Barty to pay an iconic Centre Court
Ashleigh Barty feels privileged to step into Simona Halep’s shoes and open Centre Court proceedings at Wimbledon on Tuesday.
That role is traditionally reserved for the defending women’s champion but Halep was forced to withdraw with an ongoing calf problem on Friday, meaning the honour was passed to world No. 1 Barty.
She said: “It’s incredibly special. It’s an opportunity very few people get to experience. Of course, I wish Sim was here to be able to experience that. She’s earned the right to open Centre Court on Tuesday as the defending women’s champion.
“I’m extremely excited and humbled to have the privilege and to have the honour. I hope I can go out there on a really special occasion for Australian tennis with Evonne’s 50th anniversary.”
Evonne is Barty’s mentor Evonne Goolagong, who won the first of her two Wimbledon titles in 1971 at the age of 19.
Barty is wearing an outfit based on the famous dress Goolagong wore 50 years ago, and the top seed said: “It’s a really special anniversary for a lot of Australians, but for indigenous Australians in particular I think this is a really special one.
“For me to be able to wear an outfit inspired by Evonne’s iconic scallop dress is really amazing. I wanted to make sure she was OK with it. I called her and asked her. She was really excited.
“That made me feel a lot more comfortable knowing her favourite dress, probably her most iconic dress, is something that inspired me and inspired our generation of indigenous youth. I hope that my version of it can do the same for the next generation of indigenous youth coming forward.”
Barty will play her first match for almost four weeks since she was forced to retire during her second-round clash at the French Open because of a hip injury.
The Australian is positive about her fitness, saying: “Straight after Paris, obviously there was some time where we needed to digest what was going on. We needed to get a full diagnosis.
“We were able to do that, which is a really crucial part