Ashleigh Barty has announced the birth of her new baby boy, named Hayden, with partner Gary Kissick.
In January 2023, Barty first announced that she was pregnant almost a year after the three-time Grand Slam winner suddenly retired from professional tennis. Barty won the Australian Open in January 2022 before shocking fans and fellow players alike with her retirement announcement at the age of just 25.
Despite being WTA number one at the time of her retirement, the Australian former player's reasons for retirement were to focus on other aspects of life, Having a family was likely to be one of the areas that Barty was looking to enjoy and she took delight in announcing the birth of her first son via Instagram on Tuesday, July 4.
"Our beautiful boy️. Welcome to the world, Hayden!”
Following the post, which also showed a picture of Barty and Kissick's new son, the comments section was soon flooded with people sharing their congratulations with the couple. Among the comments were the official Wimbledon, US Open, Australian Open and WTA accounts, while French tennis player Caroline Garcia and Australian women's footballer Sam Kerr also shared their joy in the announcement.
In addition, Bary's announcement of her first child came almost exactly two years after she won Wimbledon in 2021. It was the second of the 27-year-old's three career Grand Slams as Barty became one of just a select few to win a major WTA title on three different surfaces.
However, after winning the 2022 Australian Open, Barty made the decision to retire prematurely from tennis after she lacked motivation and wanted to experience other things in life. Since retiring, the former WTA player has tried her hand at competitive tennis, written a children's book, published her tennis memoirs and worked on a project with Indigenous Australian communities.