Ash Barty has hailed her Wimbledon triumph as “nothing short of a miracle” after overcoming serious injury to complete her dream of lifting the biggest title in tennis.
After her three-set triumph over Karolina Pliskova on Saturday, Australia’s new champion revealed the full extent of the hip injury that she feared would derail her Wimbledon hopes, just as they’d ruined her chances of regaining the French Open title.
The injury was so bad that her close team, headed by coach Craig Tyzzer, kept the gloomy news from her a month before Wimbledon that she was suffering from an injury which could keep her out until August.
“They kept a lot of cards close to their chest and didn’t tell me a lot of the odds, didn’t tell me a lot of the information that they’d got from other specialists,” revealed Barty after her 6-3 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 win over Pliskova.
“I think them not telling me that just proved how much we were up against the odds.
“There weren’t too many radiologists in Australia who had seen my injury. In a sense, it was a two-month injury.
“Being able to play here at Wimbledon was nothing short of a miracle.
“I think now to be playing pain-free through this event was incredible.
“It’s funny, sometimes the stars align – you can think positively, you can plan, and sometimes the stars do align, you can chase after your dreams.
“Certainly now chatting to them it looked a lot less likely than I felt statistically. I think it’s been an incredible month.”
Yet Barty never stopped believing in herself and she always had the feeling that there would be a “silver lining” after the trying month where even she recognised that making the first round of Wimbledon would be “touch and go”.
“I’m a firm believer in everything happens for a reason, the good moments and the tough moments,” she said.
“I felt like I was able to get better and better with each match and trust myself more and more each and every time I stood out on the court.
“Some of my toughest moments have come at Wimbledon. Now some of my most incredible moments have come here as well.
“I think it’s just an iconic venue. It’s an amazing club. To be able to learn so much from this place, I think I’m a very lucky girl.”
After having to be so careful with the injury during Wimbledon, Barty will now go on to Tokyo for the Olympics before flying to New York, attempting to add a gold medal and the US Open title to the Venus Rosewater Dish.
Asked if her body would hold up to the upcoming challenges, Barty said: “I certainly have no fears about my fitness. Of course, some things will happen, that’s the life of being an athlete.
“But I know that I’ve got the very best team around me to prepare me in a way as best as we can.”
AAP
