WIMBLEDON, England — As the top-seeded Ashleigh Barty looked forward to Wimbledon this year, she also looked back half a century. To another Indigenous woman from Australia. To a groundbreaking Wimbledon title. And, ultimately, to a hemline.
Barty knew she wanted to pay tribute to Evonne Goolagong Cawley, who 50 years ago became the first Indigenous Australian woman to win a Wimbledon title.
“Evonne has guided the way,” Barty, 25, said. “She’s created a legacy like no other in Australia.”
Barty, who traces her Indigenous Australian ancestry to the Ngarigo people from her father’s side, said she first met Goolagong Cawley when she was 13 or 14 years old and already considered something of a prodigy.