Australian Open 2022: Barty’s bucket list awaits another tick

Ash Barty starts her Australian Open campaign on Monday. She says she has two bucket lists. Victory at Melbourne Park is on her lists – but it’s not number one.

Ash Barty’s forehand is more natural than forced Picture: Getty Images

Ash Barty is practising on Rod Laver Arena. It’s so quiet you can hear the hum of the air conditioning unit.

I’m trying to think of a way to describe her topspin groundstrokes and serve. They’re different to most others on the women’s tour. More natural than manufactured.

She doesn’t strangle the racquet like, say, Naomi Osaka, who unloads foot-stomping monster forehands while throttling her blade like she’s trying to deny it oxygen, holding it unusually far up the handle.

Barty’s grip pressure is about the same as she may use to brush her teeth before her next acting appointment on an Uber Eats commercial.

The rolling motion of her body is what really stands out. She sort of sways into her strokes, back and forward, back and forward, like she’s coming in and out with the tide.

Knees, hips, shoulders, there’s a nice synchronicity there. She leans into the ball before then curling out. It’s rhythmical. A bit mesmerising. Pleasing to the eye.

Even her serve has a soothing element of back-and-forward motion, left foot to right foot, swinging like a cradle. The knees go down then up. She has enough variation to do Shane Warne proud. The slice veers left like an outswinger. There’s a flat one down the T.

Her kicking second-serve rears up like the ball is made of rubber. All she’s missing is a zooter and a wrong ‘un.

The sliced backhand is a different beast, an abrupt chop with a butcher’s blade, getting all the praise, but these topspin groundstrokes and her serve are a kind of lullaby. They’re impressive and rather hypnotising in the flesh.

Barty begins her Australian Open campaign on Monday night. She’s been spared a week of front page, back page, inside page and wraparound focus because all anyone has spoken about is dopey old Novak Djokovic.

I went for a beer at the All Nations hotel on Saturday night. Couldn’t take a seat at the bar without showing proof of vaccination. If a man can’t have an ale in Melbourne without being double-vaxxed, how could someone play the Australian Open? A tremendous rogue at the All Nations relayed to me the reaction when Djokovic was told to pack his bags: “You f … ing beauty!”

Barty will get the column inches now. She might win the tournament, she might not. That’s pretty much how she sees it. It’s all good either way. She has a bucket list – well, two – and things are being ticked off at an adequate rate.

It’s a bit all over the shop, though. You normally tick off a bucket list in order of difficulty, right? Take care of the things you know you can probably do blindfolded before tackling the more unlikely aspirations. Easiest to hardest. Barty’s already knocked over of the biggest and hardest item on her lists, winning Wimbledon, while her slightly lower ambitions, like the Australian Open, remain unrealised.

“Yeah, a strange one,” she says. “I think there‘s probably a difference of the bucket list dreams and the bucket list goals. I think they’re two different lists. For me, it was no secret that Wimbledon was the very top of that dreams list. I have plenty more goals that I set with my team, both the short and the long-term. Some more obscure than others, maybe not so result-dependent.

“I felt like over the last three, four, five years, Tyz (Coach Craig Tyzzer) and I have done an incredible job with our wider team of trying to find ways to tick off those goals, to keep enjoying our journey along the way. We’ve enjoyed the ride. There are still a few more that remain with a little box that’s empty next to it.”

Baty doesn’t say exactly what is on these bucket lists of hers, but we can take a stab. An assortment of trophies and internal states Wimbledon. Australian Open. Be a good person. World No. 1 ranking. French Open. US Open. Feel good about yourself. Be happy. Billie Jean King Cup. Win a doubles major with her mate Storm Sanders. Marry Garry Kissick. Something like that. She’s trying to be more open in the hope her story inspires kids. She has a big heart as an athlete, and a good one as a human.

“I can‘t do anything more than try,” she says of the Open. “That’s all I can do. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen.

“I just have to hope that everyone understands that I’m giving it my best crack. It doesn’t always work out exactly how you want to.

“But you go about it the right way, you do the right things and try and give yourself the best chance, that’s all you can do. That goes for all the other Aussies as well, everyone else in the draw.

“We’re all trying to do that thing over and over and over. Do the right things and give themselves the chance. I’m very fortunate and grateful that I’m in the draw and I’ve got a chance just like everyone else.”

Barty’s opponent is Lesia Tsurenko, is a 32-year-old from Ukraine. The world No.119, but forget that. She was No.23 before Covid hit. Career-highs are an important fine print to the rankings, telling you what a player is capable of when they hit their straps. There’s two types of qualifiers – a kid who gets stage fright on a big court, and wily old veterans who don’t get spooked. Tsurenko is the latter. Barty has her covered in every department that counts but still, it’s not the easiest first round of her life.

“Yeah, a tough one,” she says. “Always a tough one against a qualifier, particularly someone who has been so successful in the past. She obviously knows how to win big matches, is extremely – she just knows how to play in the big moments. She knows how to navigate and win matches. Navigate through some tough times. Having played quallies over the last week with two or three matches, she‘s used to the conditions.

“For me, it’s about still going out there and trying to play my brand of tennis. I look forward to it come Monday. Just chomping at the bit to get after it. We go out there and see how we go.”