💖“A DREAM COME TRUE AT LAST…” — Former world No.1 Ash Barty shares a heartwarming surprise plan for her husband and their two little angels, marking a deeply emotional new chapter filled with love, family joy, and long-awaited happiness

Australian tennis star Ash Barty is planning on having a “pretty quiet Christmas” this year – as quiet as a family with several young children in it will allow.

Her day will begin with family, including her husband Garry Kissick, their son Hayden, two, and daughter Jordan, five months.

They’ll open gifts, share some food and spend the day together with her mum, siblings, nieces and nephews.

“My mum, my siblings, we love to give to each other things, so it’s a pretty big, wild Christmas where presents can go everywhere,” Barty, 29, told nine.com.au.

She said sometimes “the boxes and the wrappings are more exciting than the present itself” for some of the kids.

But for Barty, her real Christmas starts the following day.

“The real Christmas Day for me is on Boxing Day, when I can sit down and enjoy the cricket, so we get two awesome days,” Barty said.

“On Christmas morning I’ll be there, on Boxing Day I’ll be sitting down ready to go.”

Barty has been keeping herself busy since retiring from tennis in March 2022.

She got married in July of that year, played some professional golf, and wrote children’s book series called Little Ash.

“Those are stories that are all inspired by my childhood. It’s been a lot of fun to sit down and write those books and then the illustrations really bring the text to life as well,” she said.

“I’ve been very grateful to work with such an incredible team at HarperCollins.”

She is also busy with the Ash Barty Foundation, which focuses on education and sporting initiatives delivering grants, program support and equipment donations.

Barty also recently teamed up with Amazon Flex, delivering Amazon packages to Brisbane locals for a day.

“The whole concept behind it is that it’s for everyday Aussies, whether you’re a mum, you’re semi-retired, to earn a little bit of extra cash on the side,” Barty said.

“At this time of year, that always goes a long way, but to be able to work flexible hours delivering packages to people all around the nation is pretty cool, I think.”

Now she has been on the other side, Barty can “really appreciate the effort and the efficiency that goes on behind the scenes to make sure that those packages are delivered on time, but most importantly, safely, and are actually taken care of”.

The sporting superstar hasn’t held down many jobs like this.

Her life revolved around tennis from an early age and aside from some coaching, the sport remained her sole focus throughout school until she decided to officially step away from the court in March 2022.

“Tennis was always so dominating for me from such a young age. I did a little bit of coaching as well, but outside of that, my resume is pretty bare,” she said.

“So being able to get some work experience as a Delivery Partner was good for the resume.”

When it comes to Barty and husband Garry Kissick’s own purchase history, she said they order “a whole different range” of items.

“We’ve got stuff, obviously, that we both buy for the kids or what we need around at home … this Christmas period, we’re getting just a whole range of different items,” she said.

“It’s nice to be able to get whatever we need pretty much at the click of a button.”

At the peak of her tennis career, Barty was ranked world number one in women’s singles by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) for 121 weeks and was ranked world number five in doubles.

She won 12 WTA Tour-level singles titles and three majors, including the 2019 French Open, the 2021 Wimbledon Championships and the 2022 Australian Open.

She also won 12 doubles titles including the 2018 US Open with Coco Vandeweghe.

Barty played professional golf for a period of time following her tennis retirement.

While she is looking forward to the Australian Open in 2026, she said Wimbledon remains her favourite tournament to watch.

“I’m a traditionalist, I love Wimbledon. That for me will always be my favourite court to play on,” she said.

“And I absolutely love the Australian Open. I think the Australian summer of tennis is such an important month.”

When it comes to which sports her children end up playing, Barty said it will come down to “whatever they like”.

“If they play any sport, I think it’s a really healthy way to grow up and to learn some life lessons.

“So whatever sport they choose, I’ll be there sitting down watching and enjoying.”