Ash Barty: A year on from Australian Open win, what's retired tennis star up to?
The 26-year-old has spent the nine months since she retired becoming an author, and recently announced her pregnancy with husband Garry Kissick. Here's what the former world number one is doing now.
Tennis
She had won the Australian Open in front of a jubilant home crowd in Melbourne barely two months prior.
But in March 2022, the women's tennis world number 1 Ashleigh Barty stunned the sports world by announcing her retirement at the top of the game.
Now nearly a year removed from that decision, and as the 2023 Australian Open gets underway, what is Barty up to these days?
Freed from the shackles of a tennis training routine, the 26-year-old is now finally able to, in her own words, live a life "that's just like everyone else".
And with that comes starting a family. Last week, the Queenslander announced that she and golfer husband Garry Kissick were expecting a baby.
"2023 set to be the best year yet," Barty wrote on Instagram announcing her pregnancy. "We are so excited for our new adventure."
Barty's surprise retirement in March 2022
When Barty announced she was stepping away from sport last March, it triggered a wave of surprise from fans and pundits, given her position in the world rankings and the fact she'd just won a Grand Slam event.
But, speaking in December to the New York Times, Barty explained that her world ranking did not factor into her decision at all, and despite the confusion for others there had been none for her.
"I think that was probably what was least important to me: where I was sitting in the rankings," she said. "That was hard for a lot of people to understand."
Instead, a sense of fulfilment drove her decision to quit the court. "I achieved my dreams. Everyone has different dreams and different ways of defining success. But for me, I knew that I gave everything I could, and I was fortunate to live out my ultimate childhood dream.
"Now it was time for me to explore what else was out there and not be, I suppose, greedy in a sense of keep playing tennis because that’s what I was expected to do, and then you blink and maybe the other things have passed you by."
One of those things, as it turns out, was starting a family. Like so many other female athletes, Barty may have felt she was forced to choose between family life and her career.
She would not be the first sportswoman – or tennis player – to decide that was a necessary step. Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters, and Flavia Pennetta all chose to quit tennis (Henin and Clijsters would later return to playing) to focus on family.
Reaction poured in from across the tennis and Australian sporting landscapes for Barty. On the tennis front, the WTA, Tennis Australia and Barty's fellow retired players Caroline Wozniacki, Monica Puig, and Casey Dellacqua all sent congratulations, as did Angelique Kerber – herself currently on hiatus from the tour due to pregnancy.
In a sign of the high esteem in which Barty is held in Australian sporting circles, cricketers Aaron Finch and Alex Carey, surfer Stephanie Gilmore, cyclist Anna Meares, and hurdler Sally Pearson were among the personalities from other sports who also sent their best wishes.
What else has Ashleigh Barty done since retiring?
After retiring, Barty unsurprisingly focused on her private life, marrying Kissick in July.
She told the New York Times that she had carried a "normal fear or uncertainty" about leaving the regimented life of a professional sportsperson, "in not knowing what my life would look like after tennis after being so focused."
However, those fears have proven unfounded.
"Overall, that hasn't been an issue, a concern or a worry," Barty shared. "I've slipped quite seamlessly into this life that's just like everyone else, which is kind of always what I wanted."
Barty also played professional cricket when she was younger and is a regular leisure golfer. With Kissick also being a PGA of Australia trainee professional (they met when she played a round at his club), perhaps unsurprisingly Barty has spent time on the golf course too.
In April last year, she joined a host of global sports stars including Olympic swimming legend Michael Phelps in an "Icons Series" matchplay event featuring 24 world athletes.
The Australian also played at the famous St. Andrews course in Scotland in a celebrity event last July, before staying on to watch her compatriot Cameron Smith win The Open.
However, a switch of sports is not on the cards for Barty, who has also dabbled in some writing in her time away from tennis, contributing to children's literature as well as writing an autobiography, which she described as "a way to close a chapter on some really tough moments and then to revisit and re-celebrate some of the most amazing moments."
Ash Barty staying connected to tennis
Barty isn't straying too far from tennis, even with the renewed focus on her family following her pregnancy.
"It's scary to think that typically I'd be in the middle of a tennis preseason getting ready for an Australian summer that's just around the corner," she remarked to the New York Times.
Barty will be at Melbourne Park this year, even if she won't be picking up a racket and taking to the Rod Laver Arena. No, she's not going as a media commentator or pundit, as some might assume the defending champion might after retirement.
Instead, she will be there to mentor and help Olivia Gadecki, a 20-year-old from the same state as Barty who is a wildcard entry into the main draw.
Gadecki said recently: "The best part is she just treats me like a normal person and we can relate in that regard and off court is just as important as on court."
So that's what Barty has planned for now – but is a future playing comeback, à la Kim Clijsters, on the cards?
"The more time I've had to sit and think and absorb this year, I think it is never in the sense of me competing professionally again."