World No.1 Ashleigh Barty won her first Australian Open on Saturday by beating American Danielle Collins (30th) 6-3, 7-6 (7/2) in the final. The Australian thus won her third major title at the age of 25 after Roland-Garros in 2019 and Wimbledon in 2021, the first at home.
She is also the first Australian to win in Melbourne since Chris O’Neill in 1978.
Barty won without being exceptional, without being as dominating as in the first six rounds. In the first set, she saved the only break point she conceded and converted the only one she created for herself. After 32 minutes, half the job was done.
A slump and a comeback
But she went through a slump at the start of the second set, twice giving up her face-off in one set, double the number of games conceded in the six games to get there (a break conceded against Amanda Anisimova in 8ths).
Trailing 5-1 by committing an unexpected number of unforced errors and double faults, they still managed to recover to come back to 5-5. Collins managed to take the match to the tie-break but Barty quickly took the advantage, offering himself four match points and concluding from the first.
Barty was participating in his 9th Australian Open and had never made it past the semi-finals (2020).
To win the title on Saturday, she defeated four Americans in her last four matches: Amanda Anisimova in the round of 16, Jessica Pegula in the quarters, Madison Keys in the semis and Collins in the final. And to win her first Major in 2019 at Roland-Garros, the Australian had beaten the same four players: Pegula in the 1st round, Collins in the 2nd, Keys in the quarters and Anisimova in the semis.
She becomes the only active player with Serena Williams to have won Majors on all surfaces (hard, grass and clay).