
-With AAP.
1. Ash Barty has become the first Australian woman to rank World No. 1 in 43 years.
Ash Barty will head to Wimbledon as world number one after an emphatic straight sets win over German Julia Goerges to take out the Birmingham classic.
On Monday, the 23-year-old will officially be announced as the world’s top-ranked player – the first Aussie to do so since Lleyton Hewitt in 2003 and the first woman since the great Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1976.
She has leapfrogged Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka to join just four other Aussies: Goolagona Cawley, John Newcombe, Pat Rafter and Hewitt to earn top spot since the rankings were introduced in 1973.
Barty will now head to Wimbledon next week as the No.1 seed and with a huge chance of replicating Goolagong Crawley’s last Centre Court success in 1980.
However, the humble Queenslander said she still has a long way to go to be classed in the same bracket as the Australian tennis great.
“I’m nowhere near her status,” Barty said. “To be mentioned in the same sentence is incredible.
“Evonne, she’s an amazing human being and has set the tone for so many Australians and so many indigenous Australians around our country and around the world.
“She is an amazing person. And what she has done in her career was incredible and what she continues to do off the court for us as a sport is amazing.
“To have her as a friend is amazing and I’m sure that I will be able to chat to her in the next few days.
She said that despite her top ranking, it will be business as usual heading into Wimbledon.
“It’s an amazing place to be in (No.1) but certainly nothing changes,” Barty said. “It’s been incredible the amount of support that I have received, particularly from Australians.
“But it’s not something that I ignore, not by any means. It’s there, there is not really much I can do about it.
“I’m trying to go out there and do my thing on the court and kind of let that do the talking.”
In 2016, Barty was ranked 623 in the world after returning to the game from an 18-month stint playing Big Bash cricket with the Brisbane Heat.
2. Netball great Liz Ellis says Netball Australia’s response to Maria Folau is ‘not good enough’.
Yeah nah not good enough.
How about this:
There is no room for homophobia in our game. Anyone who is seen to support or endorse homophobia is not welcome. As much as I love watching @MariaFolau play netball I do not want my sport endorsing the views of her husband. pic.twitter.com/IR5jecVm6O— Liz Ellis (@LizzyLegsEllis) June 23, 2019
Top Comments
ASH IS #1 🎉👍
Woohoo - can't wait to see Ash play at Wimbledon!
Yeah, it's pretty awesome. I was watching the number crunching during the Birmingham tournamament and thought she juuuust might get there - and there she is!
Bring on Wimbledon