Ash Barty Named GQ Australia Sportsperson of the Year
The accolades keep rolling in for Ash Barty. The World No. 1 was voted GQ Australia's Sportsperson of the Year based on a public vote. The award was presented at the Men of the Year Awards ceremony.
Barty had a tremendous season in 2019 - becoming the first Australian woman since 1973 to win a Grand Slam tournament - when she won the French Open title in May. She also becomes World No. 1 - making her only the second Australian player to do so in the Open Era. Barty also won the Indian Wells tournament and the season-ending WTA Finals, winning more than $11 million in prize money.
The 23-year-old was not present at the ceremony but her parents spoke on her behalf at the ceremony and said, "Ash would be incredibly honored to receive this award. GQ talks across the whole nation and the level of support she's received from everyone across Australia for the last 18 months has been incredible. She loves representing her country, and to have an award that's so nationally well known, she'd be very humbled. So thank you very much."
GQ's citation for Barty read as below - "It's hard to overstate the importance that one humble woman from Ipswich has had to Australian sport over the course of 2019. With our country's sporting identity in turmoil in the wake of sandpaper-gate, she carried the increasing burden of a nation's expectations on her shoulders as she embarked on one of the great single-season performances in Tennis history. She captured the first Grand Slam for an Australian woman since 1973, and following in the steps of the great Evonne Goolagong-Cawley just our second female world number 1 in the Open Era, galvanizing a nation as she did so. Having won a public vote to determine the award, Ash Barty has proven that she's not just the World Number One, she's ours, too. And that's why it would be frankly criminal if GQ's sportsperson of the year went to anyone else."
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2LcMkzY
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