Australian Ashleigh Barty was pushed to her limits by Karolina Pliskova in the Wimbledon women’s singles match on Saturday. However, she kept her calm and reign supreme on the Centre Court to win her maiden Wimbledon title. Barty beat Pliskova 6-3, 6-7(4/7), 6-3 in a match that lasted around two hours.

With this, she is now the winner of two Grand Slams. Prior to this, she had also won the 2019 Roland Garros. But did Barty always play tennis? She did, yes. But there was a period in her career where she took a break from tennis and shifted her focus to cricket. No, she did not have any formal training in the sport.

It was 2014 when during her break from the sport she ended up playing cricket and represented Brisbane Heat in the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL). BBL is Australia’s own domestic T20 league.

She played 9 matches for Brisbane Heat from December 2015 to January 2016. In the matches, she got scores of 3, DNB, 17, 0, 1, DNB, 7*, 39, 1, according to ESPNCricinfo.

“What attracted me as a coach to her as a player, was her ability to pick up things really quickly,” said Heat coach Andy Richards.

She has also played two List A matches for Queensland, as well.

In 2015, she was also made the Australian U-15 women’s cricket team coach for a short while, tweeted statistician Mohandas Menon.

Barty, who won the Wimbledon 2021 title, dedicated her win to her mentor Evonne Goolagong Cawley – who won the title in 1971 and 1980.

Today also marked the 50th anniversary of Cawley lifting her maiden crown.

The 25-year-old Australian — who wore a specially-designed dress in tribute to Cawley’s iconic scallop one she sported in 1971 — said that she hopes that she made Evonne proud.

Before shifting to cricketing, Barty had won the junior Wimbledon title in 2011 and reached three Grand Slam doubles finals.

“I wanted to experience life as a normal teenaged girl and have some normal experiences,” she said of that decision.

She received the full support of her mentor and role model Evonne Goolagong Cawley, also a Wimbledon champion.

“Hey Darl. Go and wet a line,” texted Goolagong Cawley.

However, after one season Barty decided it was time to return to her first sporting love, tennis.

“After a break and trying other things, I missed tennis and decided that I wanted to come back.”