Barty still undecided on French Open participation

World No.1 Ash Barty will decide in the next weeks if she will defend her title at the French Open next month.

Barty told AO she had yet to make the call but “we will make a decision as late as possible to give ourselves the best chance to get there,” she said.

“We will see what cards we are dealt at the time and make a decision from there.”

The tennis shutdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen Barty focus on matters closer to home.

“It’s been a challenging year,” she said.

“I think what has been trickiest about it is just the uncertainty – it feels like it is ever-changing, every day, every week and it’s having to be a bit more fluid and understand at the moment, we don’t have a lot of control, so it’s important to do what we can.

“But for me it’s been a silver lining where I can connect with my family, I can stay at home, continue to work on myself as a person and keep chipping away at my tennis game, and hopefully we’ll be back on the court soon.

“Without a doubt I’ve missed the competition and I don’t think I’ve realised just how much I have missed it.

“But I know that I am itching to get back out there when the time is right, and when I feel like I am ready to go, we will be out there in a heartbeat. I think now it’s all about just staying safe, doing the right things and when the time comes we’ll be ready to go.”