Barty irons out rust in first round win

Ashleigh Barty’s reign as world no.1 begins in style with classy first round Wimbledon victory.

Australia's Ashleigh Barty returns to China's Saisai Zheng in their match during day two of Wimbledon. Picture: AP

Ashleigh Barty has begun her career as the world’s best player in style with a classy opening round win at Wimbledon.

Pitted against a rival who had taken her to three sets in their two most recent outings in Saisai Zheng, the Australian survived an early scare before prevailing 6-4 6-2.

It was a quality performance to open her quest to become only the third woman alongside Steffi Graf and Serena Williams in the last 30 years to follow a French Open success with the Wimbledon title.

Seeking to become the first Australian women’s champion at Wimbledon since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980, she will now play Belgian Alison van Uytvanck, who defeated former French and US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.

But the opening round victory was not a straightforward affair despite the scoreline.

The new queen of women’s tennis has been her usual measured self in press and sponsorship obligations since then.

And in practice, she has appeared relaxed and unaffected by her new lofty status at the top of the world rankings.

When practising with Kiki Bertens on Monday, the Brisbane resident performed well in what was a session of good quality.

But she also swapped a laugh with her coach Craig Tyzzer and other members of her team, congratulated Bertens for her good shots and shared a high-five with the Dutch star at the completion of their hour-long session.

The jovial attitude was replaced with a match day demeanour against Zheng.

Welcomed to court as Miss Ashleigh Barty — a breach of a new edict declaring that a woman’s marital status will no longer be used in announcements at the All England Club — the tournament favourite showed some signs of rust when double-faulting twice in the opening game.

But the world No 1 soon settled and, after racing away with the opening three games, it seemed it would be business as usual for Barty. But there was a twist for those hoping the Queenslander would whip through the match in familiar fashion.

In the following three games the 23-year-old began erring from the baseline, which had a twin effect. She began to play more conservatively and it also emboldened Zheng, who was able to work back into the set.

The world No 43 boasts variety in her game and a mixture of off-pace balls at different trajectories disrupted the French Open champion’s rhythm.

A testing game at 4-all proved decisive.

Barty fell behind in the service game but, from deuce, her brilliant slice backhand came to the fore.

A knifed slice down the line that skidded low drew an error from Zheng, who was unable to control a forehand.

And then a slice approach to the backhand on game point had a similar effect.

That bolstered Barty’s confidence and she was able to seize the first set when breaking serve to love in the next game.

She was able to assert her authority early in the second set and showed good poise to close out a challenge against a tricky rival.