Ashleigh Barty rose to acclaim as a teenager after finishing as runner-up at three Grand Slam doubles tournaments at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in 2013 but decided to step away from tennis in 2014.

Her father, Rob said that he was not surprised with the decision to step away from the sport for a short time; in a webinar organised by the Active SG Voyager Tennis Academy.

“Ash was sad all the time. She was not herself on the court. I said to my wife that we had just got to make sure that Ashleigh was happy. Her happiness was more important. Were we disappointed?

Of course we were, because we love watching tennis and we were hooked on tennis. To see Ash happy and see her around her sisters and having fun again was so much better than having her miserable and going out and playing tennis," said Rob Barty.