Barty’s slice of life at the top
ASHLEIGH Barty is determined to take a low-key approach into Wimbledon despite logging another watershed in an inspiring comeback to tennis.
The Queenslander is increasingly being compared by experts to Martina Hingis for her ability to blend guile and underrated power against bigger opponents.
Even as she moves today to a career-high ranking after reaching the Birmingham final, Barty refused to be distracted by the prospect of Wimbledon glory.
“We’ll worry about tomorrow first and then Eastbourne, and Wimbledon is still a little bit of time away, so we’ll worry about it then,” the righthander said after beating French Open winner and world No.14 Garbine Muguruza 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
The victory also gave Barty a provisional career-high ranking of No.53 – barely a year after she returned to singles with no ranking points to her name. With recent wins over former world No.8 Czech Barbora Strycova and former No.2 Muguruza, Barty was due to contest her maiden Premier Level tournament against dual Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova overnight.
“It was nice to get a couple of good matches and it’s nice to be able to come up against top players leading into a Slam and try and test myself against the world’s best,” Barty said. “But I’m feeling confident. “We’ve had a lot of grasscourt tennis now coming into Wimbledon, so hopefully we can play well tomorrow and transfer that through Eastbourne, and of course, Wimbledon.
“Yeah, I think it was important for us to take it step by step.
“We’ve been getting better results the more we’ve played and the more we’ve gone on this year. Yeah, we’re just really excited where we’re at.”
Coached by Craig Tyzzer, Barty also reached the doubles final with fellow Australian Casey Dellacqua against Haoching Chan and Shuai Zhang.
Barty, 21, was chasing her second double of the season after winning both the singles and doubles in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur in February. The 2011 junior champion as a 15-year-old, Barty stepped away from tennis in 2014, citing motivational issues.