
Ashleigh 'Ash' Barty is a force to be reckoned with. And at only 25 years old, Barty has achieved significant greatness.
She was Young Australian of the Year for 2020, is a role model for countless Aussie kids - and the Indigenous community - as well as winning three major tennis single titles: the French Open (2019), Wimbledon (2021) and this year's Australian Open.
And given Barty has retained the women's singles world No.1 ranking since she replaced Naomi Osaka in 2019, she's at the top of her game.
Which makes it all the more surprising that Barty today announced she will be retiring from tennis.
Watch Ash Barty win at Wimbledon. Post continues below.
The news of her early retirement was met with shock and disbelief from the tennis community and its massive fanbase.
As we say farewell to Ash Barty, let's take a look back at her incredible achievements, her legacy, career, and her start in the world of tennis.
From a young age, Ash Barty always dreamt of Wimbledon.
Born in 1996, Barty grew up in Springfield, Queensland, with her parents Josie and Robert Barty and two older sisters, Sara and Ali. Her father is from the Ngarigo Indigenous people and her mother is of English descent.
It was a typical Aussie household in suburbia, where the sporting interests of the three girls were "central to family life" Barty told The Guardian.
At the tender age of four, Barty found an old squash racket. and began hitting balls against the garage wall for hours. Her dad Robert saw potential and rang a local junior tennis coach, Jim Joyce.
"[Joyce] said 'we don't take them until they are eight'," Robert reflected. "We went down and he threw her a ball and she whacked it over his head. She kept doing that until he said 'you can come back next week'. He said she had it written all over her face."
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