ALWAYS touted as a future star of the WTA Tour, Ash Barty lived up to all expectations in 2019, shooting to the top spot in the rankings after claiming Roland Garros mid-year and the WTA Finals.

Rank: #1
Wins: 57
Losses: 13
Titles: 4
Prize Money: $11,307,587

Barty became tennis’ most recognisable face on the WTA Tour for 2019 with her powerful strokes and approachable attitude that earned universal praise. Having won three titles heading into the year, she upped that to another level with not only her first Grand Slam win, but also victories at Miami and Birmingham before capping off her season in style with closing out the WTA Finals. It also showed she was capable of winning on any surface – exemplified by her titles on all three of the major surfaces.

At first some might have been critical of her win on clay despite her dominant 6-1 6-3 victory over 38th ranked Marketa Vondrousova. Her run to the title was one of the easiest you could imagine in a Grand Slam with just 14th seed Madison Keys the only opponent in the top 30. Nonetheless, Barty could only beat the players she was drawn against, and answered the critics with her end-of-year triumph in the WTA Finals. Her Australian summer ended at the hands of Petra Kvitova twice – going down in both the Sydney International Final and Australian Open Quarter Final, but Barty had the last laugh with a straights sets win in the WTA Finals. She was unable to bring Australia joy in the Federation Cup, but gave everything she could out on the court.

Still only 23, the pocket rocket has a long career ahead of her and has the humility to become one of Australia’s greatest players if she can maintain the rage and resist the urge to turn back to cricket.