Barty to soak up pressure of hopeful Australia
Bringing the world No 1 ranking and Grand Slam success to the Australian Open, home hero Ash Barty will carry a heavy burden of expectation to deliver the goods at Melbourne Park.
The 23-year-old ’ s rollicking 2019 season has raised hopes she will end the country’s 42year wait for a homebred winner at a Grand Slam where local entrants have rarely graced the second week over the past two decades.
Living up to a pantheon of Australian champions that includes the likes of Rod Laver and Margaret Court has proved beyond the nation’s leading players in the modern era.
Lleyton Hewitt was stopped in the 2005 final by an inspired Marat Safin and fellow former world No 1 Pat Rafter could go no further than the semifinals.
Wimbledon winner Pat Cash was denied in back-to-back finals in the 1980s by the mighty Swedish duo of Stefan Edberg and Mats Wilander.
Sam Stosur, the country’s most recent Grand Slam title winner before Barty, has never made it past the fourth round,
The challenge for me is to come out here and enjoy it, soak up the crowd
the one-time US Open champion’s muscular shoulders seizing up with stage-fright on the showcourts.
Barty made the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park last year, so she has already had a taste of the prime-time appearances, heaving crowds and hungry media scrums sure to follow her in Australia.
But at last year’s tournament, she was still an unproven, if popular, talent with a modest 15th seeding and made it through to the last eight of a slam for the first time at Melbourne Park.
The attention will be stronger this time round, having made her major breakthrough at the French Open and become her country’s first female world No 1 since Evonne GoolagongCawley.
Win or lose, the hugely popular Queenslander can be relied on to exit with head held high and savour her tournament over a couple of cold beers.
“The challenge for me is to come out here and enjoy it, soak up the crowd, soak up the fact that as Australians we get to spend the first month [of the year] in Australia,” she said earlier this month. “It’s pretty special.