Ash v Dash: battle of the Aussies

Ash Barty probably owes her compatriot Daria Gavrilova a favour, though it is unlikely she will be in any mood to repay it.

Australian teammates Ash Barty and Dasha Gavrilova will meet in the second round of the Australian Open on Rod Laver Arena on Thursday. Picture: Annette Dew

Ash Barty probably owes her compatriot Daria Gavrilova a favour, though it is unlikely she will be in any mood to repay it when they meet on Rod Laver Arena on Thursday.

Dating back to the Australian Open in 2016, Gavrilova was coached by Craig Tyzzer as she reached the fourth round in Melbourne.

Not long afterwards their partnership ended. At the time, Barty was pondering a comeback to the sport after a stint playing cricket and was still hitting tennis balls.

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Tyzzer had some free time on his hands. The duo were paired together and the rest is history. Team Barty was born.

Five years on and Barty is a major winner and Tyzzer was named the WTA Tour Coach of the Year in 2019.

The world No 1 noted the link when discussing the potential of meeting her friend after a phenomenal opening round Australian Open win on Tuesday night in which she did not drop a game.

“Obviously Dasha and I, we’ve been Fed Cup teammates for a long time now,” Barty said.

“We know each other well. Tyzz obviously coached Dasha for a couple of years, and, yeah, I mean, we spend a lot of time together.”

Back in 2012 in Traralgon, an onlooker viewing a clash between two teenagers at the Franklin St courts might have tipped they would make it to the top.

Barty had won junior Wimbledon a year earlier and had already played three grand slam singles matches in Melbourne, Paris and at the All England Club.

Gavrilova, who hailed from Moscow, claimed the US Open girls crown in 2010 and was the world’s top-ranked junior that year.

It was their first of four outings to date, with Barty leading their head-to-head 3-1.

Barty, who was 16, edged Gavrilova, 18, in a hard-fought affair 7-5 7-5 in a tournament with total prize money of $25,000. The prize at stake on Thursday night is at least $225,000 for reaching the third round of the Australian Open, with the chance to keep their hopes of ending a local drought dating back to Chris O’Neil’s triumph in 1978 alive.

The vanquished? $150,000. That could almost buy a three-bedroom unit in Traralgon now.

They are now teammates, though Barty’s deeds have put in her a stratosphere that her junior peer, who is showing encouraging signs on the comeback trail from serious injury, respects.

At a recent training session at Xavier College she hesitated to ask the world No 1 if she could get a lift home.

“I have a lot of respect for Ash. You know, she was training at Xavier while the internationals were in quarantine,” she said.

“I was, like, ‘Ash, can you please give me a lift?’. She‘s like ‘Oh, my God, you’re an idiot. Like, let’s go’. She’s incredible. She’s someone if we travel, she’s the first one to find a good coffee shop. But we are probably, like definitely, completely different personalities. Like completely opposite.

“But we get along on tour, and, yeah, she‘s someone I definitely look up to.”