Ashleigh Barty relishing 'awesome experience' of Olympic Games in Tokyo after 'special' Wimbledon win
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Updated 12/07/2021 at 14:21 GMT
Ashleigh Barty will be aiming to join elite company when she competes at the Tokyo Olympic Games later this month. Only three women - Steffi Graff, Venus Williams and Serena Williams - have won Wimbledon and Olympic singles gold in the same year in the Open era, and world No 1 Barty will be hoping to become the fourth.
Ashleigh Barty
Image credit: Getty Images
Wimbledon champion Ashleigh Barty says she is looking forward to the “awesome experience” of trying to win Olympic gold in Tokyo.
She will be aiming to join Steffi Graf (1988), Venus Williams (2000) and Serena Williams (2012) as the only women in the Open era to win Wimbledon and Olympic singles gold in the same year.
While it will be a quick turnaround for Barty, with the tennis event starting in Tokyo on July 24, she is relishing the challenge.
"Being able to represent Australia at the Olympics is going to be an awesome experience and it's important over this next period to celebrate the fact we've achieved something really special at Wimbledon," she said.
"I have a lot of other goals, dreams that are in my mind and within my team and we'll certainly reset in the next couple of days ... enjoy some time together and then we go again. But really looking forward to the Olympics.
“I’m extremely proud to be on my first Olympic team. And I know we’re united, 490-odd Aussie Olympians going over as one team. I’m excited to be a part of that. And I’m excited to do Australians proud, as every other athlete will. I’m certainly looking forward to that experience.”
Barty will be bidding to become the first Australian player to win a singles gold medal in tennis at the Olympics.
Most of the WTA top 20 will be competing in Tokyo and Barty will start as one the favourites along with Naomi Osaka, who has not played since the French Open last month.
Barty says she has no concerns about her fitness, having said it was "nothing short of a miracle" that she was able to play Wimbledon after suffering a hip injury at the French Open.
"I think the fact that we were physically able to get through the past fortnight has been exceptional. I had the most incredible team of people around me. I put full trust in them, in knowing that they do everything absolutely possible to give myself trust in my body. I think being able to prove that this fortnight has been incredible.
"I certainly have no fears about my fitness. Of course, some things will happen. That's normal. That's natural. That's 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."
Barty also said Wimbledon was a "silver lining" for her after the disappointment of having to retire from her second-round match in Paris.
"In the last six weeks I've cried a lot. A lot of it was through heartbreak at the French and now, through a sense of joy and happiness and how much everything has changed. We said from the French there will be a silver lining and we've found it."
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