Ash Barty has chosen to return to the international tennis circuit after a brief stint playing cricket.
The 19-year-old took a break from tennis despite being touted as a future star of the sport, winning the the junior Wimbledon title at just 15 and reaching three Grand Slam doubles finals with fellow Australian Casey Dellaqua.
She sighted burn as one of the key reasons for her decision.
Barty took up cricket and played in this season's inaugural Women's Big Bash League with the Brisbane Heat, despite never previously playing cricket competitively.
However, after her brief time away from tennis and despite some impressive performances for the Heat, Barty will relaunch her tennis career.
โI love the sport of tennis, but I sort of got a little bit away from what I really wanted to do. It became robotic for me and that's not what I wanted,'' Barty told the WTA website.
โI think deep down I knew if I kept trying to drive on through it, it would drive me away completely. So it was the right time to step away and just refresh.
โI didn't put a time limit on it. It just so happens to be that 16, 17 months later, I'm refreshed and ready to go again.
โTennis in the end, it just makes sense to me.
โI realised after hitting a few times it was just what I'm probably meant to be doing in life.
โI'm taking it slowly in the beginning. There's no point in jumping back on tour and realising six months later that this is not what I want.''
Barty will playย $25,000 ITF Challenger tournament this week in Perth to mark her competitive comeback to tennis.
