Born to a father of the Ngarigo people, Ashleigh Barty proudly identifies as an indigenous individual. Around the age of five, Barty’s parents introduced her to tennis. Barty was focused and excelled at the sport from a young age. By the age of nine, she played against older boys. By the time she was twelve, she practiced against adult males. She won her first title at the age of 14 at the Grade 4 Australian International tournament. In 2011, she won a junior Grand Slam title at Wimbledon at 15 years old.

Barty turned professional in 2010 at 14 years old. She made her singles and doubles debuts on the WTA Tour two years later. At the end of this year, Barty was ranked 177th in the WTA singles rankings and 129th in doubles. In 2013, Barty reached the doubles finals of Wimbledon, the Australian Open, and the US Open alongside Casey Dellacqua.

In 2014, Barty took a break from tennis finding comfort in honing her cricket game instead. During the tennis hiatus, she played professional cricket for the Brisbane Heat team in the Women’s Big Bash League. Barty returned to professional tennis in 2016. She had a breakthrough season the following year and ended 2017 in the top 20. Barty continued to climb the rankings in 2018. With partner CoCo Vandaweghe, Barty won the doubles title at the 2018 US Open. This year, Barty finished with a doubles ranking of No. 5 and a singles ranking of No. 15.

2019 was an even more impressive year for Barty. She climbed to No. 1 in the world in 2019 after taking her first Grand Slam title at the French Open. Barty the won the year-end WTA Finals, finishing the year with the No. 1 ranking. She was also honored in 2019 as WTA Player of the Year. In 2020, she again finished the year with the No. 1 ranking.

In 2021, Barty continued to hold onto her No. 1 ranking. She defended her Miami Open title from 2019 and represented Australia in the Tokyo Olympics, winning a bronze medal with partner John Peers. Barty went on to win Wimbledon, defeating Karolina Pliskova in the finals. For the third year in a row, Barty finished the year with the No. 1 ranking.

Barty began the 2022 season dominating the Australian Open, winning the tournament without dropping a set. Shortly after, Barty announced her retirement from professional tennis, leaving the sport while holding the No. 1 ranking.