-
Ashleigh Barty became the second Indigenous Australian to win Wimbledon’s single’s title.
-
Evonne Goolagong Cawley was the first Indigenous Australian to win the title in 1971 and 1980.
-
Barty paid tribute to Cawley with a scalloped skirt inspired by Cawley’s 1971 Wimbledon outfit.
Ashleigh Barty of Australia won her first Wimbledon title on Saturday.
Barty, 25, ranked the No. 1 tennis player in the world, further cemented her place as an elite competitor by beating Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova in the women’s final.
“It took me a long time to verbalize the fact that I wanted to dare to dream it and say I wanted to win this incredible tournament … I didn’t sleep a lot last night. I was thinking of all the ‘What-ifs,'” Barty said, according to the Associated Press. “But I think when I was coming out on this court, I felt at home, in a way.”
Barty became the second Indigenous Australian in Wimbledon’s history to win a single’s title. Evonne Goolagong Cawley, an Indigenous Australian, clinched her first Wimbledon victory in 1971, then again in 1980.
Barty has Ngarigo ancestry through her father’s side, according to Reuters. Cawley is of Wiradjuri Aboriginal descent, according to her foundation’s website.
Barty, who has cited Cawley as a big inspiration throughout her career, paid tribute to the tennis star by wearing a dress inspired by her 1971 Wimbledon outfit. The scallop-hemmed skirt had flower accents along the right side. Barty tweeted in June that the outfit was an exclusive design by FILA Tennis.
“I hope I can make you proud Evonne,” Barty wrote in the tweet, along with pictures of her wearing the white outfit.
“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,” Cawley told reporters in June, according to Reuters.
Barty said she reached out to Cawley before Wimbledon to make sure it was okay to emulate her outfit.
“For me to be able to wear an outfit inspired by Evonne’s iconic scalloped dress is really amazing. Before we had put in the process of creating my version of her iconic dress, I wanted to make sure she was okay. Called her and asked her. She was really excited,” Barty said, according to Reuters.
Barty added that she hopes her version of Cawley’s outfit “can do the same for the next generation of indigenous youth coming forward.”
After she won, The Duchess of Cambridge awarded Barty with the gold Venus Rosewater Dish trophy.
“I hope I made Evonne proud,” Barty told reporters at Wimbledon.
Read the original article on Insider