Ashleigh Barty has announced that she will return to professional tennis after walking away from the game at 17 years old.
Barty won the Wimbledon girls’ title and reached three Grand Slam doubles finals with Casey Dellaqua as a 15-year-old before deciding to take a break from the game 17 months ago, saying she no longer had the desire to play.
After retiring, the athletic Australian first turned to coaching juniors who were barely younger than she was. She then turned to cricket, and was recruited by a professional female cricket team from Brisbane a few months ago.
Now 19, she is ready to take another swing at tennis.
"I love the sport of tennis, but I sort of got a little bit away from what I really wanted to do," she told the WTA’s official website. "I think deep down I knew if I kept trying to drive on through it, it would drive me away completely. So it was the right time to step away and just refresh."
Barty said she was not equipped to deal with having so much success at such a young age.
"I went from not being known anywhere in the world to winning junior Wimbledon, and six months later playing the Australian Open,” she said. “…Obviously I was very young, but I turn 20 this year and it's a different perspective on life and tennis in general. I'll be able to do it my way a little bit more.”