Cawley Hails Ash Barty’s Wimbledon Win

Tennis legend and Wiradjuri woman, Evonne Goolagong Cawley has paid a heartfelt tribute to “little sister” Ash Barty, saying she just sensed it was “her time” to win Wimbledon during Naidoc week.

Barty’s nerve-wracking 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3 final victory over Czech Karolina Pliskova came 10 years after she won the Wimbledon girls’ singles title at age 15 and exactly 50 years after Goolagong Cawley hoisted the Venus Rosewater Dish for the first time.

Video released on Sunday shows the moment Barty’s family erupted with joy in their living room on the Gold Coast when their daughter and sister converted match point. In a poignant gesture to her Indigenous idol and mentor, Barty wore a Fila dress inspired by Goolagong’s 1971 Wimbledon outfit, designed by Ted Tinling who revolutionised tennis fashion, throughout her triumphant campaign.

“I hope I made Evonne proud,” Barty said during an emotional victory speech. Goolagong Cawley left her in no doubt. “Oh she certainly did,” the former world No.1 said from her home on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast on Sunday. “She made me proud from the first time I saw Ash. She must have been about 13. “She was playing at the Australian Open and [my husband] Roger and I stayed and watched for a bit and we saw one whole point where she showed all the skills.

She did the slice, the volley, the smash. Everything in one game and we both just looked at each other and thought ‘oh, she’s got it, she’s going to be our next champion’. So look at her now.” No Australian woman had won Wimbledon since Goolagong Cawley snared the title for a second time, then as a mother, in 1980. (The Guardian)