The world No 1 Ash Barty is enjoying the pressure of attempting to become the first home winner of the Australian Open for 44 years
Not that Barty would speak publicly about it – or at all, for all we know. She is a self-described “creature of habit”. She keeps her powder dry. Nice and predictable. And, predictably, having now sat atop the world rankings for more than two and a half years, the 25-year-old is quite some distance above the rest of the women’s singles field.
“Being able to experience it multiple times has been incredible, but Saturday’s going to be a new experience for me. So I go out there and embrace it, smile, try and do the best that I can and whatever happens, happens.”The American has been a feelgood story “She’s an exceptional ball-striker,” Barty said of Collins. “She’s someone who stands on the baseline and can hit all spots of the court from any position. I think the challenge is going to be trying to get her off balance.”
In 2021, when Barty won Wimbledon – her second slam crown – exactly 50 years after Goolagong Cawley’s own Wimbledon title, she hoped she had “made Evonne proud”. The very next day Goolagong Cawley, a Wiradjuri woman, offered her own tribute to her “little sister”, having sensed it was “her time”.
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