Aussie female athletes reach for the top!!

As Greg Baum wrote in the ‘Age’ on Tuesday, in referring to the previous Sunday –   “For Australian sport, this was not so much a red letter day as a pink figure day. Ash Barty became World No. 1 in tennis, Hannah Green  won golf’s PGA championship, one of the four majors, and in Brazil, Sally Fitzgibbons rode her wave to the crest of surfing as World No. 1”.

And let’s not forget our sporting women’s teams including the Matilda’s  – ceded top in the current FIFA World Cup, with high expectations which sadly,  didn’t succeed with their elimination by Norway at the Round of 16 stage, yet as a team, determined to re-unite and make good on their promise at the July,  2020 Olympic Games.  Despite their loss, Sam Keer and her team have earned the respect and admiration of sporting fans around the world.   We also have a very successful Women’s Cricket team who are about to start their own ‘Ashes campaign’ over in England, prior to the Men’s Ashes series.

In Greg Baum’s article titled “Playing like girls, Australians top of world’, he notes that “Australian sportswomen [have] been doing their thing for some time, forever in fact. Women have long outnumbered men in Australia’s Olympic success, for instance”.

In the past few days, we have seen three totally different individual performances by Australian girls with world-class sporting achievements.  Leaving Ash Barty aside for a moment, let’s first look at the other two sportswomen..

At the weekend just past, young Australian golfer, Hannah Green [aged 23 years], ranked recently as No. 114 in the world, and relatively unknown throughout the general sporting world, won the KPMG Women’s PGA at the Hazeltine Golf Club, an achievement described by one commentator as a ‘passing of the baton moment’, as it was Australian golf legend, Karrie Webb who had actually mentored Green for the past four years.  Describing Green in the media this week, Sam McClure wrote  –  “Australia’s newest major champion Hannah Green is different. She’s young, she doesn’t have a sponsor, and she wasn’t raised by overbearing golfing parents”.

Hannah Green turned professional in 2016, following wins in three Amateur titles in Australia in 2014-15. She subsequently produced a wonderful rookie season in 2017, claiming three major professional wins that year, which earned her promotion to the LPGA tour in 2018, where she gained placings in the Vicrtorian Open, Australian Open, and the Australian Ladies Classic.

She made her debut in the 2019 US Open in June,  and in only her second LPGA year, produced the performance of a lifetime to win the Women’s PGA Championship, after scoring a final round of 72. One could say, that in typical Aussie fashion, as soon as her final putt dropped into the hole, Green was rushed by Carrie Webb and other Australians who proceeded to ‘spray her with cans of beer’!!!

This result meant that Green became Australia’s third female major golf champion, and her first win on the LPGA tour. The other Australian women to have won major Golf championships at that level are Carrie Webb [seven championships between 1999 and 2006], and Jan Stephenson [three championships, between 1981-83].  The win also lifted Green to a career-high 29th in the world rankings.

Speaking after the win, her coach Ritchie Smith noted that “Her dad’s a social golfer and her mum knows very little about the sport. From a coach’s perspective, that’s a dream, because it allows us to build her career in our own way”..  After watching the end of the tournamnent on TV in Australia, Smith suggested  to an ‘Age’  reporter, that he was more nervous than Green –  ‘Her strength is her mental capacity….she’s able to operate under extreme duress to a high level…..she’s a great front runner, she’s tough and has a history of performing really well under the most stressful situations…..[but]… his star pupil still has plenty of room for improvement”.

And as a person –  “She’s just awesome….She’s fun, happy, she’s incredibly kind..”

Meanwhile, former touring pro and renowned course architect, Mike Clayton said  “All the years Hannah Green tried to win the Australian Amateur, she couldn’t get past the Koreans or the semi-final. Now she beats their best in a major”.

Away from the ‘greens’, and upon the water, we turn our attention to another female inspiration, namely,  Sally Fitzgibbons, who has put Australian surfing back at the top of the charts. while  the 27 year old Fitzgibbons  herself is now the new women’s surfing number one after winning the World Surf League’s Rio Pro in Brazil.  A win into the last event of the year at Honolua Bay would guarantee her first world title while she could still claim the crown if her rivals falter. On Sunday, she defeated  Carissa Moore in the final of World Surf League’s Rio Pro in Brazil.  The 28-year-old, originally from Gerroa, prevailed 14.64 to 12.57 over former world champion in clean 4-5 foot surf at the beachbreak of Saquarema on Sunday.

