Ashleigh Barty
Updated: Wikipedia source
Ashleigh Jacinta Barty (born 24 April 1996) is an Australian former professional tennis player and cricketer. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 121 weeks, and was ranked world No. 5 in doubles. Barty won 12 WTA Tour-level singles titles, and three majors at the 2019 French Open, 2021 Wimbledon Championships, and 2022 Australian Open, as well as the 2019 WTA Finals. She also won 12 doubles titles, including a major at the 2018 US Open with CoCo Vandeweghe. A successful junior, Barty was the junior world No. 2 and won the 2011 Wimbledon girls' singles title. As a teenager, Barty had early success in doubles on the WTA Tour in 2013, finishing runner-up at three major doubles events with Casey Dellacqua. Late in the 2014 season, Barty decided to take an indefinite break from tennis, playing cricket instead. She signed with the Brisbane Heat for the inaugural Women's Big Bash League season despite having no formal training in the sport. Barty returned to tennis in 2016. She had a breakthrough year in singles in 2017, winning her first WTA Tour title at the Malaysian Open and rising to No. 17 in the world. She also had another prolific year in doubles with Dellacqua, culminating in her first appearance at the WTA Finals in doubles. Barty then won her first Premier Mandatory and major tournament titles in doubles in 2018 before accomplishing the same feat in singles in 2019, highlighted by her victory at the 2019 French Open. Barty won five more titles in 2021, including a second major singles title at the Wimbledon Championships and two WTA 1000 titles. With her title at the 2022 Australian Open on home soil, she won a major in singles on all three surfaces. Barty also led Australia to a runner-up finish at the 2019 Fed Cup and won a bronze medal in mixed doubles at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Barty announced her retirement from tennis in March 2022, just two months after her Australian Open title and while ranked as the world No. 1 in singles. Barty was an all-court player with a wide variety of shots. Despite her short stature for a professional tennis player, she was an excellent server, regularly ranking among the WTA Tour's leaders in aces and percentage of service points won. She serves as the National Indigenous Tennis Ambassador for Tennis Australia. Her 114 consecutive weeks at No. 1 (not including when rankings were frozen between March and August 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) is the fourth-longest streak in WTA history.