‘Evonne is my greatest inspiration!
There’s no one more excited to see Ash Barty rise to the top than her mentor
Evonne Goolagong Cawley’s dazzling smile lights up her face when she talks about Ash Barty. The tennis legend says watching the small but mighty Aussie almost tempts her to come out of retirement, even at the age of 67!
“When I watch Ash play now, it makes me want to play again,” she said after Ash, who quit the sport for 18 months after finding the pressure of the circuit too much as a teenager, won the 2017 Newcombe Medal. “She has all the skills of becoming
a real champion. She has the hands and she has the power. I watch her and think, ‘Wow, that must feel good.’”
Evonne’s words undoubtedly helped inspire Ash, 23, on her amazing comeback. The Brisbane-based tennis star says Evonne was her childhood idol, and has become a fast friend and mentor since she was a teen.
“Just to be mentioned in the same sentence as her is incredible,” Ash says, explaining that it was Evonne who texted to tell her to “go and wet a line”
‘Just to be mentioned in the same sentence as Evonne is incredible’
and spend some time fishing after she decided to quit the circuit.
“Evonne, she’s an amazing human being and has set the tone for so many Australians and so many Indigenous Australians around our country and around the world,” says Ash.
INSPIRATION TO ALL
It’s little wonder Ash idolises Evonne, who took a break from her own brilliant career to have a child, before returning and winning her second Wimbledon singles trophy in 1980 – three years after giving birth to her first child, daughter Kelly.
She was the first mum to win Wimbledon in 66 years, inspiring women around the world. Evonne has always said this achievement was the crowning moment in her brilliant career, which saw a poor Indigenous girl from the NSW wheat town of Barrellan rise up and score her first Wimbledon trophy in 1971.
“At the age of nine I dreamed about winning Wimbledon,” Evonne revealed in 2007. “I read... about a young girl who was found, trained and taken to this place called Wimbledon, where she played on a magical centre court and eventually won.
“Every time I went to hit against a wall I used to pretend I was there, and every time I went to sleep I would dream about playing on that magical court.”