Ash Barty will be playing at Wimbledon this year. (Image: Getty.)
Wimbledon have confirmed that Ash Barty will be competing at the Grand Slam this year, her first match at the All England Club since her 2021 victory. It comes after she accepted a place in the invitational doubles.
The former world No. 1 and three-time Major winner surprisingly retired from the sport in March 2022 at the age of 25, shortly after tasting success at the Australian Open, but will be in action at SW19 alongside a host of former professionals in the exhibition event.
The invitational doubles begin on the second Tuesday of play and will be the first time that Barty has taken to a tennis court at a major event since retiring as the reigning Wimbledon and Australian Open champion.
Confirming the news, Wimbledon wrote: “Reunited with the #Wimbledon grass. Delighted to have our 2021 singles champion @ashbarty returning for this year’s Invitation Doubles.”
Barty has featured in golf exhibitions since hanging up her racket and was set to return to Wimbledon this summer as a commentator for the BBC, despite previously pledging that she would “never” take up the microphone.
Since walking away from tennis, Barty welcomed her son Hayden in July 2023 with her husband Garry Kissick, and has also written books, and she has claimed that she has no interest in returning professionally despite plans to return on the Wimbledon grass.
“I don’t have the time,” Barty explained last year. “I don’t have the time to train, I don’t have the time to prepare, and I have so many great memories out on this court and now I just get to create new memories. ‘I’m certainly not coming out of retirement.”
Ash Barty has not been on the Wimbledon grass since winning the 2021 title. (Image: Getty)
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Barty’s partner for the doubles event is yet to be announced, but the first Australian Wimbledon champion in 41 years will be back in a major boost for Aussie women’s tennis.
Only Daria Saville and Arina Rodionova sit inside the top 108 ranked female players and make the SW19 cut-off, though Ajla Tomljanovic will likely enter using a protected ranking, after reaching the quarter-finals in Birmingham. No Australians were among the 14 wildcards handed out.
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Barty declared herself “absolutely spent” when announcing her retirement two years ago, having “fulfilled” her dream in tennis after becoming Wimbledon champion. “There was a perspective shift in me in this second phase of my career, that my happiness wasn’t dependent on the results,” she said in conversation with close friend Casey Dellacqua.
“And success for me is knowing I’ve given absolutely everything I can. I’m fulfilled, I’m happy. I know how much work it takes to bring the best out of yourself and I’ve said it to my team multiple times, it’s just I don’t have that in me any more. I don’t have the physical drive, the emotional want and everything it takes to challenge yourself at the very top of the level any more.
“I just know that I am absolutely – I am spent – I just know physically I have nothing more to give. And that to me is success. I have given absolutely everything I can to this beautiful sport of tennis. I am really happy with that. And for me that is my success.
“I’ll never stop loving tennis. It’ll always be a massive part of my life. But now I think it’s important that I get to enjoy the next phase of my life as Ash Barty the person, not as Ash Barty the athlete.”
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