Barty returns to Wimbledon grass for first time since 2021 triumph
Three-time grand slam champion Ash Barty will return to Wimbledon for the first time since announcing her shock retirement in March 2022.
The 2021 Wimbledon singles champion will step out onto tennis’s main stage once again after the tournament announced Barty would take part in an invitational doubles match.
Ash Barty kisses the Wimbledon trophy after ending the 41-year drought for Australian women at the tournament.Credit: Getty
The exhibition event will take place on Tuesday, July 9 (UK time), and will include women’s doubles, men’s doubles and mixed doubles.
Barty’s Wimbledon victory was her second grand slam title and famously ended Australia’s 41-year drought at the event. Her idol, Evonne Goolagong Cawley, was the last Australian woman to win the title in 1980.
Barty had previously won the French Open in 2019 – the first Australian woman in 46 years to do so – before claiming the Australian Open in 2022 and announcing her retirement two months later as the reigning world No.1.
“I’m so grateful to everything that tennis has given me,” Barty said in her retirement interview with friend Casey Dellacqua.
“It’s given me all of my dreams possible, but I know that the time is right now for me to step away and chase other dreams. And, yeah, and to put the racquets down.”
In the two years since her retirement Barty has married her partner Garry Kissick in Queensland and given birth to a baby boy named Hayden.
While Barty’s appearance at Wimbledon will be in an entertainment capacity, there will be a number of Australians competing for the championship.
French open quarter-finalist Alex de Minaur will be Australia’s highest-ranked singles player, after his title win in the Netherlands shot him to a career-high ranking of No.7 in the world, and guarantees him a top-seeded spot at the tournament.
With the top 104 men’s singles players given a place in the starting draw, Australia will have at least nine men in the tournament, including Jordan Thompson, Alexei Popyrin and Chris O’Connell. Anyone outside the rankings will have to play for one of the 16 qualifying spots.
The women’s draw automatically includes the top 108-ranked female players, which means Daria Saville and Ajla Tomljanovic are the only Australian women guaranteed in the draw.
Tomjlanovic has a protected world ranking of 33. A player can request a special ranking if they are injured and do not compete in a tennis event for a minimum period of six months.
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A number of Australian women and men will need to progress into Wimbledon via qualifying.
After finding career-best form in 2022 with a Wimbledon and US Open quarter-final appearance – where she ended Serena Williams’ career – Tomljanovic missed the next three slams due to ongoing injury.
Her most recent grand slam appearance was at the French Open four weeks ago where she lost in the opening round to Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska.
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