Australia

Agility, toughness and sticking to a plan — how Ash Barty sealed her Wimbledon dream


Skill. Passion. Humility. Resilience. Calm. Timing.

Ash Barty showed all these things on Centre Court at Wimbledon, while her countrymen and women back home rode every moment of a stunning final like a rollercoaster.

When it was over, and Barty had clinched a heartstopping 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 win over Karolína Plíšková, the tension and physical strain of the last fortnight gave way, and everyone could see what it meant to her.

Her emotions spilled out as she realised she had achieved her childhood dream by winning Wimbledon.

So what does this victory mean for her career, what are the secrets to her success, and where does she go from here?

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Ash Barty’s family watches her Wimbledon grand slam victory from home.

A huge win in historic context

Since the Open era began in 1968, there have been 30 separate winners of the 54 French Open women’s singles titles.

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Of those 30 players, only a dozen — including Barty — have won Wimbledon as well, in part due to different playing surfaces suiting different playing styles.

Since 2000, only Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Simona Halep and now Barty have been able to succeed on clay and grass.

The Australian’s game has appeared suited to the courts of SW19, with her agility, athleticism, shot selection and wicked power forehand all giving her an advantage.

Before this year’s run to glory, however, she had never been further than the fourth round.

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She now joins a select group of Australian women who have won more than one major title aside from the Australian Open — Margaret Court, Lesley Turner Bowrey, and Evonne Goolagong-Cawley.

Holding the Venus Rosewater dish — the first time in 41 years an Australian woman has done so — she was asked what Goolagong-Cawley meant to her.

For once, Barty’s calm deserted her as she struggled for words, before saying tearfully: “I hope I made Evonne proud”.

The timing of her win is not lost on anyone — 50 years on from Goolagong-Cawley’s first Wimbledon title, and coming at the end of NAIDOC Week, her victory as a proud Ngaragu woman is a significant achievement for Australian sport as a whole, and for Indigenous Australians in particular.

Aside from winning her second grand slam singles title, she will also receive a big boost of ranking points that will help her stay at number one for some time to come.

With 2019 winner Simona Halep missing the tournament through injury, and Naomi Osaka focused on the Olympics after a high-profile withdrawal from the French Open, it may be that Aryna Sabalenka is Barty’s closest rival rankings-wise for the rest of this season.

What’s the secret?

Barty already represents as the most relatable of Aussie sports stars.

She is the dedicated player who also loves a beer in the stands while watching her beloved Richmond.

She is the naturally gifted kid whose pic holding a racquet almost as big as herself has gone round social media several times during her career — including this week.

A female sports star who matches — and often outdoes — her male counterparts in terms of cross-discipline ability; Barty pressed pause on her career to shift to cricket, played at elite level in the WBBL then returned to reach the top of her original chosen sport — not to mention ading the occasional club golf championship on the side.

This is what makes Ash Barty — not size nor blazing speed, but her range of key skills and co-ordination, coupled with vision, anticipation and an almost unmatched level of planning.

Barty rolled through 14 straight points to start the Wimbledon final, a dizzyingly perfect beginning as her carefully-crafted gameplan was delivered to the letter.

Ash Barty lunges forward to make a backhand return as the ball bounces low off the grass in the Wimbledon final.
Ash Barty’s athleticism and shot selection are two of her many strengths on court.(

AP: Kirsty Wigglesworth

)

She used her low sliced backhand to make it difficult for the 1.86m tall Plíšková, then pounced when offered an opportunity to hit a winner.

Barty doesn’t have the strongest serve — and in both her semi-final and final she had to come from 0-15 and 0-30 down on a number of occasions as she was put under pressure by Angelique Kerber and then Plíšková.

But when challenged, she adapts.

She shares a trait with former Australian star Lleyton Hewitt, using determination and court coverage to force her opponent to hit one more ball — and then another… and just one more.

When Plíšková was getting on a roll, Barty just gritted it out to stay in points — the errors eventually came, and the momentum changed again in the vital third set.

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Her big weapon is the forehand that blazes down the line or across court. But her drop shots, precision lobs and volleys — particularly one memorable backhand to start the final game where she belied her official 1.66m height to reach a high ball from Plíšková and put it away — all showed the dimensions to her game.

She is also mentally and physically tough.

Barty has been the dominant player on tour this year — she now has four titles in 2021 — and after recovering from a hip injury that she now says should have led to a two-month layoff, she has returned to claim the ultimate prize at Wimbledon.

In addition to the normal tension of trying to win a grand slam singles crown, Barty had to cope with a packed Wimbledon crowd that was clearly willing her opponent to make a contest of the final — she held her nerve, and ultimately played the big points better than her opponent.

What’s next?

Barty will head to the Olympics on a high — assuming she doesn’t join Nick Kyrgios in pulling out of the Australian team.

A glum-looking tennis player holds her hands up to salute the crowd after losing a match.
Ash Barty’s deepest run at the Australian Open was her semi-final loss to Sofia Kenin in 2020.(

AP: Andy Brownbill

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The question is whether she will be looking to back up after Tokyo to make a run at the US Open, or try instead to get her body right in a bid to go after the next obvious target: to be the first player since Chris O’Neil in 1978 to be a home-grown winner of the Australian Open women’s singles crown.

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On the men’s side, players like Hewitt and Pat Rafter have won grand slam titles without being able to break the drought at Melbourne Park.

Since O’Neil’s victory, the likes of Wendy Turnbull, Liz Smylie, Samantha Stosur, Alicia Molik, Jelena Dokic, Casey Dellacqua, Daria Gavrilova and others have all tried to give fans a home win.

Barty’s semi-final run in 2020 was the best showing by an Australian since Turnbull lost to Hana Mandlikova in the 1980 final at Kooyong.

There was hope that she could use that as a springboard, but then the disruption of COVID threw everything out. Barty returned for 2021, but was beaten in the quarters by Karolína Muchová.

Now, however, the additional belief gained from her latest title could be the last piece in the puzzle to help her make the breakthrough at the Australian Open.

Ash Barty is seen from behind holding the round Wimbledon plate in front of a bank of photographers
Ash Barty wants more of these moments with the trophy — could the next one come at Melbourne Park?(

Getty Images: TPN

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And if she can win a third different grand slam singles crown, it would even further cement her place in Australian sporting history. 



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