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February 1, 2022,
Australia, an island continent, surrounded by water, cheered voraciously as a 44 year drought on the Down Under hard courts came to an end, and history was made, right in front of their eyes.
The world’s too.
As reported by the global news source CNN, “Ashleigh Barty ended a 44-year drought Saturday by becoming the first Australian to win an Australian Open singles title since 1978.
The world No. 1 and crowd favourite capped off a dominant fortnight at Melbourne Park, overcoming American 27th seed Danielle Collins 6-3, 7-6(2) on Rod Laver Arena, to clinch her home Slam without dropping a single set.”
Ash became the first Australian to win the event since Chris O’Neil achieved the women’s title in 1978.
Ms. O’Neil was present in the stands cheering Ash Barty throughout.
That is a telling statistic, since at one point, the second set was in jeopardy as America’s Danielle Collins raced off to a 3-0 lead and eventually expanded it to 5-1.
The victory propelled Ash into another historic elite club.
Ash is the only woman in the Open Era to win her first three Grand Slam singles titles in Paris, London and Melbourne.
If anyone ever wondered about her number one ranking, that question has been thoroughly answered. She is absolutely the best female tennis player in the world right now, especially displaying the grit and determination to come from behind to overtake Danielle in the third set.
Most could not have done that.
As we watched the match, there was this powerful feeling that this was a night at the Australian Open like no other.
Ever.
And we have been watching since the 1990s.
The super packed stadium, the flood lights that energized the visuals and the passion in the star studded crowd which included the legendary Australian actor Russell Crowe, let us know we were watching something very special.
We were waiting for a Nicole Kidman sighting, an “A” list actress who has attended public events before.
It was a finals that had an entire nation waiting on pins and needles.
At times it appeared that Danielle Collins had the weight of the Australian crowd bearing down upon her and she was very gallant and awe inspiring in how she blocked them out.
Danielle employs a highly aggressive playing style that has been described as fearless, ferocious and fun to watch. Her massive breakthrough came at the 2019 Australian Open when Femcompetitor Magazine described her as a runaway train, chewing up everything in her path.
She has a powerful serve, and strong groundstrokes on both wings, making her one of the hardest hitters on the WTA Tour.
That was very obvious in her battle with Ash.
She pounded the ball continuously while Ash picked her spots. The Australian Open champion was content to hit deep moderate speed balls, mixed up with slices that keep Danielle trapped back at the baseline and only appeared to hit the ball hard to secure a winner.
What puzzled us was why Danielle did not charge the net more often to cut off those moderately paced ground strokes. When the American did force the issue at the net, she appeared to have great success.
If only she had done that more often.
Danielle would later say that she gave it her all and was essentially maxed out, and while that was mostly likely true, we have seen Danielle play better with a more complete game before.
The clue as to why she couldn’t here was during changeovers, she stood instead of sitting.
She would inform the media during her post press conference that for some time during the tournament, she had been suffering back problems.
That explains it.
Her style allows her to hit a high number of winners, but also a considerable number of high-risk unforced errors.
Her greatest strengths are her kick serve, her inside-out forehand, and her versatile and strong backhand. Her double-handed backhand is atypically stronger than her forehand. She also possesses strong volleying skills, allowing her to hit winners from any position on the court.
Her previous opponent Iga Swiatek surmised, that Collins, hits the fastest ball I have ever played in a match.
Being new to the elite spotlight, Danielle has clearly confirmed that she is a player to watch in 2022.
Once she is healthy, her ascension should continue as she is projected to be the highest ranked American at around number ten in the world, ahead of Jessica Pegula who was soundly defeated by Ash Barty in the quarters 6-2, 6-0.
Danielle’s road to the finals was an impressive domination demonstration as she reached the semifinals for the second time, after defeating 19th seed Elise Mertens to become the third American woman in the quarterfinals.
It was the second year in a row that three Americans have featured at this stage of the tournament.
In the quarterfinals, she beat Alizé Cornet in straight sets.
She then defeated the higher ranked Iga Świątek also in straight sets in the semifinals to advance to her first Grand Slam final, where she faced world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty.
We will always wonder, if Danielle were in full health, if she could have closed out the second set after leading 5-1, before Ash Barty methodically grinded her way back into the set in which she handily won the tie breaker.
Having said all of that, this was not only Ash Barty’s night but Australia’s as well.
We can remember in the 1990s when top players would skip the Australian Open because it was too far away, extremely hot and considered the lesser of the four Slams. The television commentators would often try and convince the viewing audience that it wasn’t a diminished Slam in any way.
Those types of discussions escalated when Sweden’s Thomas Johansson unexpectedly won the 2002 Australian Open which was surprising since he never progressed beyond the quarterfinals of any of his 24 previous Grand Slams.
He made it to the finals after defeating Jacobo Díaz, Markus Hipfl, Younes El Aynaoui, Adrian Voinea, Jonas Björkman and Jiří Novák before upsetting his heavily favored opponent in the final, Marat Safin, in four sets, coming back from a set down.
In many tennis fans minds, his list of opponents were not going to inspire fear in any of the then current and future legends.
That all has changed.
Ford was the previous sponsor and now Kia has clearly heavily invested in the Australian Open where the winner receives a $2.875 million paycheck and the runner up pockets $1.575 million.
Those are grand rewards.
And now, Ashleigh Barty is 2022’s grandest champion.
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OPENING PHOTO fcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com, femcompetitior.com, grapplingstars.com, fciwomenswrestling.com lev-radin-shutterstock-photo-credit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Johansson
https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
https://fciwomenswrestling.com/
