Barty primed for Wimbledon assault
ASHLEIGH Barty is playing down her status as Wimbledon title favourite as she enters uncharted waters as the world No.1, top seed and newlycrowned French Open champion.
Barty’s spectacular rise on the back of a tour-best three titles and a 12-match winning streak has vaulted the Australian to the top of betting markets. Bookmakers have relegated the great Serena Williams, who is chasing an eighth crown at London’s SW19, defending champion Angelique Kerber and dual winner Petra Kvitova to install Barty as the player to beat.
The classy all-courter made a seamless transition from clay to grass, joining Williams and fellow grand slam giants Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Margaret Court and Justine Henin as the only women to win the French Open and the next tournament played on British lawns.
But, true to form, the understated Queenslander is playing down the hype. “I don’t know if I’m the favourite for Wimbledon. I think I need to try and get through this first round first and foremost,” Barty said ahead of her championship opener against world No.43 Zheng Saisai tomorrow.
“Saisai has incredible abilities to match up on a grass court. She has done well here in the past. She has got a good slice backhand, the kick serve that will react well off the courts.
“She loves playing on the grass courts. It’s a tough firstround match, one that I know I’ll have to be ready for.”
Barty said she was ready to go after arriving at the All England Club under a fitness cloud following her withdrawal from the Eastbourne International to rest bone stress in her overused serving arm. “Yeah, it’s been good. It’s been a really good couple of days,” she said. “It was nice to stay off the court for a few days, started hitting again on Thursday.
“As far as we’re going, everything has kind of worked out well with monitoring our loads, all those kind of things. So feeling good.”
Bidding to become Australia’s first Wimbledon champion since Lleyton Hewitt in 2002 and first Aussie woman since Evonne Goolagong Cawley in 1980, Barty is in a loaded top quarter of the draw alongside four former champions — including Williams and Kerber.
But she is focusing solely on Zheng.
“I haven’t looked at the draw,” said Barty, dismissing the notion that the grass court slam boasted less contenders than other majors because of the difficult surface.
“There are obviously girls that are more comfortable on grass courts, girls that have played on them a lot more, but there are still always going to be some upsets rankings-wise.
“There are always going to be some results that people don’t expect, but that’s the nature of the beast.
“That happens every single tournament, whether on hard court, grass court or clay. That happens every tournament.”
Victory over Zheng would progress Barty to a secondround match on Thursday against either former French and US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova or Alison Van Uytvanck.