Barty wins Newcombe Medal as Tina Arena raises Margaret Court Arena name change
Ashleigh Barty has won the Newcombe Medal as Australia’s outstanding tennis player of 2017. Barty was awarded Australian tennis’ highest individual honour on Monday night, after an incredible comeback season featuring three WTA Tour finals and her maiden top-level title in Malaysia.
After starting the year as the No271 in the world, Barty soared more than 250 spots to 17th in the rankings, the highest of any Australian singles player. As well as making finals in Kuala Lumpur, Birmingham and Wuhan, Barty was runner-up in the French Open doubles with Casey Dellacqua after the duo became the first all-Australian women’s pairing in the open era to reach the title match at all four grand slam events.
Tennis great Evonne Goolagong Cawley has long been a mentor of Barty’s, who shares her indigenous heritage. She said she believed Barty had arrived as a genuine grand slam contender who can challenge for 2018 Australian Open glory.
“When I watch Ash play now, it actually makes me want to play again. She’s got so many wonderful skills,” Goolagong Cawley told AAP.
“She’s got the power, she’s got everything and it’s just a pleasure for me to watch her. She’s improved so much. She’s won against past champions and I think she’s beginning to realise that she can beat those players.”
The Queenslander claimed highprofile scalps in 2017, including Karolina Pliskova, Garbine Muguruza and Angelique Kerber, who all enjoyed stints atop the rankings in 2017, as well as grand slam champions Venus Williams and Jelena Ostapenko.
Goolagong Cawley said Barty’s 18-month sabbatical from tennis, during which she excelled playing WBBL cricket for Brisbane Heat, was the best decision she ever made.
“Otherwise she wouldn’t have found out that she really missed tennis,” she said.
“She’s been through some highs and lows. But she’s come back and the main thing with Ash is she’s happy. When you’re happy, you play your best tennis.”
Meanwhile, Tina Arena referred to Goolagong Cawley as she drew attention to continuing discussion around a name change of Margaret Court Arena. Tennis Australia is again under pressure to remove Court’s name from one of its flagship stadiums at Melbourne Park following the 24-times grand slam singles champion’s vocal opposition to same-sex marriage.
Some of the sport’s biggest names, including openly gay legend Martina Navratilova, have demanded a name change amid fears of a player boycott of Margaret Court Arena at the Australian Open in January. Court’s public stance against samesex marriage and claims that “tennis is full of lesbians” caused a furore at the French Open in May.
Now a Christian minister, the 75year-old reignited the debate this month when she claimed a yes vote on marriage equality would signal the end of holidays in Australia. “There will be no Mother’s Day. There will be no Father’s Day. There will be no Easter. There will be no Christmas,” Court told the West Australian newspaper.
A strong campaigner for the LGBT community, Arena was invited to perform at the Newcombe Medal in Melbourne on Monday night. In between belting out three of her signature hits, including Change, Arena used centre stage to make her feelings on the subject known.
“There’s been a lot said about Margaret Court. People will have their say,” Arena said, drawing a hush from the audience at the Crown Casino.
“Whatever it means to anybody, at least people are talking [about] it. There is a woman that, for me, defined a lot of things when it comes to being a female and when it comes to the sport and the elegance that she always brought to the sport.
“Sport is not always associated with elegance but that’s not because it’s not. It’s because we sometimes don’t necessarily focus on that and I want to take this opportunity to say to Evonne Goolagong what a remarkable, outstanding example of a great human being, of extraordinary culture, of an extraordinary level of empathy and understanding.
“And for all of that, I want to take the opportunity to say thank you to you, and then to all the other beautiful, leading sportsmen and women in this room who put this country on the map.
“Australians have always been historically great at tennis and Melbourne, I think, puts on one of the greatest tennis events on this planet.”
Tennis Australia said, despite Arena’s comments, its position had not changed.
“As a legend of the sport, we respect Margaret Court’s achievements in tennis and her unmatched playing record,” TA said. “Her personal views are her own, and do not align with Tennis Australia’s values of equality, inclusion and diversity.”
The issue is sure to be one of the hottest of the summer ahead of the season’s first grand slam starting in January.