Australian tennis star Ashleigh Barty has landed her maiden grand slam title, teaming with American CoCo Vandeweghe to win a thrilling US Open women’s doubles final in New York.
Barty and Vandeweghe saved three match points to edge out second-seeded Australian Open champions Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic 3-6 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (8-6) in the first-ever women’s doubles grand slam final decided in a third-set tiebreak.
Barty had lost all four grand slam doubles finals with retired compatriot Casey Dellacqua, falling short at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open in 2013 and at last year’s French Open.
But there was no denying the 22-year-old on Sunday, Barty and Vandeweghe prevailing after fighting off two match points in the second set and another in the deciding breaker.
Barty’s triumph completes a memorable US Open for the Queenslander.
The sporting super talent also reached the fourth round of the singles, marking the first time the former Wimbledon junior champion and WBBL cricketer had made the second week of a slam.
The new world No.15’s earnings for the fortnight totalled $1.16 million – $662,000 for singles and $498,000 for doubles.
Barty has also won the US Open Sportsmanship Award, a gong recognising excellence in sportsmanship during the American lead-up events and the final grand slam of the season.
“It’s very humbling,” she said.
Barty is the seventh Australian to win the US Open women’s doubles title, joining four-times champion Margaret Court (1968, 1979, 1973, 1975), Judy Tegart-Dalton (1970-71), Wendy Turnbull (1979, 1982), Hana Mandlikova (1989), Rennae Stubbs (2001) and Samantha Stosur (2005).
tsuru
Roar Rookie
I've only seen half the match so far but it was pleasing to see Coco & Ash mixing up their tactics - both back, both up, one up one back, lobs, short volleys - and being so resilient (Cheika would be impressed). Impressive to see that Barty got the sportsmanship award as well. Maybe she could take Serena under her wing and show her how to enjoy tennis. And it must feel so good to Ash to win a major doubles final after losing 4. It's a shame she couldn't have done it with Casey Dellacqua, but these 2 could win a couple more unless their progress in singles gets in the way.
Torchbearer
Guest
Our No 1 tennis player gets a bit lost in all noise around Kyrios, Tomic etc.... A big congrats, and I presume our second indigenous Grand Slam winner after Evonne!