Ashleigh keeps her feet on ground

ASHLEIGH Barty says there is no chance of her getting caught up in her own hype after her dismantling of twotime Grand Slam tennis champion Angelique Kerber.

On Thursday Barty made light work of Kerber, ranked No. 1 in the world at the start of the year, to qualify for the WTA Elite Trophy semi-finals in Zhuhai, China.

If Barty wins the seasonending tournament she will earn almost $900,000 and likely enter January’s Australian Open with a top-16 seeding after starting 2017 ranked 271.

The rapid rise has shocked even Barty, who only returned to the sport last year after a brief fling with cricket.

“This time 12 months ago I was banging my head against a brick wall because my arm wouldn’t heal,” she said.

“It’s been a radical change in 12 months and to finish with a cool, different, experience like this is great.”

She visited a local school yesterday, with a polite and engaging Barty asking the students about the architecture, art and culture of the insti- tution. It was further evidence that the Queenslander from Ipswich, who is still based in the area and organises her own logistics on tour, won’t be distracted by the inevitable exposure ahead of Australia’s tennis summer.

Barty credits her family for keeping a lid on things during what has been her first full season on the WTA tour, one extended thanks to her late Zhuhai qualification.

“Life hasn’t changed a hell of a lot really,” Barty said. “My family’s really good at keeping me grounded no matter what happens on a tennis court and that’s why I love them.”

Barty arrived as the youngest in the draw but breezed by 2016 US and Australian Open champion Kerber as well as world No. 14 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to progress to the semi-final stage. The roundrobin event features the 12 next-best players who didn’t make last month’s top-eight WTA Finals in Singapore.