‘Certainly not’: Ash Barty denied shock career move

Since Barty shocked the world when she retired after winning the Australian Open in January, the Aussie has been relatively out of the spotlight but still working hard.

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In the last week, she was named the NAIDOC 2022 person of the year, released the first of four books in her Little Ash series, and was revealed to be part of the mentoring team with her former coaches Craig Tyzzer and Jason Stoltenberg in a new tennis academy.

She was also part of the Rest of the World team at last week’s Icons Series golf tournament and spent this weekend playing at the iconic St Andrews location, the home of golf.

In fact, Barty’s been playing a lot of golf recently, including adding the Brookwater Golf and Country Club ladies competition in April to her Australian Open, Wimbledon and French Open grand slam titles.

It’s sparked speculation Barty was going to add a third sport to her career after tennis and cricket.

But after sharing a round of golf with former cricket star Kevin Pietersen, lead singer of British band The Vamps Bradley Simpson and actor Kathryn Newton, denied golf was a career path for her in the future.

“I love my golf, it’s a hobby,” she said. “It’s something I love to play socially with my friends on some of the most beautiful courses around the world. But certainly not something I want to take too seriously. This is fun. I love it. It’s always been a hobby of mine so it’s nice to get to experience some really cool things like this today.”

It capped off a massive week for Barty after being named the NAIDOC person of the year.

While she wasn’t on hand to collect the award, her father Robert gave a speech on her behalf.

“Just to give you an insight into what Ash’s heritage means to her — last year, she won Wimbledon, the biggest tennis tournament in the world,” Robert said.

“When they were preparing for Wimbledon, he sponsor Fila wanted to honour Evonne’s 50th year of winning Wimbledon and they asked Ash if she would wear an outfit modelled on what Evonne wore 50 years ago. Ash contacted Evonne to see if it was okay by Evonne and Evonne said that she’d be absolutely honoured if Ash did that.

“It was a perfect storm — it was 50 years since Evonne won, it was 10 years since Ash had won Junior Wimbledon and it was NAIDOC Week and she ended up winning Wimbledon.

“Fast forward six months and she gets to the Australian Open and we had an inkling that tennis was not going to be around for a long time for Ash and she wanted to go out as high as she possibly could.

“For Evonne to surprise Ash to be on hand to award her the trophy was something Ash will never ever forget. One of the first photos she’s got after she’s won the championship was her, Evonne and Cathy Freeman and she just thinks that is one of the best photos she’s go in her album.”

The three-time grand slam winner also wanted to inspire the next generation with her new Little Ash series and the new coaching venture she’s entering into.

Barty also spoke to CODE Sports about joining her former coaches Tyzzer and Stoltenberg in their new academy and said she wants to foster the next generation of Aussie stars.

“Growing up, I felt like we had this amazing culture and this history of champions who could compete at the very top level,“ she said.

“I think what we are able to offer is seriously unique. We are all on the same wavelength, we all have the same drive and passion, and I think that is pretty unique. We have great experiences together and we have learned some really tough lessons along the way.

“Deep down, it is something we have always wanted to do together and now we have the time to do it. We have got this next generation of girls and boys in Aussie tennis who hopefully want to go along for the ride with us and learn and develop together.”

Originally published as ‘Certainly not’: Ash Barty denied shock career move