Ash Barty redefined what sporting success looks like – as quality, not quantity

There is a photo of Ash Barty that never seems to get old. A six-year-old on a rain-soaked tennis court. Racket in one hand, junior trophy in the other. Familiar dimpled grin under a well-worn Nike cap. It is miniature Barty, a small kid with big stars in her eyes. That picture was taken in 2002 – 20 years before she would leave that tennis court for good, with all of those big things realised.

And perhaps there should have been even more. After Barty won the Australian Open in January, all the questions were around not whether she would win another grand slam, but how many she would win. That the answer is now and will forever be zero feels incomprehensible. She is a player at her peak – literally at the top of the rankings. She has stood there for the best part of three years and remains unchallenged.

But then there is that other part of Barty. The person, not the player. Who has always acted on her own terms and refuses to be defined by the sport she happens to be absurdly good at. Who retired once before when it didn’t feel right and returned when it did. In this sense, her latest bombshell is peculiarly refreshing.

Barty is ambitious, but that ambition has always been tempered with perspective. She knew what she wanted and was content once it was achieved. As she said on Wednesday, that thing was Wimbledon. It was “the one true dream that I wanted in tennis”. Last year, after she did it, something inside her shifted.

The Australian Open was unfinished business, so she made that happen too. Then she was spent, physically and mentally, and ready to retire on a high. Athletes across all sports speak about going out on top. Often it entails a requisite number of trophies, awards or other tangible measures of