Very few players on the tour know how to caress and place the ball like Ashleigh Barty does or possess her variety. She can tease open the chinks in their armour.
After she pinged the final forehand winner, Ashleigh Barty stood tall, hands at her sides, and let out an almighty yell. It was the biggest show of emotion, the loudest war cry she had allowed herself through the Australian Open fortnight.
Barty had come into the home Slam as the World No 1 and one of the pre-tournament favourites. But even as noise and expectations rose with every round she won, the 25-year-old stayed on an even keel. She shrugged off the pressure, worked out her opponents and moved on. Smile on face; steady head on shoulders.
It all came together on Saturday, as, in front of a boisterous Melbourne crowd, Barty defeated No 27 seed Danielle Collins 6-3, 7-6 (2) in an hour and 27 in the final. Australia had its first homegrown women’s champion after 44 years.
“I think I surprised myself,” said Barty of her roaring celebration. Even though she won the Australian Open without dropping a set and became only the second active player — apart from Serena Williams — to win majors on all three surfaces, the Queenslander is not the one to showboat. Like her game, she’s charming, and not loud.
She rules the era of power tennis with her poise.
Barty’s problem-solving ability was once again on display against Collins.
The fire-breathing American, known for her tenacity, had overcome some harrowing health troubles to make her way to the final and was going to make life difficult for the home favourite. She loves to strike first and strike hard. Though the top seed looked taken aback by the pace on Collins’ ball for the first few games, Barty quickly adjusted to it.
She started taking the pace off the ball and keeping it low, out of Collins’ hitting zone. Barty pushed the American behind the baseline, making it more difficult for her to take charge of the rallies. While Collins had absolutely dominated her semi-final opponent Iga Swiatek in the shorter rallies, she trailed Barty 38 to 48 in points that lasted 0-4 shots. In the final analysis, Barty had 30 winners to 17 by Collins.
For the past two weeks, the Australian’s biggest strengths have been her serve and her backhand slice. Standing at 5’6, Barty doesn’t have the fastest of serves, but her placement, variety and consistency are almost unmatched on the WTA Tour. But Collins started positioning herself further up the court – often inside the baseline – in the second set and attacked Barty’s serve and nullified her backhand slice.
In the first six matches she played, the Barty serve was broken only once. Collins broke her twice in a single set and presented the World No 1 with her toughest challenge yet.
The variety in Barty’s game, however, gives her the chance to attack a problem from different angles. Pushed on the back foot, the home favourite came out charging. Down 1-5 in the second set, she started her revival with a couple of forehand winners, one crosscourt, the other a down-the-line return winner.
Barty started relying more on that wing. She ran around her backhands and went for the inside-out hits.
“In the second set, she was able to put me in places on the court where I didn’t want to be,” World No 1 explained after the match.
“Across the entire match, I was just trying to, as regularly as possible, play my game and not let Danielle control from the centre of the court and inside the baseline. Whenever I was able to push her off the baseline, I felt I was able to spread and use my forehand a little bit better. Find more space for my slice
“I was able to dominate with my forehand a bit more, particularly from 5-1 down in the set. I just found a lot more forehands and tried to work harder with my feet to take those half chances and create forehands even if they weren’t there. I wasn’t too concerned if I was going to miss them. It was more trying to change the look of the match than the outcome of the individual points.”
Though Collins is the kind of player who could take a racquet out of any players’ hand, Barty managed to play pretty much on her own terms. She had an answer, and a shot, to every question Collins posed. During the trophy presentation ceremony, Collins wished she possessed Barty’s versatility.
After the match, two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka said of Barty in a tweet: ‘Most complete and focused! The way she is able to put pieces together and add a bit more to her game is absolutely admirable! What an example!’
On Monday, when the new rankings are released, the Australian will be the World No 1 for the 113th week in a row. And the Australian has asserted her all-around dominance by winning the hard-court major, to add to her breakthrough 2019 French Open and 2021 Wimbledon title.
“It’s amazing to be able to have this experience and this opportunity on three different surfaces and be really consistent across the board,” Barty said. “Ultimately that was one of the biggest challenges that (mentor) Jim (Joyce) set out for me when I was young was to be a complete player and be really consistent across all surfaces and be able to play on all surfaces.”
Since the turn of the century, when the courts became slower and balls heavier, tennis has been dominated by baseliners and has lost a lot of its nuance. It is truer so for the women’s game. Very few players know how to caress and place the ball like Barty does or possess her variety. She can tease open the chinks in their armour.
And the Australian is still refining her craft. Since the start of 2021, she has been using hybrid strings – half polymer, half natural gut (usually cow intestine). “I’ve switched to natural gut which took some time to adjust to,” she had told tennis.com in January 2021. “But I’m feeling comfortable now and getting some extra power and feel.”
The Australian also said that during the pandemic, when the players were forced to compete in front of empty stands, she would try and ‘listen’ to the spin her opponent was imparting on the ball. Barty, who has played cricket professionally and won golf tournaments, is an exemplary athlete who knows how to engage all her senses and stay in the moment.
There will be days when an on-song heavy-hitting player will pound down her best-laid plans. But Barty has proven that court craft can withstand the blind pursuit for power.
Deepti Patwardhan is a freelance sports writer based in Mumbai.
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