Ash Barty knows what it is like to have the pressure of being the top ranked player for Australia.
Barty was Australian number one for most of her tennis career, and was also the best player in the world for 121 weeks.
This only came to an end in 2022, when Barty announced her shock retirement from tennis at just 25 years old.
That honour is now held by Australian teenager Maya Joint, who Barty has made a request relating to.
Ash Barty makes request to tennis fans relating to Maya Joint
Joint has enjoyed a breakthrough season on the WTA Tour, climbing from outside the top 100 to a year-end ranking of world number 32.
The 19-year-old has done this by winning two WTA titles, enabling Joint to overtake Daria Kasatkina as the Australian number one.
Alex de Minaur has recently commented on the state of Australian tennis, and now Barty has given her own verdict on Joint’s season.
When speaking to AAP News, Barty praised Joint’s attitude, but called for fans to not put too much pressure on the teenager.
“I just really, really love the way that she goes about it,” said Barty. “She works hard. She’s a funny, intelligent girl and she takes everything in her stride. So I’m excited for her. She’s come off a really consistent season this season and next year presents some different challenges.
“But it’s important that, as fans, we sit back and enjoy that because she’s near top 30 in the world and that’s a really, really tough thing to do,” she acknowledged. “So she’s been exceptional. I’m excited to watch her kind of grow and develop and continue to learn all throughout next season.”
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Ash Barty suggests match which was really important for her to lose
Before retiring from tennis, Barty won three Grand Slam titles, including one on every surface after winning the Australian Open in 2022.
Although these are the biggest highlights from her career, Barty has claimed that there was also one match that she lost at the Australian Open which was also crucial.
This match was against Sofia Kenin in the semifinals of the Australian Open in 2020, with Barty explaining that it helped prepare her for the 2022 semifinal against Madison Keys.
“I look back on that as a really important match for me to lose, to understand what I needed to improve in my game,” said Barty. “And it held me in really good stead for the next time I was in that same opportunity, when I grabbed it with both hands.
“So probably without that match against Sofia, maybe the match in 2022 against Madi Keys probably doesn’t happen, where I’m actually really calm and felt like I was in complete control. So as hard as it was at the time, and even as tough as it is to think about how that match unfolded, it helped me moving forward.
“People have these sort of losses that make them, so it’s really important to be able to accept growth from losses. And sometimes take the emotion out of it and accept what happened and get back to work. So I could think of 10 matches off the top of my head that were really pivotal in my development, and that was certainly one of them.”
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There is also an interesting coincidence that three years on from her semifinal defeat to Barty, Keys would win the Australian Open earlier this year.
Keys will defend a Grand Slam title for the first time in Melbourne next year, something she has already spoken about.
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