The win, Fitzgibbons’ first since the 2017 Margaret River Pro, adds to her three other podium finishes in 2019 to give her the yellow jersey at the halfway point of the season. Both she and Moore have overtaken reigning world champion Stephanie Gilmore, who was eliminated by the Hawaiian in the semi-finals.  Fitzgibbons now leads the world rankings on 32,580 points with Moore on 31,175 and Gilmore in third on 30,320.  Fitzgibbons has been number one before and joins a long list of Australian women to top the charts including seven-time world champions Steph Gilmore and Layne Beachley, as well as other stars of the sport, such as Tyler Wright, and trail-blazers Wendy Botha and Pam Burridge.

Reporting for the ABC after the weekend, it was noted that her career could have gone down a different track.  She  was formerly a champion middle distance runner in her teenage years. Fitzgibbons won the 800 and 1,500 metres events at the Youth Olympics in Sydney in 2007. “There’s no doubt that she would’ve represented Australia at the Olympics, no doubt whatsoever,” said her former coach, Ian Hatfield.

In 2007, she qualified for the World Youth Athletics Championships but it clashed with a surfing event. The two sports could no longer be juggled and the lure of the ocean was strong.  “She came and saw me and I said, ‘Sal, you go for it mate, you’re going to do a lot better financially going surfing than in athletics and that’s a mere fact, that’s not knocking athletics,” he said.

Fitzgibbons has a reputation as one of the most dedicated surfers on the tour.

“If she’s not surfing, she’s running, she’s in the gym. She’s carried it on through her life, her belief in fitness, good healthy living,” Hatfield said.  “She’s just such an inspiration to so many young athletes.  “She definitely made the right choice, you’ve seen what she’s done in surfing.  “Her profile has risen tremendously, and it was the right choice that’s for sure.”

Fitzgibbons appears destined to represent Australia in Olympics after all, with surfing to make its debut at Tokyo in 2020.

And now to Ash Barty, about whom much has been written recently, her story well credentialed. Irrespective of her two recent wins  – the French Open, and the WTA Birmingham Classic,  Ash has provided much for Australian sporting fans to be proud of,  in the way she has earned our respect, and continues to be a fine ambassador of women’s sport, in fact, sport in general. Over the past couple of years, in two of our most high profile international sporting arenas, viz, cricket and particularly tennis, too often, we have seen our representatives [usually male as it turns out]  let this country down with their self-crntered and  petulant attitudes. In contrast, it’s wonderful to have someone we can admire without question.  Winner of 18 Grand Slam titles, Chris Evert wrote on Twitter after Ash’s weekend win – “A big congratulations  to @ashbar76. Tremendous story, talent, and most importantly, person”.  That praise  says most of it.

Ash Barty’s story has become known round the tennis world, and beyond.  Ashleigh Barty was born on 24 April 1996 to Josie and Robert Barty. Her father is a Ngarigob Indigenous Australian, and her mother is the daughter of English immigrants.  Barty grew up in Springfield, a suburb of Ipswich in Queensland.  She played netball as a child, but decided to focus on tennis because she  “thought [netball] was a girls’ game”^,  and because her two sisters were better than her at that sport. With her tennis, she began with a racquet in hand at age 4 years, and into her teen years,  quickly developed to have a promising junior career,  reaching  a junior career-high ranking of No. 2 in the world after she won the Girls’ Singles title at Wimbledon in 2011. At that stage, she became just the second Australian to win the girls’ singles event after Debbie Freeman in 1980, and the first Australian girl to win any junior Grand Slam singles title since Jelena Dokic at the1998 US Open.     She would also be successful, as a teenager, in doubles on the WTA Tour  in 2013, where she finished runner-up at three Grand Slam doubles events [including the Australian Open]  with veteran partner  Casey Dellacqua, while still only 16 years old.

However, by her own admission, Ash was not happy on the touring schedule, and being a very strong family orientated person, missed her family and the home environment. Her decision,  late in the 2014 season  to take an indefinite break from tennis was accepted without argument from her family, and back in Australia, and off the tennis circuit, Ash, although having no formal training in the sport, ended up playing cricket  with the Brisbane Heat team, for what was the inaugural Women’s Big Bash League at that time.  Her  interest in potentially playing cricket, came  after meeting with the Australian women’s national team in early 2015 to discuss her experience as a professional athlete. She was intrigued by the opportunity to play a team sport as a change from the individual sport of tennis. She had previously only played cricket casually with her family.. Although she gave no reasons at the time, she later said, “I needed some time to refresh mentally more than anything. It became a bit of a slog for me and I wasn’t enjoying my tennis as much as I would have liked to”.   Her family and coaches all supported her decision.  Barty had no intention of retiring and continued to play casually during her hiatus, saying, “It was never in mind that I’d retired as such… I’d been coaching and holding a racquet pretty much every day so I wasn’t completely out of practice.  During her time off, she also pursued her hobbies such as fishing; and built a new house close to her family.

