Ash Barty retires not just as a great of tennis, but as a much-loved Australian personality

In the end, it was done in the most Ash Barty way possible.

With minimal fuss, on the couch with her best friend Casey Dellacqua, the grace of Barty’s retirement announcement broke all of our hearts in a way you couldn’t begrudge her.

As Andy Murray put it, the world number one’s retirement is «gutting» for tennis, but also for the nation which has rallied around a sportsperson who unites us like few others.

On and off the court, Barty was the people’s champion: humble in victory, gracious in defeat, identifiable by her down-to-earth personality and love of Australia’s favourite sports. 

It’s no coincidence that one of the most circulated GIFs of Barty is her fist-pumping and enjoying a beer while cheering on her beloved Tigers.

In the tennis locker room, she was notorious for playing a warm-up game of cricket, and met partner Garry Kissick while teeing off for a round of golf.

But Ash Barty isn’t just any Aussie larrikin.

A proud Ngarigo woman, her ascension to the top of women’s tennis saw her walk in the footsteps of fellow Indigenous idol and Wiradjuri woman Evonne Goolagong-Cawley.

After her Australian Open victory in January, Barty was pictured alongside both Goolagong-Cawley and Cathy Freeman in a fitting tribute to a remarkable tradition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander excellence in sport she is an integral part of.

The photo — sure to become iconic — is apt for its nod to the power of these three women to transfix the nation in moments of sporting and cultural awakening.

Freeman at the Sydney Olympics; Barty at Wimbledon: these are moments befitting the question: «Where were you when..?»

In the shock six-minute retirement video, Barty described her victory at the All England Club as her «one true dream in tennis»;