak of 112 weeks being the 4th longest on the WTA Tour.
Barty ended Australia’s wait of 44 years for a homegrown Australian Open winner when she won the 2022 Australian Open and did it in style, not dropping a single set throughout the tournament. It also made then made her the only 5th active player to have majors on all 3 surfaces joining Serena Williams and the Big-3 in the list, while becoming just the 3rd Australian woman behind legends Margaret Court and Evonne Googalong Cawley to achieve the difficult feat.
“Australia has a rich history in tennis, and @ashbarty has represented it so well. I have no doubt she will continue to inspire and make a positive difference in the world. I wish her all the best in this next chapter of her life,” tweeted Billie Jean King on Barty’s retirement highlighting how she was the flag-bearer of Australian tennis throughout her successful and glorious career.
Ash Barty’s trophy cabinet
Barty was an active singles and doubles player participating in both disciplines while also trying her hand in the Mixed Doubles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In all, she played 42 finals in her career including both the disciplines, 21 in singles and 21 in doubles.
In singles, she ends with 3 Grand Slam titles, 1 WTA Elite trophy, 1 WTA Finals trophy, 3 titles in WTA-1000 tournaments, 5 titles in WTA-500 tournaments and 2 titles in WTA-250 tournaments, winning 15 titles from the 21 finals she contested in losing 3 finals in the WTA-1000 tournament while losing 3 finals in the WTA-500 tournaments while remaining unbeaten in other tiers of the Tour.
In doubles, she played in 6 Grand Slam finals winning only the 2018 US Open. On the Tour, she won all 4 of her WTA-1000 finals and all 4 of her WTA-250 finals. In the WTA-500 events, she won 3 of the 7 finals she contested while claiming titles on all surfaces. She finished the doubles discipline with 12 titles from the 21 finals she played.
Along with the Bronze medal won at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Barty draws the curtain on a successful career with 27 titles to her name from the 42 finals she played having a winning rate of 64% in finals and retiring as one of the greats of Australian tennis.
Also Read: ‘OFFICIAL’ WTA announces big change as Ash Barty announces retirement
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)