Party time for Barty with Newcombe Medal
AFTER four wins over top-10 players for 2017 to barge to a top-20 ranking, Australia’s Newcombe Medallist Ashleigh Barty will be back next year to shake the women’s tennis elite again.
Barty was presented with the most prestigious individual award in Australian tennis last night in Melbourne after amassing an unbeatable case by improving her world ranking from No.271 to No.17 during her first full year of tour tennis since her break from the sport.
In her quiet way, the Ipswich right-hander appears to harbour few nerves about needing to back up her skyrocketing year in 2018, reasoning that at age 21 she is still a young player with time to learn on the tour. Of Australia’s top-50 singles players at the start of the year, Gold Coaster Sam Stosur (from No.22 to No.41), Bernard Tomic (No.141) and Nick Kyrgios (13th to No.21) have dropped in the rankings, while Daria Gavrilova’s No.25 ranking is exactly what it was 12 months ago.
“It’s been an amazing season for me, I’m very happy with it overall,” Barty said. “My goal for the year was be in the top 100 by the end of the year. Then it was top 50.’’
Barty beat two 2017 grand slam tournament singles champions, Garbine Muguruza and Jelena Ostapenko, this year.
She also had her first win over a top-10 player in her singles career in August when she torpedoed Venus Williams, a dual major runner-up in the year, in Cincinnati to sound a warning to the elite of women’s tennis.
“Those wins were different and that’s sort of a good thing because it is about finding a way to win each day,’’ Barty said.
Barty was delighted that her coach Craig Tyzzer was named TA’s high performance coach of the year.