Barty’s Wimbledon draw no horror story

Ash Barty’s horror draw! Nothing makes a tennis player laugh more than talk like this.

Ash Barty at a practice session at Wimbledon. Picture: AP

Ash Barty’s horror draw! Nothing makes a tennis player laugh more than talk like this. The suggestion that their path is littered with minefields. One breathless radio report on the weekend had Barty needing to beat three Wimbledon champions, and five major winners, to get the loot at the All England Club. Tough draw, all right! Eight opponents in a seven-match tournament.

Barty has a great Wimbledon draw. The drill in tennis is to hype up a projected road to build interest in a sport that comes and goes from public attention.

Such-and-such won the Guadalajara Open about 50 years ago, look out! Danger match!

But Barty’s Wimbledon campaign doesn’t need fake promotions. For starters, you don’t get a horror draw when you’re the top seed on a 12-match winning streak. You ARE the horror draw.

Barty’s run is so golden that she can reach the quarter-finals without facing a single player inside the top 10.

Getting to the quarters is the only thing worth noting. From there it’s on for young and old.

“I haven’t looked at the draw,” Barty says, but we can do it for her. Let’s take a more sensible look at her projected path.

Round 1: Saisai Zheng. The world No 43. Seventeen major starts for 12 first-round defeats. On the five occasions she’s powered to round two, that’s as far as she’s gone. She’s won one match in five months, a stirring victory over someone called Harmony Tan, ranked 263rd. Zheng’s one grass court match this season has been a straight-sets thumping from Marketa Vandrosouva, whom Barty thumped in straight sets at the French Open. Horror rating? The Benny Hill Show.

Round 2: Svetlana Kuznetsova. The world No 102. She keeps being mentioned. But it’s the classic example of trying too hard to find a horrible draw when there isn’t one. Kuznetsova has won five matches in the French Open … in 2009. If the 34-year-old Kuznetsova is still a threat, Ricky Ponting should still be batting at No 3 at the World Cup. Putting Kuznetsova into the forecast is a misrepresentation of likely events. A way to make Barty’s road seem tougher than it is. Kuznetsova faces world No 58 Alison van Uytvanck in the opening round. Van Uytvanck knocked over defending champion Garbine Muguruza last year. If we’re doing a genuine analysis, Barty is unlikely to be facing Kuznetsova at all. Horror Rating? Kath and Kim.

Round 3. Muguruza. The world No 27. Tricky. A Wimbledon champion. Former No 1. But she’s so hopelessly out of form that not even her 2017 Wimbledon triumph has lifted her up the seedings. She’s a perfect round-three opponent. A big enough name to get on Centre Court but someone who has forgotten how to win.

This is the round Barty may have faced anyone seeded from 16 to 32. She’ll take Muguruza over more in-form types like Madison Keys, Julia Goerges, Johanna Konta, Caroline Garcia, Amanda Anisimova, Sofia Kenin, or Su-Wei Hsieh. Muguruza is going through the equivalent of Greg Chappell’s seven consecutive ducks in 1981-82. Horror rating? She’s on nought.

Round 4: This is the real blessing for Barty. Round four is normally the start of the tough stuff. The eighth to 16th seeds.

Instead of drawing Elina Svitolina, Sloane Stephens, Aryna Sabalenka or Serena Williams, she gets Belinda Bencic or Donna Vekic. Absolute dream scenario.

The 13th-ranked Bencic gets spooked by majors. She made a US Open quarter-final in 2014 and has never returned. Vekic is so highly strung her shrieks really do belong in a scary flick. Neither of these notoriously flaky opponents hold any fears. Best possible outcome in the last 16. Horror rating? Saturday Night Live.

Quarter-finals: Angelique Kerber or Serena Williams? It’s difficult to imagine a less likely defending champion than Kerber. She’s just been smoked in the Eastbourne final. She’s 31 years of age. She’s in decline, if horrible losses to Danielle Collins and Anastasia Potapova at the Australian and French Opens are anything to go by. Kerber will probably face Serena Williams in round four.

Barty doesn’t hope to avoid Williams. She’ll be jumping out of her skin for the opportunity. Playing the GOAT on Centre Court? Another dream scenario. Who will it be? Kerber or Williams?

Probably Julia Goerges. She’s Barty’s doubles partner, the Birmingham finalist, in red-hot form and may get through this section. She’d rather play Williams. Horror rating? Nothing like it.

Semi-finals: It’s nonsense to talk about semi-finals and horror draws. There are only four players left. I think the two players Barty fears are the third-seeded Karolina Pliskova and, in particular, the sixth-seeded Petra Kvitova.

A couple of six-footers who can blow her away on their day. We know what Kvitova’s done last summer. She’s beaten Barty twice in Australia.

The Czech will be a sentimental favourite in London, a former champion trying to win her first major since she was attacked in a house invasion.

There’s nothing too pretty for Barty about a Wimbledon semi against Kvitova. It’s the first sign screaming danger. Horror rating? Stephen King.

Final: Barty has been forecast to meet Naomi Osaka. Please. Pliskova is the raging favourite to get through. She’s just thrashed Kerber in the Eastbourne final.

Osaka, major champion, former No 1, has nosedived since the Australian Open. This half of the draw is as wide open as the tournament itself. Anyone from 39-year-old Venus Williams to 15-year-old Cory Gauff may get through. Smoky? Victoria Azarenka. But Pliskova is the heavy favourite to make the final against Barty. Horror rating? There’s no such thing as a horror Wimbledon final. If Barty does take a sneaky peek at her draw, she’ll see she could not have planned it better herself.