She ultimately decided to return to the sport, commenting, “After a break and trying other things, I missed tennis and decided that I wanted to come back.”  Ash returned to tennis at the beginning of 2016, just before her 20^th birthday. Initially she concentrated on doubles with Casey Dellacqua, before returning to the singles competition at the end of May that year. As Leo Schlink wrote from Birmingham, after the weekend’s triumph – “Just 1,119 days and 185 matches  after returning to tennis from a 21-month sabbatical ranked No. 632, Barty is only the 27^th woman in history to hold the No. 1 computer ranking and the first Australian since fellow Indigenous star, Evonne Goolagong, occupied the top rung in 1976”.  The only other Australians to to hold the No. 1 crown since computer rankings were introduced in 1973 are John Newcombe, Pat Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt.

This year [2019], Barty has won more matches than any other woman  –  41 from 46  –  and three WTA titles.   With Wimbledon around the corner, and Ash Barty the No. 1 seed, her confidence levels must be high, but in her true genuine nature and persona, success is never assumed.    It’s fitting that Barty has succeeded her mentor, Goolagong Cawley — the woman who advised a burnt-out teenage Barty to break from tennis and “wet a line”.  As indicated above, it’s become part of Australian sporting history now, that not only did Barty do some fishing, she also played cricket successfully in the Women’s Big Bash League and returned to tennis refreshed, matured and emboldened  –  with no ranking, and just the aim of simply finding enjoyment in tennis again.

While not generally known,  Barty is the National Indigenous Tennis Ambassador for Tennis Australia. The goal of this position is to promote more Indigenous participation in the sport of tennis. The associated Indigenous Tennis Program expects it will reach more than 1,000 children each year in the Northern Territory, where a relatively high percentage of the population are Indigenous people. Barty has embraced her heritage and her role as an ambassador, saying, “I’m a very proud Indigenous woman and I think that for me taking on this role is something very close to my heart. I’m very excited”

Someone that Ash idolised as a child, and has always looked up to, was Evonne Goolagong Cawley, who  was full of praise after Ash’s weekend win,  and new status as World No. 1. Cawley said:  “Ash is a very worthy number one and winning at the French Open will have given her even more confidence. I am so proud that another Aboriginal player sits on top of the rankings in women’s tennis, particularly a young lady who conveys such happiness in all she does. She really enjoys being out there and she has become an outstanding and inspirational example to all Australians…”     And Ash’s response was to deflect that praise, saying “I’m nowhere near her status… Evonne …has set the tone for so many Indigneous Australians around the country…..what she has done in her career was incredible and what she continues to do off the court for us as a sport is amazing.

Finally, from the ‘Age newspaper’ editorial of June 25^th –  “Barty, Green and Fitzgibbons have not only displayed true brilliance, they have done so with dignity and grace sorely missing in recent times from the behaviour of their national male contemporaries. Their Professional courtesy and decency provide a model so much better, for example, that of some cheating male cricketers, and petulant, abusive, self-indulgent male tennis players”  [while agreeing with that statement, I should point out, that in respect to the tennis world, that description really only applies to a minority of our players – there are currently a greater percentage of Australian male tennis players, while not perhaps having the class and potential, nor media attention,  of those couple of men, who shall remain unnamed, continue to demonstrate similar standards to the three sporting women we have been examining].

That same editorial [under the heading ‘Woman sporting stars still wait for fairness] notes that  – “The colossal talent and success of these women, and the Matildas and many other teams and individuals may be feted, but it is not properly reflected in their remuneration. Barty at least, will play for the same prizemoney as the men’s singles players next month at Wimbledon, the last of the grand slam events to offer parity. But tennis remains the exception”.

Meanwhile, irrespective of how far into the Wimbledon Tournament Ash Barty progresses over the next fortnight, she is one of our modern sporting personalities that Australia can be proud of……I certainly am!!