By Richard Pagliaro | Saturday, July 10, 2021
Soaring to her first Wimbledon championship, Ash Barty realized a childhood dream—and pulled off a miraculous major comeback.
The world No. 1 called her mere participation at SW19 less than a month after suffering a hip injury that forced her out of the French Open "nothing short of a miracle."
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Five weeks ago, Barty hobbled out of Roland Garros while trailing Magda Linette 6-1, 2-2 in the second round.
Today, Barty made history as the first woman to win Wimbledon after retiring from Roland Garros—and credited her team for withholding doctors' projections of a two-month recovery time from the hip injury.
"They kept a lot of cards close to their chest and didn't tell me a lot of the odds, didn't tell me a lot of the I suppose information that they'd got from other specialists," Barty said. "There weren't too many radiologists in Australia who had seen my injury. In a sense, it was a two-month injury.
"Being able to be able to play here at Wimbledon was nothing short of a miracle. I think them not telling me that just proved how much we were against the odds. I think now to be playing pain-free through this event was incredible. It's funny,sometimes the stars align, you can think positively, you can plan, and sometimes the stars do align, you can chase after your dreams.Certainly now chatting to them it looked a lot less likely than I felt statistically. I think it's been an incredible month."
The two-time Grand Slam champion says she has "no fears about my fitness" ahead of next month's US Open.
The top seeded Barty beat Karolina Pliskova, 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3 to capture Wimbledon the 10th anniversary of her winning the Wimbledon girls' title as a wide-eyed 15-year-old and on the 50th anniversary of her tennis idol, Aussie legend Evonne Goolagong, completing an inspired run to the 1971 Wimbledon title.
The 25-year-old Barty is the first Aussie woman since Goolagong in 1980 to raise the Rosewater Dish and grew teary-eyed on court when asked about her mentor saying "I hope she's proud."
"Evonne is a very special person in my life. I think she has been iconic in paving a way for young indigenous youth to believe in their dreams and to chase their dreams," Barty said. "She's done exactly hat for me as well. I think being able to share that with her and share some pretty special victories now with her, to be able to create my own path is really incredible, really exciting.
"She's just been an icon for years and years, not just on the tennis court. Her legacy off the court is incredible. I think if I could be half the person that Evonne is, I'd be a very, very happy person."
Photo credit: Getty