- She honours her history. Many tennis players that come along do their own version of John Lennon’s line, “Before Elvis, there was nothing,” ’cept in their case, before their good selves there was no one. Barty, just as we have seen in the last week as the most recent example, goes out of her way to honour those who have come before her, and none more so than Evonne Goolagong-Cawley. Just last week, in this, the 50th anniversary of Evonne first winning at Wimbledon, Barty wore a dress on court that took its inspiration from the one worn by her predecessor during the victorious 1971 final.
“I think I’m exceptionally proud to be able to call [Goolagong Cawley] a friend and a mentor,” she told the press, “to be able to share heritage. For me to be able to pay tribute to that on a really special anniversary is something that I’ll never forget.”
Of that Goolagong win, she could not have been more laudatory.
“It’s a really special anniversary for a lot of Australians, but for Indigenous Australians in particular I think this is a really special one. Before we had put in the process of creating my version of her iconic dress, I wanted to make sure she was OK.
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“I think for me, that made me feel a lot more comfortable knowing her favourite dress, probably her most iconic dress, is something that inspired me and inspired our generation of Indigenous youth. I hope that my version of it, my outfit, can do the same for the next generation of Indigenous youth coming forward.”
Let me hear you say RAH!
I repeat. #BartyParty your place, tonight, and my place on Saturday. For her to win any time would be special. But for a fantastic young Indigenous woman to win on the 50th anniversary of Goolagong’s win, at the end of NAIDOC week, would be superb, and confirm her status as “Our Ash.”
Go hard, Ash Barty, you make us proud.
Source: | This article originally belongs to smh.com.au
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