page_title: Ashleigh Barty
section_title: Playing style
hierarchical_section_title: Ashleigh Barty / Playing style
caption_attribution_description: August 26, 2014 Queens, NY Barbora Zahlavova Strycova (CZE) def. Ashleigh Barty (AUS)
context_page_description: Ashleigh Barty is an Australian professional tennis player and former cricketer. She is ranked No. 1 in the world in singles by the Women's Tennis Association and is the second Australian WTA singles No. 1 after Evonne Goolagong Cawley. She is also a top 20 player in doubles, having achieved a career-high ranking of No. 5 in the world. Barty has won eight singles titles and ten doubles titles on the WTA Tour, including one Grand Slam singles title at the 2019 French Open and one Grand Slam doubles title at the 2018 US Open with partner CoCo Vandeweghe. She is also the reigning champion in singles at the WTA Finals.
  Born in Ipswich in Queensland, Barty began playing tennis at the age of four in nearby Brisbane. She had a promising junior career, reaching a career-high ranking of No. 2 in the world after winning the girls' singles title at Wimbledon in 2011. As a teenager, Barty had early success in doubles on the WTA Tour in 2013, finishing runner-up at three Grand Slam doubles events with veteran Casey Dellacqua, including at the Australian Open while still only 16 years old. Late in the 2014 season, Barty decided to take an indefinite break from tennis.
context_section_description: Barty has an all-court game and a crafty style of play. Her favourite surface is grass, despite initially not liking that surface because she had limited experience playing on it while growing up. Barty has also performed well on hard courts, where she won her first WTA singles title and reached her first Premier 5 level final. She has won both singles and doubles titles on all  three major surfaces.
  Barty's short stature and diverse array of shots have led her to be compared to former world No. 1 and five-time Grand Slam singles champion Martina Hingis by David Taylor, one of Hingis' former coaches. She has solid groundstrokes on both the forehand and backhand sides. In particular, she uses her powerful forehand to create sharp angles on cross-court shots. Her kick serve and backhand slice are also two of her better shots. Barty's doubles game translates well to singles, as she frequently comes to the net and excels at volleying. She uses her variety of shots to trouble her opponents. Despite her height, Barty is an excellent server. She finished the 2018 season at fourth on the WTA Tour in aces with a total of 297, nearly five per match. She was also second in percentage of service points won that year among players with at least ten matches, behind only Serena Williams.
  Thanasi Kokkinakis, one of her compatriot contemporaries as well as one of her mixed doubles partners, has described her game as, "Ash plays different to most girls. She likes to come into the net, she uses her slice very well and she’s crafty. Whereas a lot of girls like to hit the ball hard and flat, she plays a little bit differently, she plays with a bit more control... and she makes things awkward for her opponent."
caption: Barty serving
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