At the awards ceremony held at Palladium at Crown, Barty was named the winner for the fifth consecutive year for her flawless 2022 season.
Follow Us
Tennis champion Ash Barty, who won the Newcombe Medal for a record-setting fifth year in a row at the Australian Tennis Awards in Melbourne on Monday night, is still a dominant force in her sport even though she is retired. The biggest highlight of a huge year for Australian tennis stars, which also saw Nick Kyrgios reach the Wimbledon final, was unquestionably Barty’s stunning victory in winning her home grand slam, the Australian Open, in Melbourne last January.
At the awards ceremony held at Palladium at Crown, Barty was named the winner for the fifth consecutive year for her flawless 2022 season, which included 11 straight singles victories leading to tournament victories in Adelaide and Melbourne as well as a doubles victory. But Barty’s greatest victory came at Melbourne Park, where she won her third grand slam singles title and didn’t lose a set the entire tournament, becoming the first Australian woman’s singles champion in 44 years.
The 26-year-old, however, shocked the world a few months later when she abruptly retired from tennis because she was unable to find the drive to continue competing at the highest level or visit Wimbledon to defend the title she had won in 2021. “I’m so grateful to everything that tennis has given me; it’s given me all of my dreams, plus more,” said Barty.
However, Kyrgios finally delivered the form to live up to the hype at Wimbledon, posing arguably the biggest threat to Barty’s claim to the Newcombe Medal. Given his enormous breakthrough throughout the entire 2022 season, the contentious men’s star may actually be considered somewhat unlucky not to win the Newcombe Medal. His singles performances then took off, including an epic journey before losing the Wimbledon final to Novak Djokovic and a win over world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev at the US Open. He also claimed a doubles victory at the Australian Open with Thanasi Kokkinakis.
The world No. 22 would have rightfully upset the Barty honour roll if Kyrgios had been successful in turning either of those grand slam performances into tournament victories. There were a total of seven candidates, including Alex de Minaur, Matt Ebden, Storm Hunter, Max Purcell, and Ajla Tomljanovic, for the Newcombe Medal. By giving the Spirit of Tennis award to her idol Evonne Goolagong Cawley on Monday night, Barty was able to symbolically undo one of the most memorable moments of her career.
Few people will ever forget Barty’s surprise when Goolagong Cawley showed up at Rod Laver Arena to give the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup after winning a grand slam match. When Tennis Australia honoured the Indigenous icon for her work with her own foundation, the roles were reversed and Barty was on stage to present the award.
