Barty’s escape from her trial of errors

The greatest strength of Ash Barty in this US Open campaign might be the one invisible to the eye.

Ash Barty returns against Zarina Diyas during their round 1 match at the US Open

The greatest strength of Ash Barty in this US Open campaign might be the one invisible to the eye.

All of Barty’s more obvious skills eventually came to the fore in her opening-round win over world No 80 Zarina Diyas in New York yesterday, which was far more difficult than the rankings gulf suggested it would be.

But it was the unseen talent — the 23-year-old’s ability to maintain her composure when everything was going awry — that proved crucial in her 1-6 6-3 6-2 triumph.

Barty stepped on to Arthur Ashe Stadium to warm applause, honoured with playing the first match on the championship court in the tournament.

For the opening 27 minutes, the Queenslander looked anything but the grand slam champion she is. To suggest Barty was error-prone would be an understatement.

The French Open champion landed just six of her 24 first serve attempts and blundered to 18 unforced errors, framing balls and mistiming several shots in what she later described as a “pretty awful start”.

“I think I just didn’t give myself a chance in that first set. (It was) sort of appalling. I probably made a set’s worth of errors,” she said.

Importantly, Barty’s demeanour did not change. There were no histrionics. No swearing. No mournful glances to her coach Craig Tyzzer who was sitting courtside.

Her racquet stayed firmly in hand where others might have broken several.

At the end of probably her worst set this year, the world No 2 sat courtside and calmly considered the opportunity ahead. A set had been lost, not the match, nor the championship.

Barty did not need a statistical breakdown to identify what had sparked the first-set breakdown.

If she could start landing her serve, the rest of her game would probably join the party. And so it proved.

“I mean, (it is) not the ideal start, not the perfect start, but it is what it is,” Barty said. “We were able to find a way after that to get into the match and be more patient and really just kind of lock down and wait until I got the right balls and right patterns that I wanted.

“That was probably the biggest change in the second and third is I was able to get more of those patterns more regularly and in the end build pressure to create more opportunities to break.”

It is not necessarily surprising that Barty struggled early on, particularly against Kazakh Diyas who is slightly unconventional and did her best to upset the Australian’s rhythm with off-pace balls.

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As noted by former champion Sam Stosur, who exited yesterday alongside compatriots Daria Gavrilova and Priscilla Hon and the 2016 winner Angelique Kerber, first-round matches can be the most unpredictable.

There is an element of the unknown heading into every grand slam.

“They are difficult for everyone, no matter who you are, whether you are the top seed or the last one in, the lucky loser,” Stosur said.

“Everyone has some nerves and different feelings going into it, especially in the first round, because it can be a bit of an unknown. Everyone works out how to get through those tricky moments and hopefully get through the match and play well.”

And that was the case for the Australian star who ultimately trusted her talent would prevail rather than getting lost in trying to blast her rival away.

Barty is the shortest woman in the top 30 but faces a rival shorter than her next in American Lauren Davis. She is a tenacious player who will attempt to make the Australian a ball too many each rally.

Having survived the early scare, Barty continued to improve the further her opening match progressed, which should stand her in good stead against Davis if the trajectory continues.

“Lauren’s obviously one of the tougher challenges, playing an American in the US Open,” she said. “And she’s been on a little bit of a heater over the past couple of months and had some good wins and coming back to some of her best stuff.”

Further in the distance a possible fourth-round clash against Serena Williams awaits. The American superstar thrashed the struggling Maria Sharapova 6-1 6-1 in a smart beginning.

Barty reached the fourth round last year and also won her first grand-slam title when partnering CoCo Vandeweghe to a doubles triumph.

She said the good memories came flooding back when she arrived for a practice session last week and is hopefully of creating even more special moments, hopefully as soon as next week.

“It was … a bit of a unique feeling, bizarre feeling walking back out on to Arthur Ashe. It was really cool,” she said.

“(I have) incredible memories from my time here in New York last year. (It was) an extremely good fortnight of tennis, both in singles and doubles. I’m just glad we’re off to a good start here and now we can start really getting our teeth stuck into the tournament.”