Ashleigh Barty uses cricketing skills during the game against Venus Williams

French Open winner of this year Ashleigh Barty has also tried her hands in cricket. Glimpses of her skills with the team game were visible on Friday when the 23-year-old defeated veteran Venus Williams in the quarter-final of the Birmingham Classic 6-4. 6-3. Barty from Australia will overtake Japan’s Naomi Osaka if she wins the championship on Sunday. Before that, she will take on Czech player Barbora Strycova in the semi-final.

It was during her match against the veteran Williams that Ashleigh was seen playing a perfect forward defensive shot with her racket towards her opponent and it impressed a lot of fans. In the match, Ashleigh made a grand comeback to the match after 39-year-old Venus took a 4-1 lead. The Australian took the next five games to win the set and followed it up with an equal dominance in the second set.

Ashleigh, who ended Australia’s 46-year wait to win the trophy at the Roland Garros earlier this month, feels playing cricket made an “amazing period” in her life. She played for Brisbane Heat Women and Queensland Women in Australia’s domestic T20 tournament Women’s Big Bash League in the 2015-16 season.

She had taken the step to join cricket after stepping aside from tennis in 2014 and joined the league a year later. She took to professional tennis in 2016 and now is on her way to becoming world No.1 in the sport.

Here is the video of her defence:

Ashleigh once scored 39 off 27 balls in WBBL

Ashleigh, who has also been following the ICC World Cup currently underway in England, said it was during her cricket career that she had met an amazing group of people who couldn’t care less whether she could hit a tennis ball, ESPNcricinfo reported. Ashleigh’s highest score in cricket is 39 off 27 balls which she had hit against Melbourne Stars Women in Melbourne in December 2015 but could not win the game for her side.

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If Ashleigh reaches the Birmingham Classic final and wins it too, she will reach 6,540 points that will take her ahead of Osaka’s 6,377 points. Ashleigh’s country Australia, meanwhile, are doing well in the World Cup, winning five of their six matches to lead the points table.