Ash Barty landing punches in Adelaide

Ash Barty is serving bigger. Playing more aggressively. She’s made a hot start to the year at the Adelaide International, thumping Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin to reach the semi-finals.

Ash Barty celebrates after defeating Sofia Kenin at the Adelaide International. Picture: AFP.

Jab, jab. How appropriate.

Ash Barty is playing more one-two tennis. Serving bigger. Jab. A more forceful second shot. Jab. It’ll make her immune to the fall from grace predicted by Pam Shriver, the American doubles champion and commentator who’s needled Barty by predicting she’ll lose her World No 1 ranking this year to Aryna Sabalenka or Garbine Muguruza. Shriver may require a rethink. When Barty dressed in Johnny Cash black and thumped Sofia Kenin at the Adelaide International on Friday, the Wimbledon champion had the vibe of a 25-year-old who’s going to get better before she gets worse.

Jab, jab. a couple of sucker punches. It’s incredible how often two stinging shots are all you need to win a point in tennis. At all levels. Especially on your own serve. Barty’s emphatic 6-3, 6-4 quarter-final victory featured a double-jab game plan but on 17 occasions, she required only one jab. An ace. It was a swift dismissal of the woman who broke her heart in the 2020 Australian Open semi-finals; an extraordinarily sharp hit this early in the season; and pretty decent proof that Barty’s pre-tournament talk about self-improvement was more than jibberish.

A couple of quick jabs can solve a lot of problems, eh? Win tennis matches. Get past border control. “It felt pretty good today,” Barty said. “I was able to look after my service games pretty well. It was a lot of fun to play out here again and start to feel a little bit better. It’s nice to come out here and know you’re going to be tested by strong players. You know you’re going to have to bring your very best level. Looking at these last two matches, there’s still work to do. We still go back to the drawing board and try to do all the right things but it’s been a really solid start and we’re happy with the foundation we’ve set to start the year off. It’s nice to be back in the flow of things and playing another Australian summer.”

Being too defensive has been Barty’s Achilles heel. Her previous lack of aggression, and therefore total dominance, was behind Shriver’s gloomy forecast. But it overlooks one factor: Barty’s belief that she’s yet to tap into her full potential. That she’s about 80 per cent of the player she can end up being. Shriver is basing her opinion on the Wimbledon champion continuing at the same level forevermore. Barty doesn’t expect that. She doesn’t want that. I can’t recall a player spending three years as World No. 1 and then announcing they have multiple holes in technique and tactics to be plugged, but that’s what Barty has done in Adelaide. Shriver says the Australian is “solid,” which is hardly a five-star review. Yet it’s true the Australian Open favourite is trying to add a few fireworks.

At 1-0, 30-0 in the second set, Barty served down the T. Jab. It swung in at good pace. Kenin shovelled back her double-handed return. Barty skipped forward and won the point with her second jab, a sliced backhand that skidded across the court like a stone thrown across a pond. too easy. Two easy. An emphatic victory ensued against the American who ambushed her at Melbourne Park a couple of years ago.

Barty should have won that tournament. The major that got away. She was by far and away the premier player for the first ten days. She coughed up her worst performance against Kenin and was still only pipped 7-6 7-5. Kenin went on to beat Muguruza in the final and get her hands on the trophy. It should have been Barty.

Impressions of her first two matches of the year? The first serve really does look faster. It’s always been a handy weapon. It’ll be a huge one if this is the new norm. The second serve had more pop and kick. And she’s hitting more two-handed topspin backhands. The one-handed slice has always been dynamite; the two-hander has never been as authoritative. If she’s added some oomph there, especially in regards to the double-fisted, down-the-line backhand jabs that so often decide a rally, she’s already plugging holes — and proving Shriver wrong.