Barlow, a left-handed player from Toowoomba, twice finished runner-up at the Australian Junior Championships, in the Under-14s and Under-16s age groups.

He had Grand Prix wins over Kim Warwick at the GWA Mazda Tennis Classic in Brisbane in 1983, Wojciech Fibak in the 1985 Grand Prix de Tennis de Toulouse and Magnus Gustafsson, seventh seed at the 1988 Donnay Indoor Championships in Brussels.

[2][3][4] At the 1988 Australian Open he qualified for the main draw of a Grand Slam for the only time and lost in the first round to West German Carl-Uwe Steeb.

In 1987, his only appearance at Wimbledon, he and partner Harald Rittersbacher were drawn against top seeds Guy Forget and Yannick Noah in the opening round.

He then claimed the singles title at Singapore, over Neil Borwick in the final, just weeks after he finished runner-up to the same player in Kuala Lumpur.