The Australian favourite should be feeling the weight of a nation’s expectations, but you wouldn’t know it from another straight-sets win writes Greg Baum. AshBarty AustralianOpen
One day, we might learn that Ash Barty got the jitters sometimes, grew churned up inside, knew sinking feelings, was at a loss and felt the urge to swish her racquet in self-recrimination, or at least roll her eyes.Credit:One day, we might read in a book that Barty felt the weight of a nation’s expectations, barely dared to look around her, knowing that all eyes were upon her and woke up in cold sweats wondering how she could possibly please everyone.
If some of those people had been guided through the day by tournament promos, they might have been surprised to discover that there was a player on the other side of the net to Barty. One gushed about the Barty showdown, but did not name her opponent. Barty’s damned good at being herself, but she would have found it hard to play her challenger, too.
Since, a bewildering succession of women have won maiden major titles. On a day when the fifth seed, eighth seed and former champion Victoria Azarenka all bowed out, Anisimova might have thought that this was her turn. It’s what 20-year-olds do. Amanda Anisimova had beaten Naomi Osaka in her previous match but could not repeat the feat against Barty.But as much as Anisimova was forcing Barty into mistakes, she was making literally twice as many of her own. That’s often how it is in contests between a power hitter and a craftswoman. We’ve been here before. In fact, it’s a bit of a trope in women’s tennis. It was the hallmark of Barty’s rivalry with Czech Petra Kvitova.
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