Ash Barty's father on her tennis hiatus in 2014: Her happiness was more important

The father of World No. 1 tennis player Ash Barty says that he was not surprised when his daughter told them about her decision to step away from the sport after the 2014 US Open, during a webinar organised by the ActiveSG/Voyager Tennis Academy for local and Australian parents earlier this week.

Barty rose up the rankings quickly as a teenager but decided to step away from the game in 2014 and played women's cricket in Australia before returning to tennis once again. Since her comeback, she has won the French Open singles title and became World No. 1 last year.

Father says they wanted to look after the best interests of their daughter, Ash Barty

Rob Barty says he knew his daughter had been "sad all the time" and was not herself on the court and recalled saying to his wife Josie at the time: "Okay, we've just got to make sure that she's happy".

"Her happiness was more important. Were we disappointed? Of course we were, because we love watching tennis and we were hooked on tennis.

"But to see Ash happy and see her around her sisters and having fun again was so much better than having her miserable and going out and playing tennis."

"We're not professional tennis players, we don't know the sport. All we know is to look after the best interests of Ash as a person and to give Ash a set of rules and morals to live life by.

"Everything else is done with her coach... and her team is absolutely critical and she has built an amazing team."

Ash Barty is the second Australian WTA singles No. 1 after Evonne Goolagong Cawley. She has also peaked at No. 5 in the world doubles rankings and has won eight singles titles and ten doubles titles on the WTA Tour, including the 2019 French Open in singles and the 2018 US Open with American CoCo Vandeweghe. She is the reigning champion in singles at the WTA Finals.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2McsVPR