Wimbledon conquered, Ash Barty can pursue hard court slams

Pat Rafter believes Ash Barty’s best is still to come and how many grand slam titles she wins may come down to her ambition.

Ash Barty has the tennis world at her feet following her maiden Wimbledon triumph Picture: Getty Images

Having achieved her childhood dream, Wimbledon champion Ash Barty has hit the pause button for a few days before igniting her campaign for Olympic gold.

As a child, the 25-year-old dreamt of Wimbledon glory. She produced a phenomenal fortnight of tennis at SW19, despite an injury interrupted preparation, to confirm her place among the great Australian champions.

A key to her success, Barty said, was enunciating that Wimbledon glory was what she wanted the most from her career on the court. Now she can enjoy the fruits of her triumph.

“Let me enjoy this one first, and then I might let you in (on the next dream),” she said.

In defeating the reigning French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova, a former Wimbledon champion in Angelique Kerber and a former world No.1 in Karolina Pliskova, this was a championship earned and deserved.

It confirms Barty as the world’s best player.

Naomi Osaka has doubled the Australian’s major count and is a superb hard court player, but the Queenslander is highly capable and remarkably consistent on every surface, delivering week in and week out.

She joins the Williams sisters, Kerber, Osaka, Garbine Muguruza, Petra Kvitova, Victoria Azarenka and Simona Halep as current players with at least two grand slam titles.

The Wimbledon triumph also draws her level with our most recent Australian champions Lleyton Hewitt and Pat Rafter and the latter is certain Barty can enjoy further success at major level.

A dual-US Open champion who also reached two Wimbledon finals, Rafter watched from home and exchanged text messages with her hitting partner Ben Mathias throughout the decider.

Rafter was as blown away by Barty’s sizzling start as he was Pliskova’s early nerves in the Australian’s 6-3 6-7 (4) 6-3 triumph and was impressed by his mate’s resilience late in the decider.

Barty will take a break before competing at her maiden Olympics Picture: Getty Images

“She got through it. She pulled her shit together really well when it mattered,” he said.

“Does she want to win 15 majors? Is she happy to have two more and walk away?

“No-one knows that. She probably does not know that either yet. She is a simple, humble girl who wants to have a great life and to be happy.

“This could not happen to a better person and I am really happy for her and we all should be as well.”

The Australian was serving for the match for the second time when she hit what Rafter described as one of the greatest shots he had seen under pressure.

On the first point of the game at 5-3, Barty propelled herself both backwards and upwards to reach an awkwardly floating Pliskova forehand and deftly land a remarkable backhand volley.

“It was bloody beautiful. If that was me, I would have gone ape shit,” he said.

“I was going, ‘Ash. Give me something. Let it all out.’ I wanted to see her pumped up. But she kept herself so calm.”

Before the final, her coach Craig Tyzzer said that he had always believed Barty’s initial breakthrough at major level might well come in Melbourne or New York.

Instead her first two grand slam titles have come at Roland Garros on clay and on the green grass of Wimbledon.

But the 25-year-old is clearly an outstanding hardcourt player, having claimed the WTA Championships on the surface in 2019 and the past two Miami Open crowns.

Barty has reached the Australian Open semi-finals in 2020. She has also twice reached the fourth round at the US Open and is a doubles champion in New York.

Ash Barty with coach Craig Tyzzer

“I have always felt she was probably going to win either the US or Aussie Open on the hard court. I felt that some of her best tennis has been on hard courts,” Tyzzer said.

“I am not surprised she has done well on the other two surfaces, always felt that on a hard court, because we play more on them, she has had some more success there.”

Both Barty and her parents are determined to ensure Tyzzer, who made the sacrifice to leave his family in Melbourne for the year, is duly recognised.

“What he has been able to do and what he has been able to get her to do on a tennis court is incredible,” Rob Barty said.

“He is so much more than just her tennis coach. He is a very close friend. He is a confidant.

“He is just someone who she relies on immensely and what she is doing today on that tennis court is all down to Craig and the homework he does on every opponent she plays.”

After a brief break from the court, Barty will begin preparing for her maiden Olympics in Tokyo later this month, where she will compete in the singles and doubles – and maybe the mixed doubles.

The Olympics will be played on hard courts, a surface on which seven of her 12 titles to date have been claimed. Success for Australia is an ambition she is prepared to declare.

She came so close when leading Australia to the final in the Fed Cup two years ago and has always loved representing her nation.

“Being able to represent Australia at the Olympics is going to be an awesome experience and it’s important over this next period to celebrate the fact we have achieved something really special here at Wimbledon,” she said.