What a match and what a performance! Ash Barty Wins the Australian Open 2022 after defeating Danielle Collins 6-3 7-6.
If you’ve been following my Australian Open 2022 predictions, you know that I predicted Ash Barty to win the Australian Open all along. It wasn’t a bold prediction. She is world number one and plays at home. Still, it’s tennis. Winning when you’re supposed to win is not always easy. But she did it.
She did face the toughest test in the final in Danielle Collins. The American started slowly in the first set, but find her groove in the second set when she was up 5-2 and looked to take the match into a third set. But Barty dug in and got two breaks in a row and took the second set into a tie-break.
In the tie-break it was never really in question. Barty was the stronger player, she had all the answers to Collins’ aggression and ended the match nicely with a cross-court forehand passing shot.
What does this mean?
This was the first time in 44 years that the women’s Australian Open gets an Aussie winner. The arena was packed and everyone wanted to join in to the “Barty party”. It also means that Ash Barty won her third Grand Slam title after winning Wimbledon last year and the French Open in 2019. If she manages to win the US Open later on in 2022, she has won all four slams, quite a feat.
Can Barty now dominate the women’s game? Well, women’s tennis is better than ever with a broad base of strong players and title contenders. It will be difficult to dominate a sport that is in great shape. But Barty will surely be the world number one for a while to come and the favorite in upcoming grand slams. How will she handle the pressure? Time will tell! But she is in a good spot right now and will surely be keen to build on this to win more grand slams in the future.
Congrats to Ash and what a great finish to a fantastic tournament!
PS. What racquet does Ash Barty use? Ds.
