MATCH POINT
If you ask Ash Barty to sum up her historic Wimbledon victory in July last year, she will likely reply that the stars simply aligned. It’s a statement that says a lot about the athlete who hails from Ipswich, west of Brisbane. Humble, matter-of-fact and down-to-earth.
While factors leading up to the women’s singles finals at the iconic London lawn club did indeed fall into place, her response is not only simplistic, but far too modest for someone who recently celebrated her 100th week as world number one.
The 2021 tournament was a year like no other. It marked a decade since Barty, 25, had taken out the title as a junior tennis player, but more poignantly, it was 50 years since her mentor and fellow Indigenous athlete Evonne Goolagong Cawley won the women’s singles title at age 19, a feat she miraculously followed up nine years later as a mother.
Barty paid tribute to her hero by playing in a bespoke dress made by her sponsor Fila that featured scalloping in the skirt, an homage to Goolagong Cawley’s own match outfits from the 1970s. But it was also the timing that made the moment so meaningful: the final took place at the end of NAIDOC week, which celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Even more astonishing is that when Barty beat the Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova in three sets, she was recovering from a crippling hip injury that forced her out of the French Open less than a month prior. It was a minor miracle she was able to play in the first place.
So it’s little wonder Barty let her emotions flow once the tournament was
