Ashleigh Barty has stormed into the quarter-final of the Australian Open in Melbourne. She defeated Maria Sharapova in three-sets on Sunday. Barty credited her win to cricket. Her career was going through a rough phase a few years back and she had stepped away from the sport.

To everyone's surprise, Barty took some time away from Tennis and played cricket for Brisbane Heat in the Women's Big Bash League. In her debut game, she scored 39 runs from 27 deliveries on debut against the Melbourne Stars. She made 68 runs in seven innings in the tournament before going back to Tennis.

"I felt like for me it's to stay in the moment as best that you can," said Barty. "It's impossible sometimes. But I knew I had to just go up, try and hit my spots on serve and trust the fact that I have done the work.

"My team and I know the plans that we wanted to play to. When push comes to shove, try and execute that as best I can."

(Wiht Inputs of ABC News)